Class dismissed
From its opening sequence, The Emperor's Club, set in an eastern prep school for boys in the early 1970s, is behind the cinematic eight ball, and it knows it. That eight ball is the tremendously successful 1989 film Dead Poets Society, starring Robin Williams as the gadfly teacher who awakens in his students a thirst for learning and for a poetic experience of the world. The Emperor's Club encourages such comparisons, believing (wrongly, it turns out) that it can subvert and exceed the expectations.
The inspiring teacher in this case is William Hundert (played gracefully by Kevin Kline), who goads his students to learn about the contributions of the Greeks and Romans to Western civilization. Unlike the teacher in Dead Poets, Hundert is a favorite of both the administration and the students, so there is not much drama in this part of the story. The prospect of watching hours of his "masterful" teaching is a bit frightening. Thankfully, things get more interesting when Hundert is thrown off form by new student Sedgewick Bell (played by Leonardo DiCaprio clone Emile Hirsch), the ornery son of a senator.
Sedgewick challenges his teacher in a variety of ways--such as by a synchronized shutting of textbooks at the end of class--though none is particulary witty or creative. The audience is prepped for a battle between student and teacher, perhaps one that will illuminate some part of the generation gap that exists between the two. Alas, the clash never happens.
