you didn't even get the moment when mr. keating forces todd to make up poetry in class and it cuts to neil with the absolute most love-stricken face i've ever seen like COME ON
I'm rewatching the movie and I think we should not overlook the fact that Neil's father way to "correct" his son was trying to send him to the military school.
i highly recommend watching the deleted scenes as well ! there’s a specific scene when todd is helping neil learn his lines for the show. in the scene, neil is fully in character, reading out his lines passionately. todd on the other hand is quietly reading them out in his typical shy and quiet tone. neil starts telling todd about how much he loves “this” talking about “acting”. eventually neil and todd reach the dock outside while walking and reading lines, and todd goes back to his shy and quiet tone. neil tells him to read it loudly, read it with passion. and todd does just that. it’s the first time in the film that todd opens himself up like that. that loudly and that passionately. yelling those lines to the whole world. they’re laughing and loving it. at the end of the film, after todd finds out neil has taken his own life, todd runs outside into the snow. eventually, todd breaks free from his friends and runs back to the dock. he breaks down yelling for neil. i think it’s very representative of how much neil helped todd become himself much more than before. the dock scene is also just super cute !
i SO wish they kept that scene in. not only because it's cute, but more importantly because it's super important to the development of their totally heterosexual not at all fruity relationship (sarcasm, obviously). it literally provides a reason for todd running to the dock of all places after being told that neil took his life! i don't get why they decided to leave it out of the final film...
Also it’s so important to note that when Neil died, Charlie who had known him for years took it upon himself to be there for Todd and take care of him, knowing that he would be affected the most because of something deeper
seriously, what settled it for me (if it hadn't already with all their previous scenes), was how the boys gather around Todd to tell him the news. i may be remembering it wrong, but i think Knox was himself in tears and was looking askance, like he couldn't look Todd in the eye once he wakes up. these boys have known Neil longer than Todd and are all clearly going through their sadness, but banded together to tell Todd the news together so that they could all be there for him. countless times i've imagined a non-existent scene between them prior to them going into Todd's (and - sob - Neil's) room, them trying to gather up their courage to tell Todd and dreading the moment, someone's voice cracking as they realize the news was going to break Todd's heart or something like that, and probably Charlie whispering furiously at them that they need to keep it together for Todd.
If that "No." doesn't qualify as flirting, I don't know what does. Also, if Neil and Todd were different genders, this movie would be widely considered a romance classic.
Exactly. Ik I’m late to this but sometimes I find myself just kind of knowing that something is queer/there are “vibes” between 2 people of the same gender and I get worried that it’s just me projecting my queerness onto characters I like and relate to but then I remember this. If it were a boy and girl no one would even doubt that there were feelings. They would just call them lovers or say that they’re in love w/ each other but once it’s two boys/two girls then it’s that we’re just trying to make everything gay. Sometimes you just know (I think especially if you’re queer bc you learn to read things better [mostly]) there are 100% very close, platonic, male relationships and that should definitely be encouraged but in this instance it is almost certain that it’s more.
@@Maggie_08 I agree, and also it's not an issue to wonder whether there's romantic or sexual feelings involved or not, people being so defensive when claiming we're just making shit up is literally homophobia. They hate the idea of a character they like or empathize with being gay because they don't wanna be in their shoes. Because homophobia.
the fact that my dad, a heterossexual cis man, looked at me and asked "neil and todd were something more, weren't they? because that reaction was way to deep compared to the other ones, I wouldn't react like that if a friend of mine died, but if your mother did die, than it would be something like that" just proves that yes, this movie is gay, and I love it.
Worth noting that Gale Hansen (Charlie Dalton) has FULLY endorsed the headcanon that Charlie is bi and non-binary. He’s also said that, in his opinion, Charlie knew that something was going on between Neil and Todd, but he never got any concrete answers in canon. Basically, Gale has the entire DPS fandom under his wing and we love him for it.
I'm sorry but hc Charlie as bi and non binary is a reach, objectively speaking charlie is the straightest most average dude in the world and it's unrealistic to think he was bi or non binary, but it does make for some really cool fanfics P.S I love your videos please don't hate me :'c
I thought so too. Charlie could be a dick but he saw a lot more then he let on, which is why he acted out so much, I think. His not participating in the walking exercise was my youth in a nutshell. Dunno about being bi, cause he seemed pretty sure of himself unless his outward sexuality was supposed to be hiding something else. But I am pretty sure he knew about Neil and Todd and a lot more. And binary I can see but that can be because I am binary and identified with Charlie, so it could be reading into it.
@@anaiswinter9893 He definitely knew there was something going on between Neil and Todd and I feel like he was a bit shocked (2 boys, the 1950s) but even if his mind couldn't really comprehend what was going on (partially Neil and Todd were also not fully aware of what was happening and what they were feeling) he knew how to be there for Todd when Neil died and he knew Todd would be the most affected
@@oooh19two things can be true, you could have said “yeah, i got the sense he was an extreme control freak” and that still would have made sense lol. plenty of control freaks don’t want queer children
I watched DPS in English class as a young gay teen and not only cried infront of my entire class (which was embarrassing) but also weirded out my very straight classmates when I told them that Neil and Todd were like definitely in love. I would fight anyone on this.
Todd running out onto the dock after Neil's death is so informative of how lost he feels, just standing there alone without his best friend. In deleted scenes, Todd is helping Neil practice lines for the play, and they giddily talk with each other while walking their way down to the dock and standing together overlooking the lake. It makes that scene a new level of heart-breaking.
I feel like if they had left the deleted scene in the movie, it would have given the dock scene where Todd is alone even more emotional weight. I like the connection you made between the two scenes, I hadn’t noticed it before
I always thought that Neil's dad was NOT a "omg my son is an actor" reaction. It was and "oh my god my son is GAY." reaction. I related with him so much as a kid and I didn't know why until I got older.
idk, sounds like a good interpretation but my natural conclusion about the father was that his son was becoming too rebellious and was not going to fulfil the dreams he(the father) had for him, so more of a "holy hell my son is not going to follow me or fulfil my dreams anymore and he's branching out on his own" kind of reaction.
it's interesting to me that they chose a midsummer's night dream, a play about people running away because one of their fathers doesn't approve of their marriage, as the play in dead poets society
as put in this really amazing essay i read on dead poets society: “Dead Poets Society has as its central concern the rite of passage from boyhood to (heterosexual) manhood. Neil fails to make this transition. He is unable to achieve identification with either his repressive father or the liberal (an unswervingly heterosexual) Keating. His sacrifice allows Todd to find his ‘voice;’ his barbaric yawp is ‘Neil.’ The forbidden love is given eternal life and remembrance through death.”
This is the extra gay equivalent of stopping your disc of Moulin Rouge before the last chapter. Both of which I have no issue with and highly endorse. Also *very* gay and criminally underrated/underexposed: "I Love You Phillip Morris"
neil's little "no" was my entire sexuality the year we did dps in my english class. also why was i the only person in class convinced neil and todd were in love, like was it never brought up??? also there is audio on yt of the actor of neil reading the secret history and just that as a concept is very gay and i'm obsessed also also, made my sister watch it for the first time recently and she also saw the queerness, so i'm glad she can analyze lmao also i think neil might be one of my favourite ficitional characters? anyway great video
did he read the part where richard is like “i’m certain charles isn’t gay. as an EXTREMELY straight man, I think I would *know* when someone was gay. I’m so straight it makes me objective in these things.”
@@benjisaac hahhaha it's my favourite part, the entire time he's like "ah yes as a very straight man myself i can asses the sexuality of every man around me" like sir
Also: neil was everyone's friend, he was charlie's best friend for way more time than todd, so why didn't he have the same reaction as todd? This just proves they're boyfriends. (/hj)
true. they did focus a lot more on todd’s reaction. notice the way charlie himself gives todd the news and everyone is just really on edge to see how he’d react… god damn
I always understood his death not as an indictment on Mr. Keating, but on his father and the system of oppression within the society. The fact that Mr. Keating is punished is an injustice recognized by the students in that final act of "O Captain My Captain" scene. Ultimately the triumph in that moment is that despite what the school has framed as the "consequences" the students recognize the truth of what Mr. Keating had done for them and take pride in it.
