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Robin Williams, Robert Sean Leonard, Ethan Hawke, Josh Charles, Norman Lloyd, Kurtwood Smith, Carla Belver, James Waterston

While Peter Weir’s highly successful “Dead Poets Society” is far from his best work the craftsmanship and stellar performances save the day preventing the script from becoming a trite cliché. John Keating (Robin Williams) is the new unconventional literature professor at Welton Academy prep school. It’s 1955 and parents are sending their boys to the school not to become sensitive artists but businessmen and politicians. Keating encourages his students to “seize the day” and follow their heart vs. their parent’s dreams which puts him into conflict with boththe head of the school and many of the parents as well. ***

Like all of Weir’s films since his breakout film “The Year of Living Dangerously”, “Dead Poets Society” was nominated for a rash of awards but, oddly, won for it’s weakest link Tom Schulman’s screenplay. It’s probably one of Weir’s least memorable American films but still manages to charm and be moving because of Weir’s wonderful direction and the winning performances of Williams, Ethan Hawke and Robert Sean Leonard. ---

This re-release features the film in anamorphic widescreen for the first time. The colors are rich and blacks are solid. While the image quality is crisp throughout most of the film there are a number of sequences that looked a bit soft to me. Nevertheless, this is a major improvement over the previous release and the picture looks remarkably good overall. The audio uses the 5.1 format well and dialogue is crystal clear throughout the film. The music also has better presence than in the previous edition as well with the memorable score sounding terrific here. ---

“A Look Back” is a thirty minute retrospective documentary featuring many of the actors that appeared in the film although Robin Williams is curiously MIA. We also get a five minute deleted scene but that’s the only one. “Cinematography Master Class” give us a glimpse into the difficult art of lighting and how important it is to a film with the film’s cinematographer John Seale. “Master of Sound: Alan Splet” is a short featurettte highlighting the sound design of the film. The late Splet had worked with everyone from Terence Malck to David Lynch and, of course, Weir (on “The Mosquito Coast”). It’s a nice tribute to a talented artist. We also get a number of promotional trailers. ---

Although this is far from my favorite film by Weir (for all its flaws I feel “The Mosquito Coast is a superior film), “Dead Poets Society” features the stunning visual sense of Weir and Seale as well as strong performances. If Schulman’s script is flawed, Schulman wisely doesn’t dig into over sentimental side of the story opting instead to focus on the drama events that change everyone’s lives in the movie. While double-dips are rarely worth it, “Dead Poets Society” is one of those exceptions with a rich transfer, a noteworthy commentary track from Weir, Schulman and Seale and a couple of strong featurettes on the making of this classic movie.