Robin Williams – Esquire Magazine
It seems right to start Seeking Story with a tribute to Robin Williams. For his life was stitched with story. These tales he told us through laughter, voices, his kind eyes, dressing in drag, poetry and dreaming.
He walked with me through my childhood and into adulthood. I laughed as a seven year old at his generous and larger than life genie in Aladdin. I was amused and moved by his portrayal of a father who disguises himself as the nanny to see his children more often in Mrs Doubtfire. And then it was Robin’s performance as English teacher John Keating in Dead Poets Society that convinced me of his greatness. I was utterly taken with his deft use of language and ability to inspire independent thought, along with his always present sense of humour. I saw elements of my own father, who was an English teacher, reflected back.
The most poignant moment for me in this much loved film is the scene where Keating sits at Neil’s desk and takes out the Five Centuries of Verse poetry book. In it he turns to Robert Frost’s poem The Road Not Taken. The camera focuses on the last three lines:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.
The significance of these lines in both the film’s story and how they intertwine with Robin’s own life cannot be overridden. Throughout the movie John Keating urges his class to question and redesign the straight lifeline society has shown them is the way forward. He celebrates nonconformity, uniqueness and originality.
In his life and in his role as artist of all sorts Robin Williams lived these attributes to the full.
As Williams himself said,
‘You’re only given one little spark of madness. You mustn’t lose it.’
Seeking Story 