I've seen this movie once and it destroyed me. 10/10 but oh god I've still never been this heartbroken over a character in any other movie/tv show/book.
I first saw this in a double bill with Beaches. Talk about a tearfest. Unfortunately I was too young at the time to really appreciate the queer subtext
@@AmosRambles This was the first movie that I ever picked up on queer subtext and it was also around the time I was coming out to myself. I watched it with my conservative Christian family too 🥲🥲🥲 It was even more heartbreaking that they empathized with the main character without understanding they made me feel some of the same things he felt. 😭
@@Mandrake_root *virtual hugs* Fried Green Tomatoes (which came out 2 years later) was my Dead Poets society. I was a late bloomer so wasn’t yet acknowledging my own queerness yet, but I do recall noticing the relationship between Iggy and Ruth as something special. I’m glad you survived going through that, and have hopefully found acceptance into your adulthood, if not with your own family, then with your found family, whatever that looks like.
Throwback to that time we did DPS in English class and my friends and I were absolutely convinced of Neil and Todd being in love. And then, when we did a mock trial for Mr Keating and we were tasked to prepare Todd’s witness testimony, did we have him burst out that he was in love with Neil in the middle of it? Yes, yes we did. (Also, shout-out to my English teacher who, when we talked to her about the queer reading of DPS, didn’t shoot us down but instead told us that yes, it could absolutely be read that way. You were a real one, Ms H)
i’m not finished with the video yet so i’m not sure if this is mentioned, but i just thought about it so i wanted to mention it. in todd’s spontaneous poem he talks about how he sees walt whitman, or a “sweaty-toothed madman,” next to him. he describes walt as a very scary, aggressive figure that stares at him and chokes him and mumbles crazy things. “all the time he’s mumbling ‘truth is like a blanket that always leaves your feet cold. you push it, stretch it, it’ll never be enough. you kick at it, beat it, it’ll never cover any of us. from the moment we enter crying to the moment we leave dying, it will just cover your face as you wail and cry and scream.’” to me, i interpret this as todd being afraid of his queer identity. he sees walt whitman, a very well known queer man, as intimidating. i think this is his way of saying he finds embracing the fact that he is queer scary. the madman chokes and him and stands at his side, forcing todd to confront him. but todd doesn’t want to confront him because he knows it will only bring him pain. todd feels suffocated. he is gay, but he can’t acknowledge it because of the people around him and his own personal judgement. you can tell he wants so badly to embrace his identity, but he knows the truth of it will only bring pain and judgement. it will never be enough to make him feel safe.
Omg I felt the same before a year ago. I would purposefully try to ignore watching any gay media because after consuming it I always started reeling because of it. I was so scared to know that any of art that I enjoy is gay because it would reveal something about me that I didn't want to admit. That were the worst years of my life so far not to mention religious trauma. I feel for them so much
I watched this movie in class and I could just sense the fruityness in it. I couldn't put my finger on it but it was kinda sus. I too have been waiting forever for this video.
I gotta say,, thank you for teaching the aretheygay method™ over all these years, it's really enhanced my media perceptions and helped me find validation in more than just the 2.5 queer medias there are🎺🦐 also, again with the flawless content!! (in my objective opinion) 🕺
Also, definitely something fruity going on with the older teacher who remembers Mr. Keating as a student, like different generations struggling with how out they can safely be.
It is a great film... but... it is an openly queer film. The whole, outspoken, explicit, utterly un-denied point of the film is that it's a love story between two men. No detective work necessary, no signs to read, not above, out of or below the text. There would be no point to ask "Clive and Maurice - are they gay?", and nothing to talk about. They are gay. They say so. They kiss. They have sex. The talk about it, about their fears of being discovered when another gay man is sentenced to prison and hard labor for being gay. What would the video be about? Are they gay? Yes. Next... ;)
@@orvilpym Clive No-Homos Maurice quite hard though... No, seriously, I get what you're saying, I'd like it though if we got a video about an overtly queer movie and in what ways it expresses queerness other than the character saying they're queer, or having characters of the same gender kiss etc.
The whole Dead Poet’s Society is squad goals. The way they supported, encouraged, and had fun with one another and didn’t alienate any one of them because they were different is exemplary.
Okay so i just wanna say here, Will Byers is pretty much guaranteed to be gay by now (though he has yet to come out). There are some moments here and there throughout all of the as of yet 3 seasons (Though S4 has been shot entirely and S5 is confirmed) that i wanna highlight: 1: At the end of Season 2, there's this scene at the Snow Ball where Will dances with a girl, and the forced smile makes it clear he's very much not on board with that. 2: For all of Season 3, Will is annoyed at his friends, who keep spending time with their girlfriends rather than playing D&D like they used to do all the time. This eventually results in Will and Mike having a fight, wherein Mike says, and i quote: "It's not my fault you don't like girls!" And the expression of sheer gay panic on Will's face tells you all you need to know about that part of the story. Furthermore, there are a lot of times that Will being queer is implied, though i for one wouldn't take the words of a verbally abusive father and a middle school bully into court. 3: In the season 4 trailer Welcome to California, we see that Will did a school project about Alan Turing. You know, the gay mathematician who shortened WW2 by cracking Enigma, then got chemically castrated for being gay and took his own life over that? Does he know? Does anyone else know? Well, by season 3, i'm pretty sure Will knows. And if anyone else does, i think that'd have to be Jonathan. If i were Will, that would be the first person i'd come out to.
@@lancelotandmerlin I think the Duffers originally wanted to end the show after S4, but they found that, if they wanted to tell every story there is to still be told, they'd have to either crunch the script too much or produce another season, the latter Netflix gladly approved since the show is a total cash cow.
@@imaginaryfoe2178 Yeah you could see that briefly in the trailer. When theyre walking through the school, Will is holding a poster, which was probably part of the project, and its clearly about Turing.
I say either Jonathan or Joyce were the first to know & kept it a secret to protect Will, I feel like they both know that each other knows but won’t say anything just in case.
Spoiler Alert. Pls scroll down if you haven't watched the film One of my favorite scenes not just in the movie but also in all the movies I've seen is when Charlie Dalton wakes up Todd and tells him about Neil's death. They all knew he was the more sensitive and shy type. And then he runs outside into the snow and looks at how beautiful everything is.... his friends follow him to give him comfort. To help each other in that miserable time. Todd's reaction really shows his feelings and the nature of their relationship. Bruh they are literally squad goals. I wish I had friends like that🥲. (Also I'm pretty sure they shipped anderperry)
That scene was always so beautiful to me. Not only the scene it’s self but the acting. They only have time to do one take because they wanted to do it before it stopped snowing. So the director said Ethan could do it in one take and he did! It was so full of emotion and just so beautifully done!
And especially paired with how broken Todd sounds when he screams "NEIL" into that still and peaceful lake, the way he doubles over and retches into the snow. The fact that Charlie was supposed to be Neil's best friend since they were little, and yet he reacted so differently. The fact that Todd is quiet and meek and only loud when pushed versus Charlie's loud brashness and explosive emotionsand yet Todd is the one we saw screaming.
2:55 I haven’t seen anyone mentioning this, but Lord Alfred Douglas who was a poet and a LOVER of Oscar Wilde actually wrote a poem about Oscars death which is called The Dead Poet (you know like THE DREAD POETS SOCIETY). I can personally see some paralers bettween this poem and Niel and Todd. I'll leave the poem bellow. The Dead Poet I dreamed of him last night, I saw his face All radiant and unshadowed of distress, And as of old, in music measureless, I heard his golden voice and marked him trace Under the common thing the hidden grace, And conjure wonder out of emptiness Till mean things put on beauty like a dress And all the world was an enchanted place. And then methought outside a fast locked gate I mourned the loss of unrecorded words, Forgotten tales and mysteries half said, Wonders that might have been articulate, And voiceless thoughts like murdered singing birds. And so I woke and knew he was dead.
First time I watched DPS I really felt a gay vibe and every time I remember it and how it ended I remind myself that none of the characters were (canonically) gay, like that wasn't the actual problem in the movie and I'm like 'huh'. So yeah thanks again for putting my thoughts into very well put sentences!
