The story is set in Welton Academy in Vermont and was filmed at St. Andrew's School in Middletown, Delaware. The script, written by Tom Schulman, was based on his life at Montgomery Bell Academy, an all-boys preparatory school in Nashville, Tennessee.

       电影剧本根据作者托马斯·舒曼在蒙哥马利·贝尔学院（一所位于田纳西州首府纳什维尔的男子预备学校）的真实经历改编而成。影片中基廷老师的角色灵感来自于康涅狄格大学的英文教授萨缪尔，是作者托马斯·舒曼曾经在蒙哥马利·贝尔学院读书时的老师。电影的另一个灵感来自于詹姆士·希尔顿的小说《再见，基普先生》，该书至少4次被改编成电视剧或电影。

影片简介：Plot Summary

      Dead Poets Society is a 1989 film directed by Peter Weir. Set in 1959 at a conservative and aristocratic boys prep school, it tells the story of an English teacher who inspires his students to change their lives of conformity through his teaching of poetry and literature. The movie is a modern interpretation of the transcendentalist movement.

         Seven boys, Neil Perry (Robert Sean Leonard), Todd Anderson (Ethan Hawke), Knox Overstreet (Josh Charles), Charlie Dalton (Gale Hansen), Richard Cameron (Dylan Kussman), Steven Meeks (Allelon Ruggiero) and Gerard Pitts (James Waterston) attend the prestigious Welton Academy prep school, which is based on four principles: Tradition, Honor, Discipline and Excellence.

On the first day of class, the students are introduced to their overwhelming and extraordinary curriculum by sullen headmaster Gale Nolan (Norman Lloyd). However, their new English teacher John Keating (Robin Williams) tells the students that they can call him "O Captain! My Captain!" (the title of a Walt Whitman poem) if they feel daring. His first lesson is unorthodox by Welton standards, whistling the 1812 Overture and taking them out of the classroom to focus on the idea of carpe diem (Latin for 'seize the day') by looking at the pictures of former Welton students in a trophy case. In a later class Keating has Neil read the introduction to their poetry textbook, a staid, dry essay entitled "Understanding Poetry" by the fictional academic Dr. J. Evans Pritchard, Ph. D., which describes how to place the quality of a poem on a scale, and rate it with a number. Keating finds the idea of such mathematical literary criticism ridiculous (calling it "excrement") and encourages his pupils to rip the introductory essay out of their textbooks. After a brief reaction of disbelief, they do so gleefully as Keating congratulates them with the memorable line "Begone, J. Evans Pritchard, Ph. D" (much to the surprise and disbelief of one of Keating's colleagues). He later has the students stand on his desk as a reminder to look at the world in a different way, just as Henry David Thoreau intended when he wrote, "The universe is wider than our views of it" (Walden).

         The rest of the movie is a process of awakening, in which the boys (and the audience) discover that authority can and must always act as a guide, but the only place where one can find out one's true identity is within oneself. To that end, the boys secretly revive an old literary club in which Keating had been a member, called the Dead Poets Society. Todd experiences a particular transformation when, out of a severe episode of self-consciousness, he fails to complete a creative writing assignment and is subsequently taken through an exercise of uncharacteristic self-expression, realizing the creative potential he truly possesses. One of the boys, Charlie Dalton, takes his new personal freedom too far and publishes a profane and unauthorized article in the school flyer. In this article, Charlie states that he wants to have girls allowed at Welton. To the amusement of the other boys, he fakes a phonecall from God saying that girls should be allowed at Welton. Dean Nolan paddles and interrogates Charlie about the others involved. Charlie says he acted alone.

         Neil, without his father's permission, tries out for a local production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. He desperately wants to be an actor, but knows his father (Kurtwood Smith) will disapprove. One day when Neil walks into his dorm room, he finds his father waiting for him. He orders Neil to withdraw from the play, but Neil goes against his wishes and delivers a sterling performance as Puck. Infuriated by this affront to his authority, Neil's father plans to pull him out of Welton and to enroll him in Braden Military School to prepare him for Harvard University and pursue a career in medicine. Unable to cope with the future that awaited him and equally unable to make his father understand his passion for acting, Neil commits suicide with his father's revolver.

