MovieChat Forums > Dead Poets Society (1989) Discussion > Doctor versus actor

Doctor versus actor

posted 7 years ago by ncdwbmk6
12 replies | jump to latest

There's a presumption in many threads here that Neil's father was a mean bully for trying to make Neil go to college and medical school.

But Keating didn't tell his students that they should all become artists. He only wanted them to value art.

Neil performs in a single high school play, and becomes infatuated wih acting. If he had abandoned his father's plan and pursued acting, which is an extremely competitive field, the likelihood is that he would have spent the bulk of his adulthood working at minimum wage jobs that pay the rent, so he could go to auditions. It's very unlikely that he would been able to earn a decent living as an actor.

If he had completed medical school and become a doctor, he would have been assured of getting a good job that would support him and his family. He could have spent his time saving lives and easing their suffering. And he still could have pursued acting and reading poetry in his spare time.

Carpe diem.

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Fowler's knots? Did you say ... fowler's knots?

[–] mikeyg24 7 years ago

I agree with you to a point. I've never condemned his dad for wanting him to purse a career in medicine but the rest of your post is very short sighted. Whether acting was a lucrative life choice or not it was what he wanted to do. He didn't want to be a doctor, he didn't want to act part time. He wanted to be an actor full stop!

We have to show the world that not all of us are like him: Henning von Tresckow.

[–] ncdwbmk6 7 years ago

A high school kid performs in one play and decides that he wants to be an actor. So what? He's too young and naive to make an intelligent decision that will determine the course of his life.

Ten years later when he's spending his days working as a waiter or a sales clerk he might realize his shortsightedness, but by then it's too late.

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Fowler's knots? Did you say ... fowler's knots?

[–] mikeyg24 7 years ago

A high school kid performs in one play and decides that he wants to be an actor.

At least he was in one play! What experience did he have to inspire him to be a doctor other than his father's ambitions? Look I'm not disagreeing with you completely but high school kids the world over are allowed to decide at 16 and 17 years of age what they want to go on to do in college. Neil was being forced.

Ten years later when he's spending his days working as a waiter or a sales clerk he might realize his shortsightedness, but by then it's too late.

Fair enough, acting may not have been the most rational of decisions but he clearly didn't want to be a doctor either!

We have to show the world that not all of us are like him: Henning von Tresckow.

[–] Bernnard_Black 7 years ago

As a parent myself, I understand his dad wanting him to be a doctor, especially since it was pretty clear he had the chops for it. But what he SHOULD have done was worked with him on the acting thing, by telling him that if he wanted to do it part time - plays at school, summer plays locally, etc. - that that would be okay, as long as he held his grades up. Then Neil could get the joy of acting, see if it really was what he wanted, while still going to med school.

As parents we all think we can see further than our kids and want them to do better than we do. It's a damned hard habit to break. But for me there came a point where my daughter and I no longer had a traditional parent/child relationship, and it became more of a life coach sort of thing. She's in the Coast Guard, working as a medical tech, and hopes to use her GI bill money to go to college and be a nurse. Now if it were me, I'd tell her to stay in the Coast Guard and get her 20 years, a pension, and those health benefits. THEN go to college and get another job. But she has to decide it.

Whores will have their trinkets.

[–] dksmith1977 7 years ago

Yes it's extremely difficult to make a living from acting. On the other hand, it's probably even more difficult to become a doctor if you don't have a passion for it. It requires years of medical school followed by extremely long hours as an intern. At best Neil would have been a poor to mediocre doctor, at worst he would have ended up dropping out of medical school. The best option would be to pursue acting but with a back up profession (like teaching)just in case Neil doesn't succeed.

[–] Bernnard_Black 7 years ago

Well, maybe. Truth is, we don't know what Neil's passions were before he discovered acting. He may have just been in the throws of adolescent angst, combined with the glow of everything Keating was exposing him too. For a kid like Neil, all this talk about carpe diem is pretty heady stuff. Cameron made the statement that if hadn't been for Keating, Neil would have been studying chemistry and "dreaming of being called doctor". I think it's likely that at one point he really WAS dreaming of it, but that dream got derailed by exposure to a new way of thinking...as happens to kids his age.

So I don't know that he would have hated being a doctor if he'd stuck with it. I think it's just as likely that as he matured and went to college, he'd have gotten over his acting bug. But who knows? Could have gone either way I guess.

Whores will have their trinkets.

[–] nephihaha 7 years ago

Neil's father was less well off than some of the others and had worked hard to come up from nothing. He wanted his son to become more.
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It's not "Sci-Fi", it's "SF"!

"Calvinism is a very liberal religious ethos." - Truekiwijoker

[–] jeffsayyes (146) a year ago

I was torn up a little too. There are a ton of amazing actors all around the country in small cities who earn a meager living... but... is that so bad?
Going to school for 10 years to become a doctor seems quite arduous. That is going to take the life out of him, and for what? So he can have impeccable pajamas ? What is money worth?

I would just tell my child to always pursue and you'll do alright.

[–] Allison44 (602) a year ago

I don't blame the father. A parent's job is to guide and set limits, to promote their child's well-being and encourage choices that optimize the child's potential and future. Especially in years back, parents might even seem harsh in this regard . But, the dad's insistence would have been within normal limits and definitely survivable. Poor Neill was extremely sensitive and like most adolescents, he overreacted . Unfortunately, also like many adolescents, his impulsivity was deadly. Dad had no idea that Neill was potentially suicidal.
Anyhow, doctor most certainly.

[–] Darren (1134) a year ago

Mr. Perry wanting his son to become a doctor, and enjoy the kind of lifestyle a doctor's income enables one to have is entirely understandable, especially for a man who came from a poor family, and had to claw his own way up from poverty into the upper middle class. I wouldn't blame a man like him a bit for not approving of his son becoming an actor, given that most actors never make all that much money.

The problem with Mr. Perry is that he was such an intimidating domestic tyrant that Neil found it easier to take his own life than to sit down and have a hard conversation with his father about what his own goals and ambitions were for his future. There are scenes in the film that foreshadow this, such as when Mr. Perry comes to visit and curtly overrides Neil's choices for his extracurricular activities, or when he orders him, without discussion, to forget about acting in the school play, and when (after Neil defies him and acts in the play anyway) Mr. Perry jerks him out of Welton to put him in military school. The viewer is meant to see Mr. Perry as a man who probably showed very little warmth, but plenty of sternness and discipline to his son during Neil's childhood, and who thus left his son fearing him excessively.

[–] Seperatrix (1089) a year ago

But if Neil didn't have the passion for the medical profession then to pursue that course in his life may have resulting in a life not necessarily worth living. I imagine plenty of people start out in life aiming for the job that will pay the most, only to find they're happier taking less to do something they truly enjoy.

Regardless, Neil's father could have at least had a civilized discussion with his son. His son was making straight A's and there was no reason for him to insist his son quit the yearbook staff as senior editor or a harmless play when his grades weren't suffering.

Mr. Perry was an oppressive ogre. His transference of the shortcomings of his own upbringing and opportunities onto Neil was a mistake and wrong.

As he eventually discovered.

[–] Mustang (5244) 9 months ago

He could have gone along with his father, went through the schooling, had his father spend all the money and then drop out or take acting lessons on the side, perform in college plays etc. There's a lot of things he could have done. I think suicide was way over the top but then his father was a dick who couldn't allow his son a little bit of an outlet with the play and wanted to send him to military school which if he knew his son at all he would have known that his son would not last long in that environment.