With a new school year underway, it’s only a matter of time before another wave of controversy emerges from America’s universities. Such dissension has prompted critics of the education system to call for reform—including a return to a model rooted in the classics, to prepare students for college learning and the real world.

Modern images of classical education are negative and have been shaped in part by films like Dead Poets Society. The movie, starring Robin Williams as the dynamic English teacher John Keating, has been praised for its celebration of individuality. But a less renowned film that aspires to a better model of real-world education is The Emperor’s Club, which features Kevin Kline as classics teacher William Hundert. Released 13 years after Dead Poets Society, it seems to be a carbon copy of its predecessor, lifting a comparable setting, plot, and aesthetic.