I knew it was a suicide movie, since I was a child, and it put me off watching it.
But it's considered a classic so I borrowed it from my library.
Having a future big star, Ethan Hawke, as a student, is both interesting and distracting.
As for the suicide, I felt like it was a complete overreaction.
I had mixed feelings for Robin, he was a cool guy but maybe should have thought I'd the consequences of making them push boundaries.
I have always seen the suicide as an overreaction. Rich kid (from my perspective) doesn't get to play actor because his father is working hard to give him a top rate education and wants his son to have advantages.
Couldn't the kid just wait a year or two and then start living his own life? Did he not think that theatre would be available ever again?
Did Robin's character even make them push boundaries? I like the film but yeah it is overwrought.
I think you may have missed the bigger point. His suicide is neither about being unable to "play actor" or his father forcing him into a "top rate education". It's about the realization that he would never have the acceptance of his father while being his true self. To his father, he would never be good enough unless he "played the part". Perhaps blindly accepting a "top rate education" and being miserable just to please others is enough for some, but for others, it isn't.
Some people want to be who they really are AND be loved by their families at the same time. Radical concept, I know.
Now, is the suicide an overreaction to that realization? Perhaps, but I guess it just comes down to the value that one places on their father's respect. Some people wouldn't give a shit, at all. Some would definitely care, but not to the point of suicide. Then there would be the small group that would value it enough that realizing you would never have it would push you over the edge. The character of Neil, obviously, belonged to the last group.
I don't think he really gave his father much of a chance. We see a really human side to his dad. He is trying very hard to give his son opportunities he didn't have himself. The irony of course is would Neil have committed suicide if he wasn't at the college and met the teacher in the first place?
Perhaps for some it is better they just have a more standard education in a public school? Maybe that would have suited Neil better?
The fact remains though that this was a rather small and temporary problem. Just play the game (or run away if you wanted to take it to another extreme) until you are an adult and then do what you like.
No, his father never gave Neil much of a chance. And while Neil's anguish seems like a rather small and temporary problem from an adult perspective, it didn't seem that way to him. Most teenagers who are just beginning to get some sense of themselves as actual human beings, with hopes & dreams of their own, feel everything to extremes. I certainly did. And so did all of my classmates in high school. The first time you feel those enormous adult emotions is when they inevitably feel the most powerful & overwhelming, because you have nothing to compare them with. Further, Neil knew that he didn't exist as an autonomous person to his father. He was simply his father's way of achieving the things that his father had always wanted by proxy. Neil was a means to an end. His father wasn't consciously aware of this, he honestly believed he was doing all of it for his son. But the key phrase there is "HIS son" -- Neil's perfectly planned & successful future was to make Neil's father feel like a success, no matter what the cost to Neil.
shareSee the problem is you're treating it like Neil was squandering his opportunity and wasting his father's money. He was getting good grades, he was invested in the school and his classes, made plenty of friends and from what we can tell was well-liked by everyone. What exactly was he doing wrong? Appearing in a play in his free time without it affecting his performance in school? Any good parent that worked hard to get their son a top education would be thrilled to have a son like him. The father's reaction is more in line with Neil telling him he wants to drop out of school and move to Hollywood or something like that.
Just because you work hard and provide for someone doesn't mean you get to control them.
"As for the suicide, I felt like it was a complete overreaction."
I personally know a teenager who committed suicide over a petty theft charge. He probably wouldn't have had more than a small fine and restitution fees. All of it wiped from his record at the age of 18. I knew at least a dozen kids in high school who went through it like it was no worse than a suspension. This kid couldn't handle it for reasons that are likely not known to anyone but himself. He was a relatively bright kid who was nearly assured of college education and a good career. He threw it all away because he got caught stealing what wouldn't have been more than 2 days pay for the average worker in my old neighborhood.
It does happen.