On this day in movie history - Dead Poets Society (1989)

Dead Poets Society

directed by Peter Weir,

written by Tom Schulman,

was released in the United States on June 2, 1989.

Music by Maurice Jarre.

“We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.

To quote from Whitman:

‘O me! O life! of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life? Answer: That you are here, that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse.’

That the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse.

What will your verse be?”

– Robin Williams, as John Keating.

I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately …

I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life!

To put to rout all that was not life …

And not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived …

– Hand-written quote in this still is modified from the book Walden by Henry David Thoreau.

Cast:

Robin Williams, Robert Sean Leonard, Ethan Hawke, Josh Charles, Gale Hansen, Norman Lloyd, Kurtwood Smith, Dylan Kussman, Allelon Ruggiero, James Waterston, Alexandra Powers, Leon Pownall, George Martin, Carla Belver, Jane Moore, Kevin Cooney, Colin Irving, Matt Carey, John Cunningham, Joe Aufiery, Melora Walters, Welker White, Steve Mathios, Alan Pottinger, Pamela Burrell, Allison Hedges, Christine D’Ercole, Debra Mooney, John Martin Bradley, Charles Lord, Kurt Leitner, Richard Stites, James J. Christy, Catherine Soles, Hoover Sutton, James Donnell Quinn, Simon Mein, Ashton W. Richards, Robert Gleason, Bill Rowe, Robert J. Zigler III, Keith Snyder, Nicholas K. Gilhool, Jonas Stiklorius, Craig Johnson, Chris Hull, Jason Woody, Sam Stegeman, Andrew Hill, Serena Ebhardt, Joel Fogel, Newton Gilchrist, Barry Godin, Kate Kearney-Patch, Jamie Kennedy, Nancy Kirk, Stephen Podolak, Jeffrey Santoro, James R. Stoddard.