I watched this movie with my family and I just pretended to think it was just a good movie. I went upstairs afterwards and immediately looked up the ship on AO3 to make sure I wasn't imagining things 😆
One thing I felt very strongly and noticed immediately was how perfectly Neil and Todd fit the roles of The Dynamic, as written about in Peyton's article on The Niche blog titled "What Is 'The Dynamic' Anyway?" This quote sums it up perfectly: "In essence, The Dynamic is a series of common traits shared by certain well-written fictional relationships, or well-matched real relationships. It is a fixed point in a changing age, a good and kind and loving bulwark against a cruel, uncaring world. The Dynamic comprises two people in two distinct roles: an Absolute Nightmare, and a Sweaterboy. [...] The essence of The Dynamic is that the Sweaterboy has settled sustainably, though unhappily, into heteronormative life when he meets the Absolute Nightmare, while the Absolute Nightmare has entirely rejected the task of trying to pass as heterosexual or normatively masculine or neurotypical, so in a certain sense he’s freer than the Sweaterboy, but in another sense he’s even more lonely and isolated because his abnormality makes him a social outcast. And then, over the course of their relationship, the Sweaterboy becomes more comfortable with himself and the Absolute Nightmare becomes more emotionally open and less isolated. It’s like they have to be freed from the two contrasting pitfalls that queer people trying to survive in normative society often fall into, and the key to both of their escapes is each other." - Seph, author at The Niche blog
Ok. Wait. Hang on. I watched this movie when I was much younger - only one (1) time because it made middle-school me too sad to try and face again - but I remember the queer content as being incredibly clear and straightforward and obvious?? Like, I understood it to be one of the major points of the whole story?? It's gonna blow my mind if I watch this video and find out that this is YET ANOTHER case of my childhood self reading subtext as stated text and then wildly misremembering how the original story actually presents it
I think the gay subtext in this movie is as close to overt as it can possibly be. I remember people talking about it in a high school class discussion… well, this and Great Gatsby
26:27 Now THAT was the gayest scene I've seen so far. To me, after this scene there's no room for debate about whether the film is gay or not. That scene, man! That's literally something I, a queer, could say (or maybe ever might have said) to the person I'm in love with.
I remember literally commenting on your Great Gastby video for a DPS video, waited a few months, made my own, joined tumblr to shill my own AnderPerry analysis video, spent time making friends and followers there, enough so that when the POLLS for THIS VIDEO came out, I got my friends to vote this, and now IM HERE, THRIVING, SETTING REMINDERS, MANIFESTATION ARRIVED 😔👌👌👌
I remember watching this film in theater class on one of our off days, thinking wow, this is pretty gay. I knew at the time I had a total crush on Neil and when Todd had his breakdown, I lost it. I wasn't out yet, but 2 days later I came out to my class. Not sure if the movie had anything to do with it, but I can't discount it gave me the courage to do it.
I watched dps last summer and then convinced all my friends to watch it too. we all agreed that not a single person in the dead poets group was straight
For a second, I thought, “Well, that’s not true, Cameron’s definitely straight” but then I thought about for another second, and he’s definitely bi and is struggling with a shit ton of internalized homophobia and repression
Wasn’t the one boy who went after that girl straight? Overstreet right? He was intimidated to call that girl Chris but he was intimidated by that because he was nervous which is normal but he ended up invited to a party
they filmed DPS in my hometown and it's my hometown's pride and joy. that being SAID, no one talks about how queer it is which is insane. i watched it for the first time as a teenager with my parents in the theatre neil does the play in on one of the movie's anniversaries. idk it had a big impact on me coming out as trans masc and bi later on in life. i'll always always love this movie.
How surreal was it watching the Everett Theater scenes in the Everett Theater(?!) I think that's marvelous. There's a line in Joseph Kesselring's farce ARSENIC AND OLD LACE, in which the villain character, Jonathan Brewster, refers to spending time in an insane assylum in "South Bend, Indiana." I performed the role of Teddy Brewster in A&OL myself in high school but later saw the play performed by a community theater group in--you guessed it!--South Bend, Indiana. When the actor playing the villain recited that line it got laughs--something that would only happen in SB.
My favorite character in this movie is Charlie, so I want to mention one thing. He really reminds me of my younger self, the one that thought "I can't be queer because I like the opposite gender" and so used their sexuality to overcompensate for their gender. Only to one day change their name on twitter to "Damian" only as "an experiment"
It has been years since I've watched this movie and I honestly thought that Neil was canonically gay. That is how I remember it. I thought Todd was his either bi or gay best friend. To watch this and realize that they never stated any of them were canonically gay makes me realize how much gay subtext there is to this movie. I should go rewatch it and cry my eyes out.
This might be one of my favourite videos of this channel and that says a lot because I love all of them a whole lot! The quality just keeps increasing with every video truly impressive!!
You HAVE ANY IDEA HOW INSANELY INSANE THIS MAKES ME LIKE OMG I HAVE BEEN WAITING AND PRAYING SINCE FOREVER FOR YOU TO MAKE THIS AND LIKE OMG I NEED TO BUT CAN'T CALM DOWN
I KNEW I wasn’t the only person who picked up on this. When I watched this in my creative writing 2 class, I kept looking around to see if anyone else was catching any of the gay, but no one was reacting 💀
I'd argue that every single member of DPS is queer in some aspect. Of course, Neil and Todd are into each other, but also Charlie Dalton is the most bisexual bisexual to ever bisexual, Richard Cameron is definitely a gay guy struggling with intense internalized homophobia and the fact that he's into Charlie (along with all of the struggles he has surrounding wanting to be a good student and abiding by the rules of the school but we don't need to unpack that), and Meeks and Pitts are definitely in a long-term relationship and/or a QPP. The only one I think you could argue is straight is Knox, and even then I think he's at least a little bit limp wrist. I've been hoping you'd cover DPS at some point ever since watching it at the start of the summer, it's absolutely taken over my life. As a queer person it was so obvious to me that this movie was about queer people creating a found family and discovering that they don't have to be ashamed of who they are in an era where it was prohibited, so seeing you break it down is amazing!
i honestly always was a little confused as to why neil never confronted his dad and told him how we felt, but when you added the asepct and perspective of him being queer, i actually felt it inside of me, i felt how we felt trapped and why he couldnt speak up
The metaphor and cultural analysis does work pretty well, in Au Revoir Là-Haut's movie adaptation the main character has a huge conflict with his father because he wants to be an artist. In no way shape or form does the movie imply he's gay, in fact it wouldn't impact the plot. But when I saw it in the theater I immediatly went "pretty queer" (he also was played by the main actor of 120 BPM so that arguably put me in that mindset). And lo and behold, I open the book and the fact that he's attracted to men is in the first 50 pages. The plot is about two guys scarred by the war that live pretty much as outcast and try to get back at the people that sent them to fight, so that's another thing.
IM GONNA SCREAM I LITERALLY WATCHED AND GOT INTO DPS THIS YEAR IM LOSING MY SHIT I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU ARE ACTUALLY GONNA TALK ABOUT THIS MOVIE AAARHAJSJSHS
Neil lied to Keating about it, saying that he'd convinced his dad when it wasn't true. But such was his desperation to be expressed as a human and an artist. I think Keating wanted so badly for that to be true, for Neil to have found liberation (Keating's own desperate desire) that he blinded himself to the awful truth that Neil's father would never, ever grant him that freedom willingly. Neil was indeed too fragile to overcome the bonds of control his father had bound him with. When Neil told Keating, "I'm trapped," and Keating didn't listen... what a regretful moment. How heartbreaking.
Todd also runs back to a place him and Neil were seen hanging out at earlier on in the movie. This shows significant in the places and things he does with Neil. It also tells us that they probably went a lot, without the other boys.
I cried like 5 times throughout this movie. It represents everything I love and seek out on this world. A passion for art and curiosity, questioning authority and social norms, the love of teaching. This movie gets how hard it is to grow up in a rigid world where structure and tradition is enforced, while art and curiosity is frowned upon, and this movie makes a case for how tragic that is and how beautiful the world could be otherwise, I can't help but cry. Cried of joy when the teacher opened the students minds and showed them their true potential, and cried of sorrow for the dead dreams, trumped by cold and rigid men. Mr. Keating is who I want to become someday. O Captain, My Captain!
