O Captain, My Captain! Robin Williams and Transformative Learning in Dead Poets Society, Good Will Hunting and Patch Adams

Abstract

According to Jack Mezirow the student, in the transformative learning experience, goes through a distinct change in identity: his or her world view has been significantly changed in some way, shape or form. Drawing from the foundational scholarly theories of Mezirow, the continued research of Cranton, and others, this chapter analyzes transformative learning, examining the student/teacher relationship in the context of contemporary Hollywood film. In particular, this chapter will address the roles that Robin Williams played in three Hollywood feature films from 1989 to 1998. In Dead Poets Society (1989 [Film] Peter Weir, dir. USA: Touchstone Pictures) Williams’ character, John Keating, is a high school English teacher who uses teaching techniques that ultimately transform his students. In Good Will Hunting (1997 [Film] Gus Van Sant, dir. USA: Miramax), Robin Williams is a therapist/educator, Dr. Sean Maguire, who takes in the troubled, eponymous Will for personalized behavioral therapy which shifts Will’s worldview. Lastly, in Patch Adams (1998 [Film] Tom Shadyac. Dir. USA: Universal Pictures), Williams is a medical student, Hunter Adams, who rejects the impersonalized approach to doctor/patient relationships that are taught at the university; the student, in this case, transforms the university academic staff, and some of its students, and their idea of the quality of patient treatment. This chapter explores film narrative, character development (particularly the student/teacher relationship) and the star persona in order to engage with the transformative education process as represented through the films of Robin Williams.