Let's Talk About Neil Perry's Suicide In "Dead Poets Society!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

                       Girls, I know things on this blog lately have seemed "Didionesque," but I promise things will lighten up.  I can tell you this, I don't choose the topics--they come to me.

                       I have not seen "Dead Poets Society" since its 1989 release.  Of course, I was shocked by Neil Perry's suicide, and sorry even for his controlling father and especially his grieving mother.  The father--well, I will get to that later.  I must have seen this film early in the year, because, had I not, I never would.  That is because, in August of 1989, suicide became a very real thing for me, when my friend and coworker, Paul, jumped out the window of his apartment, at age 36.   The situation was completely different from the movie; Paul's parents could not be more helpful and supportive in what he wanted to do.

                      Paul wanted fame in music more than I realized.  At 36, he went to a music summer camp in New England, on his vacation, coming back discouraged.  It was like he realized time had passed him by, that he could never catch up to these younger violinists, (his instrument) and, coupled with the philosophy of Ayn Rand which he unfortunately believed, he was a failure.   And so, he took his life.  It is something I live with each day, just as I do my parents and other loved ones' deaths.

                      Suicide is never necessary, except to the one committing it.  But what about "Dead Poets Society?"  Was Neil Perry's necessary?  

                        If talking about relating to the narrative arc of the film, it certainly was.  But, if dissected realistically, it was not.

                         Neil was played by a very young Robert Sean Leonard.  His character was driven but naive, maybe because of his privileged upbringing.  His father beautifully played. by Kurtwood Smith, was overly controlling, and to blame for the suicide.  I cannot say he was homophobic; I cannot recall if there were any suggestions of homosexuality in the film.  Mr. Perry was so fixated on Neil fulfilling ambitions he himself (Mr. Perry) failed to, and that is an awful burden to place on a child.  Believe me, if Neil had not found acting, he would have found something else.

                          Neil is being sent to a military school.  His father wants him to go to Harvard--no less--and become a doctor.  Well, life has a way of changing plans, Mr. Perry.  What if Neil flunks out of the military school, either academically, or because he just does not fit in to the school's rubric, which would probably be the reason.  Or suppose he made it through there, or Harvard, and to medical school--but something--Organic Chemistry, or making the first cut into human skin--had stopped him?   What would Neil have done?  How would Mr. Perry handle it?  Would he disown Neil?

                         Neil's familial affluence may have contributed to his demise.  How many actors got their start by doing what they want, and following their dream, even if it meant living in a shabby or overcrowded apartment and taking day jobs to supplement auditions.  A viewing of "A Chorus Line" could teach that.

                          Poor Neil never considered the option of just running away and trying to make it on his own, which he would eventually have had to do.     But for whatever reason or reasons he could not see this option.  He could not see beyond entrapment in his father's misguided aspirations for him.  Which were really for Mr. Perry.   And so, if this were real time, Neil's suicide was not necessary.

                             I have to see the film all the way through again.  Oh, but there is one flaw.  Robert Sean Leonard had promise as an actor, both in this film, and real life, but he was horribly miscast in the film as "A Midsummer Night's Dream's' " Puck.  For that role, you need a either a small child, like Brandon De Wilde in "The Member Of The Wedding," or even Mickey Rooney in the 1935 Warner Bros. movie.  I never believed Leonard as Puck; I just went along with the story.

                          I hope none of you on here, readers, ever feel you are out of options.  If you do, call someone.  Or say something on this blog.

                          Not quite like Deborah Kerr, but almost, I can give "Tea And Sympathy!!!!!!!!!!!"