I found this video today, watched one minute and went and watched the movie for the first time. I saw the gay metaphor right away and i cried so hard at the end. So thank you for finally making me watch the movie.
I think is says a lot that I last watched this as a sheltered/autistic child who never picked up an romantic cues, and yet I was genuinely surprised to learn (from this video) that young “Wilson’s” character was not in fact explicitly gay.
I JUST FINISHED THIS VIDEO AND IVE BEEN RATING ON MY STORY ABOUT IT N SHIT OML. YOU SAID EVERYTHING SO PULL PUT AND MADE ME REALIZE ACTUALLY HOW GAY THIS MOVIE IS. I LITERALLY COULD NOT BREATHE OR SIT TILL DURING PARTS OF THIS VIDEO. YOUVE NOW MADE DPS PROBABLY, BASICALLY, MY FAVOURITE MOVIE OF ALL TIME.
My high school English teacher, through exploring the latent homosexual undertones of both DPS and Fight Club, was the one who made me realize that I was gay.
I remember telling my mom when I was younger that I wanted to watch DPS since my best friend had… she said “I couldn’t” because I might “get the wrong message out of it” and that I should “wait till I was older” and I still haven’t watched it but this video finally made me understand what she was referencing 😭
Excellent presentation and thank you for articulating so well that which I suspected but could not articulate when I first saw DPS in 1989. Frankly, it is like water in the desert these days to watch an intelligent and thought provoking analysis of a film other than Ridley Scott's "Napoleon." Speaking of all things Napoleonic, I would be intrigued to see what you could make of the curiously homoerotic Aubrey/Maturin relationship in Peter Weir's naval epic "Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World". Thank you again. I enjoy your work.
the way my dad just KNEW there is something between them when they first met and when they unpacked their things, "please don't tell me this is a gay movie. they're gay right?" GIRL, WE'RE NOT EVEN 5 MINUTES INTO THE MOVIE
Oh my freaking god I first watched this movie 3 days ago and couldn't stop thinking about its gay subtext!! I was reading all the analysis I could find about their relationship and was planning to compile it. Then I saw this vid oh my godd so excited!!!!!
thank you for this alex! ive always considered niel's struggle with acting as metaphorical for sexual identity, that's just how i chose to interpret it. it's so validating to see my feelings about this story explained so eloquently
As a young queer kid in the height of self discovery i was absolutely OBSESSED with dead poets society. Rewatching scenes over and over, imagining i had a friendship like neil and todds... imagining i was neil. Turns out there was a lot of repression within lol
I was supposed to watch this in my sophomore english class but all the kids hated it so we just watched one part and then never finished it. I was literally so disappointed and it wasnt the first or last time my class stopped us from watching good movies
I love DPS. I remember seeing it as a young closeted queer in the late 90's. My household was rather.....repressive and catholic. I had no contact with any gay culture in my exurban island or none I was really aware of at the time. But I remember thinking how I thought the two were gay, and how cute they were together but how sad the end was. Turned out to be a decent parallel to my relationship to my farther. Shortly after I came out he decided he never wanted to talk to me again. I am still here, so there is that. RIP Robin Williams
![Noob To Max With DRAGON REWORK In Blox Fruits [FULL MOVIE]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/LnBMOinoOvA/mqdefault.jpg)
you didn't even get the moment when mr. keating forces todd to make up poetry in class and it cuts to neil with the absolute most love-stricken face i've ever seen like COME ON
YES. Like they definitely showed that face for a reason
SADDNESS. ITS CALLED SADDNESS!!!!!!
Y'all so weird bro. A man can empathize with another man without wanting to shit on another man's dick. Freaks.
my favorite look in cinema history
its called friendship dude...stop projecting
I'm rewatching the movie and I think we should not overlook the fact that Neil's father way to "correct" his son was trying to send him to the military school.
BAHAHA that’s a good point Diane
We watched this movie together in Military school. how we laughed.
i highly recommend watching the deleted scenes as well ! there’s a specific scene when todd is helping neil learn his lines for the show. in the scene, neil is fully in character, reading out his lines passionately. todd on the other hand is quietly reading them out in his typical shy and quiet tone. neil starts telling todd about how much he loves “this” talking about “acting”. eventually neil and todd reach the dock outside while walking and reading lines, and todd goes back to his shy and quiet tone. neil tells him to read it loudly, read it with passion. and todd does just that. it’s the first time in the film that todd opens himself up like that. that loudly and that passionately. yelling those lines to the whole world. they’re laughing and loving it. at the end of the film, after todd finds out neil has taken his own life, todd runs outside into the snow. eventually, todd breaks free from his friends and runs back to the dock. he breaks down yelling for neil. i think it’s very representative of how much neil helped todd become himself much more than before. the dock scene is also just super cute !
THANK YOU!! still to this day i don't understand how that didn't make it to the actual movie, it's literally so important to their development
HOW WHY WHY DID WHY ON EARTH DID THEY DELETE THIS SCENE ITS SO IMPORTANT TO THE WHOLE THE WHOLE THING UGHHH
i SO wish they kept that scene in. not only because it's cute, but more importantly because it's super important to the development of their totally heterosexual not at all fruity relationship (sarcasm, obviously). it literally provides a reason for todd running to the dock of all places after being told that neil took his life! i don't get why they decided to leave it out of the final film...
Thank you for letting us know about that. It seems essential to the movie
Wish they'd kept that scene
It adds so much to the scene where Todd cries at the dock
Also it’s so important to note that when Neil died, Charlie who had known him for years took it upon himself to be there for Todd and take care of him, knowing that he would be affected the most because of something deeper
seriously, what settled it for me (if it hadn't already with all their previous scenes), was how the boys gather around Todd to tell him the news. i may be remembering it wrong, but i think Knox was himself in tears and was looking askance, like he couldn't look Todd in the eye once he wakes up. these boys have known Neil longer than Todd and are all clearly going through their sadness, but banded together to tell Todd the news together so that they could all be there for him. countless times i've imagined a non-existent scene between them prior to them going into Todd's (and - sob - Neil's) room, them trying to gather up their courage to tell Todd and dreading the moment, someone's voice cracking as they realize the news was going to break Todd's heart or something like that, and probably Charlie whispering furiously at them that they need to keep it together for Todd.
@@Bluey306incredibly well worded. bluey306, you just made me cry a little
If that "No." doesn't qualify as flirting, I don't know what does.
Also, if Neil and Todd were different genders, this movie would be widely considered a romance classic.
Exactly. Ik I’m late to this but sometimes I find myself just kind of knowing that something is queer/there are “vibes” between 2 people of the same gender and I get worried that it’s just me projecting my queerness onto characters I like and relate to but then I remember this. If it were a boy and girl no one would even doubt that there were feelings. They would just call them lovers or say that they’re in love w/ each other but once it’s two boys/two girls then it’s that we’re just trying to make everything gay. Sometimes you just know (I think especially if you’re queer bc you learn to read things better [mostly]) there are 100% very close, platonic, male relationships and that should definitely be encouraged but in this instance it is almost certain that it’s more.
@@Maggie_08 I agree, and also it's not an issue to wonder whether there's romantic or sexual feelings involved or not, people being so defensive when claiming we're just making shit up is literally homophobia. They hate the idea of a character they like or empathize with being gay because they don't wanna be in their shoes. Because homophobia.
the fact that my dad, a heterossexual cis man, looked at me and asked "neil and todd were something more, weren't they? because that reaction was way to deep compared to the other ones, I wouldn't react like that if a friend of mine died, but if your mother did die, than it would be something like that" just proves that yes, this movie is gay, and I love it.
I love that your dad had that reaction to the film. I think that says a lot about him.
It could also mean that your dad doesn't have close male friends, who he loves in a platonic way.
@@Ri57490 Or he had close male friends and he knows that his relationships with them weren't anything like Todd and Neil's
Cute answer
Thats probably because you nerver had a true close friendship
Worth noting that Gale Hansen (Charlie Dalton) has FULLY endorsed the headcanon that Charlie is bi and non-binary. He’s also said that, in his opinion, Charlie knew that something was going on between Neil and Todd, but he never got any concrete answers in canon.
Basically, Gale has the entire DPS fandom under his wing and we love him for it.
Hey where can I read what gale hansen said?
