Well, how about about something like:

An unconventional English teacher defies the repressive rules and regime of a private academy to inspire his students to live passionately and think for themselves.

(25 words)

For me, the key word in this version — what distinguishes it substantively from?the logline that inspired this thread?– is?”defies”. ?Most of the time, the hero is someone who defies authority, ?the established rules, standard operating procedures. If not initially, then eventually to achieve his objective goal.

In “Dead Poets Society” the teacher is acting in opposition to the established order, the status quo. ?Opposition ?creates jeopardy, risk. ?Jeopardy and risk creates ?tension, the dynamic essence of drama. ?In defying the institution where he teaches, Keating is putting his job at risk. ?He has skin in the game.

Where is the risk factor in the other logline? ?Who/what is the professor defying by getting his students to look at string theory differently? What is at risk, what danger is he putting himself in (and his students)? ?What skin does the physics professor have in his “game”? ?

Where is the dramatic tension in teaching string theory?

And what are the stakes? ?In “Dead Poets Society”, Keating’s job is not only at stake, but, more importantly, so are the lives, the souls of his students. He’s challenging them to live their lives with exuberance instead of dispassionate conformity, to commit high parental treason by daring to think for themselves.

Some might argue that “living exuberantly” and “thinking for themselves” are too general, lack concrete specificity to be worthy dramatic goals. ?But in the logline the vague actions are not operating in a vacuum– they take place in relationship, in opposition to a concrete, repressive academic regime. ?It’s up to each of the students to work out their specific form of an exuberant and free thinking life– and how they struggle to do so constitutes other story threads of the movie.

fwiw