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

“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 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.

"so just like Timothee Chalamet, his entire life is queer coded" I genuinely screamed at 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 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.

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'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.

His role is Puck, a LITERAL FAIRY.

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

I was so confused when I read "gay subtext" in the title because i genuinely forgot that this movie *isn't* gay

this movie ended after the play and todd and niel are living happily and being gay 😌

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.

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)

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.

WE RECENTLY WATCHED DPS IN OUR LITERATURE CLASS AND MY FRIEND AND I WERE LIKE INTERNALLY SCREAMING THE WHOLE TIME

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.”

You didn’t talk about the heart eyes Neil gave Todd when during he recited his poem in front of the class!🤣

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

I was going to call Mr. Keating a great ally then I saw "Thighs man" on his yearbook... yeah he's a fruit too

THERE IS NO WAY DEAD POETS IS STRAIGHT

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.

13:55 "The school, like a Supreme hoodie, is a strai(gh)tjacket." This pun was NEXT LEVEL

I heard someone call this movie “the one with the gay book club” and I think that pretty much sums it up

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

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.

neil and todd in a room together: *A GUIDE TO ADVANCED GAY STARING*

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.

that split second of showing a still of Call Me by Your Name when saying "Luca" is pure art

WOOOO YEAH BABY THAT'S WHAT I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THAT'S WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT

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)

I really wish they would do a video essay on Maurice. It's such a beautiful film.

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 😆

i don't know how to describe it, i just look at two characters and think "oh yeah they totally like each other"

"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.

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.

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

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 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 😔👌👌👌

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

“The school, like a supreme hoodie, is a straight jacket” has too many layers

HAHA THIS MOVIE RIPPED OUT MY HEART AND CUT IT INTO PIECES- I loved it

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.

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

Hmmm that’s why I liked this movie as a kid… honestly makes a lot of sense lmao

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.

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

The first time watching this movie, I sobbed uncontrollably. I had never done that for any movie before (bar from the lion king when I was 3). My parents both looked at me strangely, since I was crying at Todd's reaction and not the death and asked me why I was crying. Turns out, at six years old I knew these characters were gay but not myself. I found out I might've been gay at 7 and now I look back on it, I definitely shipped them.

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

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

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.

1 - love your arguments, bisexual hero 2 - love your face, you're gorgeous

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.

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.

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"

I still can't believe Neil went on to become an incredibly successful oncologist.

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 JOINED THE DPS FANDOM LATE LAST YEAR AND I AM SO EXCITED FOR THIS

You somehow proved that Todd is even more relatable then I originally thought

As a bi, baby gay, watching you talk about queerness with such confidence and your bi flag on show, warms my lil gay heart. 🌈

todds reaction to neils death just proves they were more than friends

I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR YOUR ANALYSIS ON THIS MOVIE FOR SO LONG I THINK I MIGHT ACTUALLY CRY

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 KNEW I WASN'T A DELUSIONAL 8TH GRADER WHEN I SAW THIS MOVIE!! YESSS

You should do Vi and Caitlyn from Arcane, can’t believe there’s still people out there denying it

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

Just so you know it the scene were Neil Sayed "I'm being chased by Walt Whitman" Walt Whitman was a gay poet...

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

I am a trans pan guy and love poetry. I feel personally attacked by this. I can't believe you'd do this.

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

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've never met anyone who watched DPS and DIDN'T think Neil and Todd were in love and frankly, I'd like to keep it that way

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.

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!

OMGGGGGG MEU DESEJO SENDO REALIZADO ASSIM??? OOOOOOH

13:55 "the school, like a supreme hoodie, is a straight jacket" why is it so funny to me 😭😭

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.

this is literally the most excited ive been about anything in years i yelled when i saw you were doing this video

every moment in this movie is burned into my brain. every scene, every gay look, every piece of dialogue.

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 think the main point of this story was that they were alive. They screamed, they cried, they died, but they were alive. Gloriously alive.

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.

"Is this movie an edible arrangement, because it's literally just fruit...." So great

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 😭

Thank you, I will be referring to Supreme hoodies as straight jackets from now on that's incredible

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.

Young man you have hit this subject on the head. Excellent review, thanks.

Bro what are the odds I just watched this movie last night 🤌

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.

"GOD I LOVE IT" "what me?🥺" "no acting-" Neil and Todd in a dead Poets Society deleted scene

¡¡¡¡¡¡ I'VE BEEN TALKING ABOUT THIS FOR YEEAARS !!!!! YEEEEEEIIIIII

Is no one gonna talk about Mr. Keating being a thigh man?

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 am sooo ready for this and it would honestly be really great to have a video to reference to teach people about this

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