@@carolineschafer5078 thank you for telling me ! 🌼
I'm sorry but hc Charlie as bi and non binary is a reach, objectively speaking charlie is the straightest most average dude in the world and it's unrealistic to think he was bi or non binary, but it does make for some really cool fanfics
P.S I love your videos please don't hate me :'c
I thought so too. Charlie could be a dick but he saw a lot more then he let on, which is why he acted out so much, I think. His not participating in the walking exercise was my youth in a nutshell. Dunno about being bi, cause he seemed pretty sure of himself unless his outward sexuality was supposed to be hiding something else. But I am pretty sure he knew about Neil and Todd and a lot more. And binary I can see but that can be because I am binary and identified with Charlie, so it could be reading into it.
@@anaiswinter9893 He definitely knew there was something going on between Neil and Todd and I feel like he was a bit shocked (2 boys, the 1950s) but even if his mind couldn't really comprehend what was going on (partially Neil and Todd were also not fully aware of what was happening and what they were feeling) he knew how to be there for Todd when Neil died and he knew Todd would be the most affected
“That boy was a homosexual and that’s why his father didn’t except him” -my parents after I forced them to watch Dead poet society
The father probably didn't accept a lot of people. Except himself.
Nope I got the impression he was an extreme control freak
JAJJWJAJAJAJAJ
accept*
@@oooh19two things can be true, you could have said “yeah, i got the sense he was an extreme control freak” and that still would have made sense lol. plenty of control freaks don’t want queer children
I watched DPS in English class as a young gay teen and not only cried infront of my entire class (which was embarrassing) but also weirded out my very straight classmates when I told them that Neil and Todd were like definitely in love. I would fight anyone on this.
same!! like literally me and my closeted gay friends all read that and cried in class and that night i went home and googled "neil and todd gay" loll
@@bigmood3386 I went straight to AO3 after watching the movie lmao
@@achuuz omg same I just can't handle the ending I feel the need to write my own lol
@@alicenguyen9898 yes yes write your own I am in a drought of DPS content LMAO
@@achuuz Recommend some plz
"so just like Timothee Chalamet, his entire life is queer coded" I genuinely screamed at it
what did he mean by that? how is Timothee's life queercoded?
@@Amandascx i have no idea but maybe because he's french and his first big movie is call me by your name ?
@@Sakuralexis god, that movie...
@@Lima_Lima_Lima don’t remind me of the peaches ….
Peaches
Todd running out onto the dock after Neil's death is so informative of how lost he feels, just standing there alone without his best friend. In deleted scenes, Todd is helping Neil practice lines for the play, and they giddily talk with each other while walking their way down to the dock and standing together overlooking the lake. It makes that scene a new level of heart-breaking.
I feel like if they had left the deleted scene in the movie, it would have given the dock scene where Todd is alone even more emotional weight. I like the connection you made between the two scenes, I hadn’t noticed it before
I always thought that Neil's dad was NOT a "omg my son is an actor" reaction. It was and "oh my god my son is GAY." reaction. I related with him so much as a kid and I didn't know why until I got older.
i think "actor" and "gay" were synonymous to mr. perry. most likely because of the time (yaknow? the 50's)
LITERALLY. Like, Military school immediately?? For wanting to act 😭 nah it feels subtextually homophobic
idk, sounds like a good interpretation but my natural conclusion about the father was that his son was becoming too rebellious and was not going to fulfil the dreams he(the father) had for him, so more of a "holy hell my son is not going to follow me or fulfil my dreams anymore and he's branching out on his own" kind of reaction.
Being gay was ILLEGAL. It was still "the love that dare not speak its name'. And theatre was a refuge, one of the few places where it was accepted.
@@vices8019RIGHT. I was confused at such an extreme reaction but as soon as I realised "oh... gay." it all fell into place lmao
I was so confused when I read "gay subtext" in the title because i genuinely forgot that this movie *isn't* gay
I regularly forget about it. It just feels almost explicit
it's interesting to me that they chose a midsummer's night dream, a play about people running away because one of their fathers doesn't approve of their marriage, as the play in dead poets society
as put in this really amazing essay i read on dead poets society:
“Dead Poets Society has as its central concern the rite of passage from boyhood to (heterosexual) manhood. Neil fails to make this transition. He is unable to achieve identification with either his repressive father or the liberal (an unswervingly heterosexual) Keating. His sacrifice allows Todd to find his ‘voice;’ his barbaric yawp is ‘Neil.’ The forbidden love is given eternal life and remembrance through death.”
That is so well written, do you have a link to the essay ?
ohhh,,,,, what is the title of the essay if you don’t mind??
@@mouldyicecream2760 it’s called: “the historical and the hysterical: melodrama, war and masculinity in dead poets society!”
@@the-girl-that-does-stuff called: “the historical and the hysterical: melodrama, war and masculinity in dead poets society!”
@@taylah4057 thank you so much!!
His role is Puck, a LITERAL FAIRY.
excellent point.
Wait what does the fairy thing mean? Sorry I’m confused
@@yenyui Fairy is an old (kind of offensive) term for a gay man. Good pun.
@@jamiel6005 ohhh okay lol. Thank u!
wait a damn minute... that's so right
You didn’t talk about the heart eyes Neil gave Todd when during he recited his poem in front of the class!🤣
Unrelated but I love your channel layout it’s so good
@@apinchofdisappointment thanks!!
To me that stare read like "now THAT's my boyfriend ❤" and I love it sm
this movie ended after the play and todd and niel are living happily and being gay 😌
LOVED THAT PART
The best part of the movie
The best and most canonical part of the movie
yes that’s exactly what happened
This is the extra gay equivalent of stopping your disc of Moulin Rouge before the last chapter.
Both of which I have no issue with and highly endorse.
Also *very* gay and criminally underrated/underexposed: "I Love You Phillip Morris"
neil's little "no" was my entire sexuality the year we did dps in my english class. also why was i the only person in class convinced neil and todd were in love, like was it never brought up???
also there is audio on yt of the actor of neil reading the secret history and just that as a concept is very gay and i'm obsessed
also also, made my sister watch it for the first time recently and she also saw the queerness, so i'm glad she can analyze lmao
also i think neil might be one of my favourite ficitional characters? anyway great video
Robert Sean Leonard's voice is so satisfying
@@sprachen7122 it really is
@@sprachen7122 fr his voice is so warm ??
did he read the part where richard is like “i’m certain charles isn’t gay. as an EXTREMELY straight man, I think I would *know* when someone was gay. I’m so straight it makes me objective in these things.”
@@benjisaac hahhaha it's my favourite part, the entire time he's like "ah yes as a very straight man myself i can asses the sexuality of every man around me" like sir
Also: neil was everyone's friend, he was charlie's best friend for way more time than todd, so why didn't he have the same reaction as todd? This just proves they're boyfriends.
(/hj)
so true reki profile picture
@@hi1dk thanks gru profile picture
true. they did focus a lot more on todd’s reaction. notice the way charlie himself gives todd the news and everyone is just really on edge to see how he’d react… god damn
To be fair they're 2 of the 3 main boys, and neil was todds only friend. As well as being roomates.
not saying that they are not gay for each other but those reasons don't necessarily draw boyfriend conclusions
I always understood his death not as an indictment on Mr. Keating, but on his father and the system of oppression within the society. The fact that Mr. Keating is punished is an injustice recognized by the students in that final act of "O Captain My Captain" scene. Ultimately the triumph in that moment is that despite what the school has framed as the "consequences" the students recognize the truth of what Mr. Keating had done for them and take pride in it.
13:55 "The school, like a Supreme hoodie, is a strai(gh)tjacket."
This pun was NEXT LEVEL
i don’t get it
I heard someone call this movie “the one with the gay book club” and I think that pretty much sums it up
I've seen this movie once and it destroyed me. 10/10 but oh god I've still never been this heartbroken over a character in any other movie/tv show/book.
Clearly, you have yet to read Heroes of Olympus.
I first saw this in a double bill with Beaches. Talk about a tearfest. Unfortunately I was too young at the time to really appreciate the queer subtext
@@AmosRambles This was the first movie that I ever picked up on queer subtext and it was also around the time I was coming out to myself. I watched it with my conservative Christian family too 🥲🥲🥲 It was even more heartbreaking that they empathized with the main character without understanding they made me feel some of the same things he felt. 😭
@@Mandrake_root *virtual hugs* Fried Green Tomatoes (which came out 2 years later) was my Dead Poets society. I was a late bloomer so wasn’t yet acknowledging my own queerness yet, but I do recall noticing the relationship between Iggy and Ruth as something special.
