Review of the DVD - rating: * *

Review of the film - rating: * * * *

Curiously, the label states that the aspect ratio is 1.66:1 - director Peter Weir's favoured video format apparently. It turns out to be nothing of the sort, and is bog standard anamorphic 16:9. All to the good.

The sound too is a little curious. Mixed in the usual Dolby Surround, the authorers have decided to encode this on 4 discrete tracks rather than the usual matrixed pair. Whether this makes any audible difference on playback is up for debate, but the sound is certainly clean enough, with a nice front soundstage and occasional use of the surrounds for ambience effects. For some reason, the dubbed language options are in the usual 2.0 format.

It's a Burna, so no extras. A particular shame here, since this is a much loved film with a place in many people's hearts - a special edition would sell rather well, methinks. As it is, this not bad at all, but only by Disney's standards.

Williams plays a new recruit English teacher at the very strict 1950s US boarding school he once attended as a pupil. His teaching methods are quickly discovered to be beyond unorthodox, and he inspires in the students a sense of wonder about life in general and, yes, poetry in particular. So buoyed up by the charismatic tutor are they that they reform the Dead Poets Society initiated by Williams many years ago. Before you can say Keates, one pupil is pursuing an acting vocation, another has his heart set on a girl and another is finally stepping out of the shadow of his brilliant older brother.

The message of the film is laid thick and heavy - Carpe Diem, or "seize the day" in dull old English. Williams slips a little too much into his wacky man persona which was more appropriate in Good Morning Vietnam (he was far better in the much later Good Will Hunting), and some of the sentiments are trite and even cringe making once or twice. Yet the overall effect is still powerful stuff, with a universal theme that touches people everywhere - rise above mediocrity. You can't help but warm to that one.

On a personal note, this movie made more of an impact on its first viewing at the cinema for me than probably any other film ever has before or since. On each subsequent viewing it has impressed me less, but that doesn't detract from the fact that it aims far higher than 99% of the rest of the stuff out there. Peter Weir has been one of the most underrated film makers of the last 20 years, with classics such as Picnic at Hanging Rock, Witness, the criminally overlooked Fearless and now The Truman Show of which he can be justly proud. Dead Poets Society remains a landmark film which bears witness to the talents of both him and writer Tom Schulman. Carpe Diem indeed.