Anthony P

Some critics compared the film unfavorably to "Dead Poet's Society". I think that really misses the mark. Dead Poet's Society is more about authority, injustice, and individualism. The Emperor's Club is a different tale altogether. It is about civic virtue. One could understand how it was overlooked, even disliked a few decades back by film critics & intellectual elites. America was a lot more optimistic then, & for good reason. It was riding a wave of economic & social success. At the time this film probably seemed out of place, quaint, maybe even morally patronizing, particularly to those at the top of society, fully immersed in their own clouds of smug. You might even say that The Emperor's Club and its dominant themes are more "conservative" in their attitudes, whereas Dead Poet's Society is more "liberal". Either way, this is a very underrated film. It understates its case, but if you look around America it isn't hard to see the verdict. When a nation is led by vapid, self-serving sociopaths without any principles or virtues, things fall apart fast. And when they do, the minor injustices arising from the clumsiness and hastiness of human judgment begin to appear trivial, and fast. We are led by men of great ambition but whose only accomplishment is selling the nation off piece by piece.