when i was about 10 or 11, my mother sat me down and made me watch dead poets society with her, saying it changed her life when it came out in 1989 (when she was around 23). and did it change my life as well. always a poetically-inclined, emotional, sensitive child myself, i saw myself reflected in the boys who blossomed under keatingβs tutelage, experiencing the wonders of whitman and salinger for the first time in a world that shuns such expressions, relegating it to a corner of a room or a sunday afternoon. i have never cried as hard at a film repeatedly as i did this one. the themes of friendship and closeness and finding purpose in art is exactly how i try to live my lifeβ¦. what a beautiful film i can never see too many times