I’m glad you survived going through that, and have hopefully found acceptance into your adulthood, if not with your own family, then with your found family, whatever that looks like.
You should watch portrait of a lady on fire. That movie left a void in my heart for DAYS.
Throwback to that time we did DPS in English class and my friends and I were absolutely convinced of Neil and Todd being in love. And then, when we did a mock trial for Mr Keating and we were tasked to prepare Todd’s witness testimony, did we have him burst out that he was in love with Neil in the middle of it? Yes, yes we did.
(Also, shout-out to my English teacher who, when we talked to her about the queer reading of DPS, didn’t shoot us down but instead told us that yes, it could absolutely be read that way. You were a real one, Ms H)
what a great teacher! and also LOVE YOUR MOCK TRIAL.
neil and todd in a room together: *A GUIDE TO ADVANCED GAY STARING*
I was going to call Mr. Keating a great ally then I saw "Thighs man" on his yearbook... yeah he's a fruit too
😂😂😂😂😂
that split second of showing a still of Call Me by Your Name when saying "Luca" is pure art
i’m not finished with the video yet so i’m not sure if this is mentioned, but i just thought about it so i wanted to mention it.
in todd’s spontaneous poem he talks about how he sees walt whitman, or a “sweaty-toothed madman,” next to him. he describes walt as a very scary, aggressive figure that stares at him and chokes him and mumbles crazy things. “all the time he’s mumbling ‘truth is like a blanket that always leaves your feet cold. you push it, stretch it, it’ll never be enough. you kick at it, beat it, it’ll never cover any of us. from the moment we enter crying to the moment we leave dying, it will just cover your face as you wail and cry and scream.’”
to me, i interpret this as todd being afraid of his queer identity. he sees walt whitman, a very well known queer man, as intimidating. i think this is his way of saying he finds embracing the fact that he is queer scary. the madman chokes and him and stands at his side, forcing todd to confront him. but todd doesn’t want to confront him because he knows it will only bring him pain.
todd feels suffocated. he is gay, but he can’t acknowledge it because of the people around him and his own personal judgement. you can tell he wants so badly to embrace his identity, but he knows the truth of it will only bring pain and judgement. it will never be enough to make him feel safe.
Yes!!! I agree with this 100%. It just makes sense
Omg I felt the same before a year ago. I would purposefully try to ignore watching any gay media because after consuming it I always started reeling because of it. I was so scared to know that any of art that I enjoy is gay because it would reveal something about me that I didn't want to admit. That were the worst years of my life so far not to mention religious trauma. I feel for them so much
WOOOO YEAH BABY THAT'S WHAT I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THAT'S WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT
I watched this movie in class and I could just sense the fruityness in it. I couldn't put my finger on it but it was kinda sus. I too have been waiting forever for this video.
The moist verse returns
"In the queer version of this story, or as I like to call it, Dead Poets Society..." Best line!
I gotta say,, thank you for teaching the aretheygay method™ over all these years, it's really enhanced my media perceptions and helped me find validation in more than just the 2.5 queer medias there are🎺🦐 also, again with the flawless content!! (in my objective opinion) 🕺
Also, definitely something fruity going on with the older teacher who remembers Mr. Keating as a student, like different generations struggling with how out they can safely be.
THERE IS NO WAY DEAD POETS IS STRAIGHT
FR
why not tho
there is the only person i thought was gay was charlie
i don't know how to describe it, i just look at two characters and think "oh yeah they totally like each other"
VALID
I think the director had an idea of what the subtext was 😂
@@noncatholiccatholicrat6309 fair point
I really wish they would do a video essay on Maurice. It's such a beautiful film.
It is a great film... but... it is an openly queer film. The whole, outspoken, explicit, utterly un-denied point of the film is that it's a love story between two men. No detective work necessary, no signs to read, not above, out of or below the text. There would be no point to ask "Clive and Maurice - are they gay?", and nothing to talk about. They are gay. They say so. They kiss. They have sex. The talk about it, about their fears of being discovered when another gay man is sentenced to prison and hard labor for being gay. What would the video be about? Are they gay? Yes. Next... ;)
@@orvilpym Clive No-Homos Maurice quite hard though... No, seriously, I get what you're saying, I'd like it though if we got a video about an overtly queer movie and in what ways it expresses queerness other than the character saying they're queer, or having characters of the same gender kiss etc.
@@orvilpym no I meant them discussing the themes and the characters but I guess that'll undermine the point of the channel. 🤔
You know what ur right
YESSSSSSSSSSS
my god i LOVED that movie
The whole Dead Poet’s Society is squad goals.
The way they supported, encouraged, and had fun with one another and didn’t alienate any one of them because they were different is exemplary.
Okay so i just wanna say here, Will Byers is pretty much guaranteed to be gay by now (though he has yet to come out). There are some moments here and there throughout all of the as of yet 3 seasons (Though S4 has been shot entirely and S5 is confirmed) that i wanna highlight:
1: At the end of Season 2, there's this scene at the Snow Ball where Will dances with a girl, and the forced smile makes it clear he's very much not on board with that.
2: For all of Season 3, Will is annoyed at his friends, who keep spending time with their girlfriends rather than playing D&D like they used to do all the time. This eventually results in Will and Mike having a fight, wherein Mike says, and i quote: "It's not my fault you don't like girls!" And the expression of sheer gay panic on Will's face tells you all you need to know about that part of the story.
Furthermore, there are a lot of times that Will being queer is implied, though i for one wouldn't take the words of a verbally abusive father and a middle school bully into court.
3: In the season 4 trailer Welcome to California, we see that Will did a school project about Alan Turing. You know, the gay mathematician who shortened WW2 by cracking Enigma, then got chemically castrated for being gay and took his own life over that?
Does he know? Does anyone else know? Well, by season 3, i'm pretty sure Will knows. And if anyone else does, i think that'd have to be Jonathan. If i were Will, that would be the first person i'd come out to.
wait, when was s5 confirmed?
@@lancelotandmerlin I think the Duffers originally wanted to end the show after S4, but they found that, if they wanted to tell every story there is to still be told, they'd have to either crunch the script too much or produce another season, the latter Netflix gladly approved since the show is a total cash cow.
I hope he’s either Ace or Gay but I actually didn’t know he did a project on Alan Turing. That’s super awesome.
@@imaginaryfoe2178 Yeah you could see that briefly in the trailer. When theyre walking through the school, Will is holding a poster, which was probably part of the project, and its clearly about Turing.
I say either Jonathan or Joyce were the first to know & kept it a secret to protect Will, I feel like they both know that each other knows but won’t say anything just in case.
Spoiler Alert. Pls scroll down if you haven't watched the film
One of my favorite scenes not just in the movie but also in all the movies I've seen is when Charlie Dalton wakes up Todd and tells him about Neil's death. They all knew he was the more sensitive and shy type. And then he runs outside into the snow and looks at how beautiful everything is.... his friends follow him to give him comfort. To help each other in that miserable time.
Todd's reaction really shows his feelings and the nature of their relationship.
Bruh they are literally squad goals. I wish I had friends like that🥲. (Also I'm pretty sure they shipped anderperry)
My stupid ass still read your comment thinking it's not gonna be that big of a spoiler and now I'm sitting here questioning my existence
That scene was always so beautiful to me. Not only the scene it’s self but the acting. They only have time to do one take because they wanted to do it before it stopped snowing. So the director said Ethan could do it in one take and he did! It was so full of emotion and just so beautifully done!
And especially paired with how broken Todd sounds when he screams "NEIL" into that still and peaceful lake, the way he doubles over and retches into the snow. The fact that Charlie was supposed to be Neil's best friend since they were little, and yet he reacted so differently. The fact that Todd is quiet and meek and only loud when pushed versus Charlie's loud brashness and explosive emotionsand yet Todd is the one we saw screaming.
They are squad goals indeed.
