Film:
The History Boys
 Year: 2006 |
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Country: UK Genre: Comedy
/ Drama |
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Director:
Nicholas Hytner |
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Starring:
Stephen
Campbell Moore, Richard Griffiths, Frances de la Tour, Clive
Merrison |
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Click
logo to watch trailer at |
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The History Boys Synopsis - The History Boys is set in a Yorkshire High School in the mid 1980's, and centres around group of boys who have completed their A-levels and their teachers who are determined to make these boys the first from the school to get into Oxford / Cambridge Universities. Their existing teacher Hector, is somewhat of an eccentric, and believes the boys should be taught in such a way in order for them primarily to better themselves as human beings and for their own thirst for knowledge. The headmaster disagrees with this approach and drafts in Mr Irwin, a very young teacher whom the headmaster believes, with his approach of teaching the boys facts and their presentation purely for the entrants exam, will achieve the desired result of gaining the boys Oxbridge places. Both teachers continue to teach the boys in their own respective ways and the future looks good for the boys who seem to be coming on in leaps and bounds. But Hector and Mr Irwin are more alike than they may believe and as professional relationships develop with the boys, some deeper problems start to appear, but will this interfere with the boys progress. |
| Review of The History Boys - The History Boys is a super film that is very funny in places and quite emotional in others. In truth it would have been much higher on the list had it not been for some rather large problems that drag the film down. The largest problem is that the film is adapted from a stage play and this is abundantly obvious throughout the film - it looks incredibly small, so small in fact it makes you wonder why they didn't just film a performance of the stage play. This is a shame because Alan Bennett's previous adaptation of his own stage play "The Madness of King George" was adapted beautifully and shot for the cinema. What is even more perplexing is the scene at the end of the film which wasn't in the actual stage play yet is embarrassingly stagy and the writing itself of this "finale" is also very weak and far below par for a writer of Alan Bennett's caliber. The other problem is the reluctance of the story to address in any significant way the responsibility of teachers to preserve the trust of a Teacher / Pupil professional relationship, in fact it only raises its head to expose the hypocrisy of the headmaster who has been sexually harassing his young secretary - this in itself appears hypocritical. All that being put aside, the superb cast -all taken from the play that they appeared in for some considerable time - obviously new their parts inside out, and all the cast without exception, are superb in their roles. A brilliant, but infuriatingly flawed film. |
| The reasons I recommend The History Boys are: 1. A Superb ensemble cast who all are absolutely spot on. 2. A mostly excellent script, which in parts is exceptionally funny. |
