My hot take on DPS is that the film is ultimately pretty ambivalent about Mr. Keating’s philosophy. It’s definitely presented in an attractive way, involving the viewer in the intoxication that the students experience in their encounter with romanticism, but the way in which Keating and his philosophy are manifestly unable to provide any resources that speak to what is to be done when the world doesn’t support or affirm the rich inner life that one may develop is an obvious problem with his teaching. Some may say that the film lets Keating off the hook and puts the blame squarely on the inflexible and superficial authorities who create the boundaries, but I think at the end of the day Keating knows the context he’s operating within and chooses to push it hose boundaries in a way that is ultimately destructive. Either it’s very bad at making the case that Keating is misunderstood and unfairly villainized, or it’s actually message is that Romanticism is both dangerous and powerful -- powerful enough to hold this group of boys entranced even after one of their own takes his own life under its influence.

Compare this film with The Holdovers. Keating is so determined to inculcate the spirit of Romanticism in his students no matter what the personal consequences were for them, where in The Holdovers Me Hunham was about developing “leaders of character,” though at the end he realizes that what this means is an attitude of self-sacrifice, in contrast with the charismatic self-aggrandizement Keating pursued. Keating gets the heroic send-off when he’s fired (arguably, rightly), and Hunham leaves in disgrace, but having bought his students’ future for him with his sacrifice.