2:55 I haven’t seen anyone mentioning this, but Lord Alfred Douglas who was a poet and a LOVER of Oscar Wilde actually wrote a poem about Oscars death which is called The Dead Poet (you know like THE DREAD POETS SOCIETY). I can personally see some paralers bettween this poem and Niel and Todd. I'll leave the poem bellow.
The Dead Poet
I dreamed of him last night, I saw his face
All radiant and unshadowed of distress,
And as of old, in music measureless,
I heard his golden voice and marked him trace
Under the common thing the hidden grace, And conjure wonder out of emptiness
Till mean things put on beauty like a dress And all the world was an enchanted place. And then methought outside a fast locked gate I mourned the loss of unrecorded words, Forgotten tales and mysteries half said, Wonders that might have been articulate,
And voiceless thoughts like murdered singing birds.
And so I woke and knew he was dead.
First time I watched DPS I really felt a gay vibe and every time I remember it and how it ended I remind myself that none of the characters were (canonically) gay, like that wasn't the actual problem in the movie and I'm like 'huh'. So yeah thanks again for putting my thoughts into very well put sentences!
HAHA THIS MOVIE RIPPED OUT MY HEART AND CUT IT INTO PIECES- I loved it
I watched this movie with my family and I just pretended to think it was just a good movie.
I went upstairs afterwards and immediately looked up the ship on AO3 to make sure I wasn't imagining things 😆
NOOO WHY IS THIS LITERALLY ME IM CRYING
@@midnightnebulastar6826 😆 I swear, every time my gaydar goes off while watching a show/movie, I head straight to AO3 to check in with my fellow gays
@@MxNEWCASTLE BRO ME TOO
THAT IS LITERALLY ME LMFAO
THIS IS ME ???!!!?&???? HEKLLLLPPP
One thing I felt very strongly and noticed immediately was how perfectly Neil and Todd fit the roles of The Dynamic, as written about in Peyton's article on The Niche blog titled "What Is 'The Dynamic' Anyway?" This quote sums it up perfectly:
"In essence, The Dynamic is a series of common traits shared by certain well-written fictional relationships, or well-matched real relationships. It is a fixed point in a changing age, a good and kind and loving bulwark against a cruel, uncaring world. The Dynamic comprises two people in two distinct roles: an Absolute Nightmare, and a Sweaterboy.
[...]
The essence of The Dynamic is that the Sweaterboy has settled sustainably, though unhappily, into heteronormative life when he meets the Absolute Nightmare, while the Absolute Nightmare has entirely rejected the task of trying to pass as heterosexual or normatively masculine or neurotypical, so in a certain sense he’s freer than the Sweaterboy, but in another sense he’s even more lonely and isolated because his abnormality makes him a social outcast. And then, over the course of their relationship, the Sweaterboy becomes more comfortable with himself and the Absolute Nightmare becomes more emotionally open and less isolated. It’s like they have to be freed from the two contrasting pitfalls that queer people trying to survive in normative society often fall into, and the key to both of their escapes is each other."
- Seph, author at The Niche blog
Ok. Wait. Hang on. I watched this movie when I was much younger - only one (1) time because it made middle-school me too sad to try and face again - but I remember the queer content as being incredibly clear and straightforward and obvious?? Like, I understood it to be one of the major points of the whole story?? It's gonna blow my mind if I watch this video and find out that this is YET ANOTHER case of my childhood self reading subtext as stated text and then wildly misremembering how the original story actually presents it
Yup. In the movie the stated, literal problem is _theater._ Gayness is never overtly mentioned.
literally same
Same, thank you for saying something.
I think the gay subtext in this movie is as close to overt as it can possibly be. I remember people talking about it in a high school class discussion… well, this and Great Gatsby
26:27
Now THAT was the gayest scene I've seen so far. To me, after this scene there's no room for debate about whether the film is gay or not.
That scene, man! That's literally something I, a queer, could say (or maybe ever might have said) to the person I'm in love with.
“The school, like a supreme hoodie, is a straight jacket” has too many layers
I remember literally commenting on your Great Gastby video for a DPS video, waited a few months, made my own, joined tumblr to shill my own AnderPerry analysis video, spent time making friends and followers there, enough so that when the POLLS for THIS VIDEO came out, I got my friends to vote this, and now IM HERE, THRIVING, SETTING REMINDERS, MANIFESTATION ARRIVED 😔👌👌👌
You were just doing the lord's work and now you're getting repaid for it ahkajafhgjahah
The discord is going to go absolutely fucking nuts when this video drops oh my god
@@mikeythemage_2688 we will all lose our minds and im actually too excited for it
omg lol hi guys XD yes the discord is gonna go BANANAS
Ah, I see the entire DPS fandom is here.
I remember watching this film in theater class on one of our off days, thinking wow, this is pretty gay. I knew at the time I had a total crush on Neil and when Todd had his breakdown, I lost it. I wasn't out yet, but 2 days later I came out to my class. Not sure if the movie had anything to do with it, but I can't discount it gave me the courage to do it.
I don’t think I’ve been this hyped before in my life and I ran a lap for the Wizards of Waverly place movie drop
18:57 this is almost EXACTLY, word for word, what my parents told me after I came out to them. This conversation is definitely Not about theatre lmao
It’s funny, I was gonna comment this (word by word) because #same.
I watched dps last summer and then convinced all my friends to watch it too. we all agreed that not a single person in the dead poets group was straight
For a second, I thought, “Well, that’s not true, Cameron’s definitely straight” but then I thought about for another second, and he’s definitely bi and is struggling with a shit ton of internalized homophobia and repression
Wasn’t the one boy who went after that girl straight? Overstreet right? He was intimidated to call that girl Chris but he was intimidated by that because he was nervous which is normal but he ended up invited to a party
they filmed DPS in my hometown and it's my hometown's pride and joy. that being SAID, no one talks about how queer it is which is insane. i watched it for the first time as a teenager with my parents in the theatre neil does the play in on one of the movie's anniversaries. idk it had a big impact on me coming out as trans masc and bi later on in life. i'll always always love this movie.
How surreal was it watching the Everett Theater scenes in the Everett Theater(?!) I think that's marvelous. There's a line in Joseph Kesselring's farce ARSENIC AND OLD LACE, in which the villain character, Jonathan Brewster, refers to spending time in an insane assylum in "South Bend, Indiana." I performed the role of Teddy Brewster in A&OL myself in high school but later saw the play performed by a community theater group in--you guessed it!--South Bend, Indiana. When the actor playing the villain recited that line it got laughs--something that would only happen in SB.
1 - love your arguments, bisexual hero
2 - love your face, you're gorgeous
Hmmm that’s why I liked this movie as a kid… honestly makes a lot of sense lmao
Lmao SAME!!!
My favorite character in this movie is Charlie, so I want to mention one thing. He really reminds me of my younger self, the one that thought "I can't be queer because I like the opposite gender" and so used their sexuality to overcompensate for their gender. Only to one day change their name on twitter to "Damian" only as "an experiment"
OMG I JOINED THE DPS FANDOM LATE LAST YEAR AND I AM SO EXCITED FOR THIS
It has been years since I've watched this movie and I honestly thought that Neil was canonically gay. That is how I remember it. I thought Todd was his either bi or gay best friend. To watch this and realize that they never stated any of them were canonically gay makes me realize how much gay subtext there is to this movie. I should go rewatch it and cry my eyes out.