         By the request of Neil's parents, the headmaster, holds an investigation into the tragedy. Nolan gets help from one of the students, Richard Cameron. When Charlie Dalton finds out that Cameron has not only squealed on them, but also blamed Keating, he furiously attacks his former friend, and is expelled from Welton.

Neil's father takes no responsibility for his son's death and instead holds Keating responsible. In Nolan's office, Todd is forced to regretfully sign a written confession casting blame on his former teacher. It is implied that the other students who are still faithful to Keating were similarly forced. Keating is accused of inciting the boys to restart the Dead Poets Society, and is fired, even though they recreated it themselves.

In the film's dramatic conclusion, the boys return to English class following Keating's termination. The class is now being temporarily taught by Nolan, who has the boys read from the very Pritchard essay they had ripped out at the start of the semester. As the lesson drones on, Keating enters the room to retrieve a few belongings. On his way out, Todd apologizes to Keating for having signed the confession, citing the force exercised by the Academy. Keating acknowledges this. Nolan sternly orders Todd to be quiet and demands that Keating leave at once. As he exits the door, Keating is startled to hear "O Captain! My Captain!" being called out by Todd, who has stood on his desk as Keating bid him to do earlier, demonstrating the new perspective Keating has taught him. Enraged, Nolan warns Todd to sit down immediately or face expulsion, only to be defied. Then, one after another, the members of the Dead Poet's Society (except Cameron) climb onto their desks and call out "O Captain! My Captain!" as a form of salute. The furious Nolan is defeated; he cannot expel half the class without compromising the school's image, and with it his reputation. Keating is touched and thanks the boys. He then leaves Welton for good, satisfied that the life lessons he has imparted to them have left their marks.

       威尔顿贵族学校1959年度开学典礼暨建校100周年华诞正隆重举行。校长诺伦博士骄傲地回顾着学校的辉煌，为学校一百年来始终坚持传统、荣誉、纪律和卓越四大信条并因此成为美国最好大学预备学校而骄傲。也就在这一天，威尔顿的荣誉毕业生、从伦敦回来执教的新教师约翰·基廷回校出任英文教师。

　　新学期开始了。沉闷的氛围、陈腐的说教，让威尔顿的大男孩们倍感压抑，同学们私下里咒骂威尔顿是地狱学校，篡改威尔顿四大信条以示嘲弄。此时，同学们怎么也不会想到，新来的基廷老师和他们心中原始的渴望一样，与众不同离经叛道的上课方式，立刻在同学们中掀起波澜。基廷哼着的《扬基进行曲》、及时行乐的信条、撕去教科书上伊凡所·普利查矫作的诗歌分析……，在威尔顿学生长期被窒息的心灵中引发了一场地震。不久，尼尔在学校图书馆里意外发现了一本刊登着基廷简历的威尔顿年鉴。原来基廷曾是橄榄球队的队长，参加过一个名叫“死亡诗社”的组织。

　　何谓“死亡诗社”？基廷给同学们讲述了诗社的秘密。在尼尔同学的倡导下，“死亡诗社”得以重建，查理、纳克斯、米克、卡麦隆等同学热烈响应，怯懦的托德也加入进来。从此，“死亡诗社”的成员们在当年基廷聚会的地方和着优美的诗句，扭动起节奏强烈的非洲原始舞蹈，释放着青春生命的激情。

　　威尔顿学校发生着悄然的变化，麻烦和不幸在这悄然的变化中也随之而来。尼尔参加《仲夏夜之梦》演出遭到父亲的极力阻拦；纳克斯暗恋上名花有主的克莉丝姑娘；“死亡诗社”发表主张招收女生的文章……。一切的一切引起诺伦校长的注意。《仲夏夜之梦》演出结束的那天晚上，尼尔用父亲的手枪让自己的灵魂飘向了遥远的天国。

　　尼尔的死震惊了威尔顿。校方迫于舆论压力，开始调查尼尔自杀的原因。调查结果表明，基廷对于威尔顿开学所发生的事情负完全责任。又是一堂英语课。同学们在诺伦的引导下朗读着伊凡斯·普利查的“鬼话”文章时，基廷前来告别。同学们以站上课桌大声朗读诗歌的庄重形式，目送着脸上荡漾着微笑离开教室的基廷。