Guest Blog by LSF’15 delegate Lesley Grice
A few months ago I lay in bed in Paris saddened by the news of the death, at his own hands, of Robin Williams and on returning to England was determined to buy ‘Dead Poets Society’, which I had always loved. I could only purchase a copy through Amazon and that at 19 pounds, which seemed over the top for a film released in 1989. But when it arrived I was ecstatic that there were audio commentaries by Peter Weir the director and Tom Schulman the writer.
In a section titled ‘Scrapbook’ were interviews with some of those who acted in the film and who were reflecting on its effect on them and their careers several years after it was released. Kurtwood Smith played the part of a father of a boy attending the school and who loved his son but could not show it with any affection and who simply crushed his hopes and desires which leads to tragic consequences for the young man.
Kurtwood recalls that he had a male friend who had a relationship with his own son that bore all those same hallmarks and it was he who Kurtwood chose to invite to the premiere along with his family.
Kurtwood recalls that when the lights went up at the end of the film, his male friend was weeping, sobbing because he saw his own relationship with his son, mirrored in the movie, reflecting back to him all that was wrong. Kurtwood goes on to say that from that moment on his friends relationship with his son changed completely, for the good of both.
Ask me why I do what I do and I will tell you every time that story, that’s why I do this thing called acting’ said Kurtwood, ‘it can and does change lives.’
Story-telling.
Changing the world one life at a time.
For all the dreamers and doers at LSF.
Lesley Grice
www.LondonSWF.com 2015 delegate
Posted by a member of the London Screenwriters’ Festival team.