I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR YOUR ANALYSIS ON THIS MOVIE FOR SO LONG I THINK I MIGHT ACTUALLY CRY
This might be one of my favourite videos of this channel and that says a lot because I love all of them a whole lot! The quality just keeps increasing with every video truly impressive!!
i am sooo ready for this
and it would honestly be really great to have a video to reference to teach people about this
It's one of the most non-explicitly gay films I've seen in a long time. I don't understand how people miss it or try to explain how it isn't
Exactly. There are so many hints throughout the whole movie.
peoplw who deny it definitely are aware of it, but they are just homophobic
You HAVE ANY IDEA HOW INSANELY INSANE THIS MAKES ME LIKE OMG I HAVE BEEN WAITING AND PRAYING SINCE FOREVER FOR YOU TO MAKE THIS AND LIKE OMG I NEED TO BUT CAN'T CALM DOWN
YES YES YES
As a bi, baby gay, watching you talk about queerness with such confidence and your bi flag on show, warms my lil gay heart. 🌈
this is literally the most excited ive been about anything in years i yelled when i saw you were doing this video
I KNEW I wasn’t the only person who picked up on this. When I watched this in my creative writing 2 class, I kept looking around to see if anyone else was catching any of the gay, but no one was reacting 💀
I still can't believe Neil went on to become an incredibly successful oncologist.
finally a house md reference
I'd argue that every single member of DPS is queer in some aspect. Of course, Neil and Todd are into each other, but also Charlie Dalton is the most bisexual bisexual to ever bisexual, Richard Cameron is definitely a gay guy struggling with intense internalized homophobia and the fact that he's into Charlie (along with all of the struggles he has surrounding wanting to be a good student and abiding by the rules of the school but we don't need to unpack that), and Meeks and Pitts are definitely in a long-term relationship and/or a QPP. The only one I think you could argue is straight is Knox, and even then I think he's at least a little bit limp wrist.
I've been hoping you'd cover DPS at some point ever since watching it at the start of the summer, it's absolutely taken over my life. As a queer person it was so obvious to me that this movie was about queer people creating a found family and discovering that they don't have to be ashamed of who they are in an era where it was prohibited, so seeing you break it down is amazing!
Omg I love all of this❤️❤️❤️
himbo knox rights
All of this is just *chefs kiss🤌
You somehow proved that Todd is even more relatable then I originally thought
“so was neil gay” -my 56 year old very straight mother after watching dead poets society
i honestly always was a little confused as to why neil never confronted his dad and told him how we felt, but when you added the asepct and perspective of him being queer, i actually felt it inside of me, i felt how we felt trapped and why he couldnt speak up
The metaphor and cultural analysis does work pretty well, in Au Revoir Là-Haut's movie adaptation the main character has a huge conflict with his father because he wants to be an artist. In no way shape or form does the movie imply he's gay, in fact it wouldn't impact the plot. But when I saw it in the theater I immediatly went "pretty queer" (he also was played by the main actor of 120 BPM so that arguably put me in that mindset). And lo and behold, I open the book and the fact that he's attracted to men is in the first 50 pages.
The plot is about two guys scarred by the war that live pretty much as outcast and try to get back at the people that sent them to fight, so that's another thing.
IM GONNA SCREAM I LITERALLY WATCHED AND GOT INTO DPS THIS YEAR IM LOSING MY SHIT I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU ARE ACTUALLY GONNA TALK ABOUT THIS MOVIE AAARHAJSJSHS
He doesn’t convince his father to let him perform, he signs back up behind his father’s back, and his father finds out. Meaning it’s even more tense.
Neil lied to Keating about it, saying that he'd convinced his dad when it wasn't true. But such was his desperation to be expressed as a human and an artist. I think Keating wanted so badly for that to be true, for Neil to have found liberation (Keating's own desperate desire) that he blinded himself to the awful truth that Neil's father would never, ever grant him that freedom willingly. Neil was indeed too fragile to overcome the bonds of control his father had bound him with. When Neil told Keating, "I'm trapped," and Keating didn't listen... what a regretful moment. How heartbreaking.
Todd also runs back to a place him and Neil were seen hanging out at earlier on in the movie. This shows significant in the places and things he does with Neil. It also tells us that they probably went a lot, without the other boys.
I think the main point of this story was that they were alive. They screamed, they cried, they died, but they were alive. Gloriously alive.
Just so you know it the scene were Neil Sayed "I'm being chased by Walt Whitman" Walt Whitman was a gay poet...
every moment in this movie is burned into my brain. every scene, every gay look, every piece of dialogue.
Thank you, I will be referring to Supreme hoodies as straight jackets from now on that's incredible
You should do Vi and Caitlyn from Arcane, can’t believe there’s still people out there denying it
I haven't even watched Arcane yet, but the ''You're hot, cupcake.'' scene is more than enough to convince me they're gay
There’s people denying it? How? It’s not even slightly subtextual, they’ve done literally every single thing except kiss!
I cried like 5 times throughout this movie. It represents everything I love and seek out on this world. A passion for art and curiosity, questioning authority and social norms, the love of teaching. This movie gets how hard it is to grow up in a rigid world where structure and tradition is enforced, while art and curiosity is frowned upon, and this movie makes a case for how tragic that is and how beautiful the world could be otherwise, I can't help but cry. Cried of joy when the teacher opened the students minds and showed them their true potential, and cried of sorrow for the dead dreams, trumped by cold and rigid men.
Mr. Keating is who I want to become someday. O Captain, My Captain!
I found this video today, watched one minute and went and watched the movie for the first time. I saw the gay metaphor right away and i cried so hard at the end. So thank you for finally making me watch the movie.
I think is says a lot that I last watched this as a sheltered/autistic child who never picked up an romantic cues, and yet I was genuinely surprised to learn (from this video) that young “Wilson’s” character was not in fact explicitly gay.
Young man you have hit this subject on the head. Excellent review, thanks.
I JUST FINISHED THIS VIDEO AND IVE BEEN RATING ON MY STORY ABOUT IT N SHIT OML. YOU SAID EVERYTHING SO PULL PUT AND MADE ME REALIZE ACTUALLY HOW GAY THIS MOVIE IS. I LITERALLY COULD NOT BREATHE OR SIT TILL DURING PARTS OF THIS VIDEO. YOUVE NOW MADE DPS PROBABLY, BASICALLY, MY FAVOURITE MOVIE OF ALL TIME.
My high school English teacher, through exploring the latent homosexual undertones of both DPS and Fight Club, was the one who made me realize that I was gay.
I remember telling my mom when I was younger that I wanted to watch DPS since my best friend had… she said “I couldn’t” because I might “get the wrong message out of it” and that I should “wait till I was older” and I still haven’t watched it but this video finally made me understand what she was referencing 😭
todds reaction to neils death just proves they were more than friends
Excellent presentation and thank you for articulating so well that which I suspected but could not articulate when I first saw DPS in 1989. Frankly, it is like water in the desert these days to watch an intelligent and thought provoking analysis of a film other than Ridley Scott's "Napoleon." Speaking of all things Napoleonic, I would be intrigued to see what you could make of the curiously homoerotic Aubrey/Maturin relationship in Peter Weir's naval epic "Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World". Thank you again. I enjoy your work.
I KNEW I WASN'T A DELUSIONAL 8TH GRADER WHEN I SAW THIS MOVIE!! YESSS
the way my dad just KNEW there is something between them when they first met and when they unpacked their things, "please don't tell me this is a gay movie. they're gay right?" GIRL, WE'RE NOT EVEN 5 MINUTES INTO THE MOVIE
Oh my freaking god I first watched this movie 3 days ago and couldn't stop thinking about its gay subtext!! I was reading all the analysis I could find about their relationship and was planning to compile it. Then I saw this vid oh my godd so excited!!!!!
I’m starting to compile stuff too! I made a google docs and plan on just making a list of all the gay things/subtext in the movie and book :)
thank you for this alex! ive always considered niel's struggle with acting as metaphorical for sexual identity, that's just how i chose to interpret it. it's so validating to see my feelings about this story explained so eloquently
This is it. The highlight of my year. I CAN'T WAIT!!!!!
As a young queer kid in the height of self discovery i was absolutely OBSESSED with dead poets society. Rewatching scenes over and over, imagining i had a friendship like neil and todds... imagining i was neil. Turns out there was a lot of repression within lol
I was supposed to watch this in my sophomore english class but all the kids hated it so we just watched one part and then never finished it. I was literally so disappointed and it wasnt the first or last time my class stopped us from watching good movies
It’s available for free on RUclips now but idk how long
I genuinely don't think DPS works as a film without the queer subtext, I don't think it holds together if you just look at it literally
"Is this movie an edible arrangement, because it's literally just fruit...." So great
I love DPS. I remember seeing it as a young closeted queer in the late 90's. My household was rather.....repressive and catholic. I had no contact with any gay culture in my exurban island or none I was really aware of at the time. But I remember thinking how I thought the two were gay, and how cute they were together but how sad the end was. Turned out to be a decent parallel to my relationship to my farther. Shortly after I came out he decided he never wanted to talk to me again. I am still here, so there is that. RIP Robin Williams