The History Boys
by Nicholas Hytner
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Frances de la Tour, James Corden, Richard Griffiths, Samuel Anderson, Stephen Campbell MooreDirector: Nicholas Hytner
Brand: TCFHE
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 112 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-04-17
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Movie Reviews of The History Boys
Movie Review: Peculiarly British, With Universal Application
Summary: 5 Stars
Its 1983, and the students and faculty at a Northern England grammar (academic) school are ecstatic over their A-Level (college entrance exam)results. A group of young guys have done well enough that now they can not only aspire to university, they are actually in the running for Oxford and Cambridge. This is a rare event for this particular school, and extraordinary steps have to be taken.
The candidates are put through an intensive extra study session with two history teachers. One of the teachers is a veteran, the other young and newly recruited. The training consists of debates, critical readings, and above all writing as the teachers push the candidates to new scholarship levels. The boys themselves are determined to succeed, but they're also teenagers, with all the social, cultural, and sexual complications that involves. And the two teachers themselves have their own issues, leading to some behavior which is morally and legally reprehensible.
The Northern England accents can be a bit difficult for non-British viewers to follow, and the organization of the British educational system seems far more complex than necessary, but nevertheless I, a history teacher in an American high school, was able to recognize many common elements and traits, and to feel the same pride for these history boys that I do when my own students do well. And while I can't say I found the out of class behavior of the two teachers admirable or even acceptable, I could understand their dedication to their profession and to their pupils' success.
Summary of The History Boys
From award-winning playwright Alan Bennett (The Madness of King George) comes this delightfully witty comedy of eight boisterous-yet-talented schoolboys hoping to gain admittance to England's most prestigious universities. They're aided on their quest by two teachers, a shrewd young upstart and an inspiring old eccentric, whose opposing philosophies challenge the boys to confront the true meaning of education and the relative values of happiness and success.Adapted from the original Tony Award winning play and starring the original Tony Award winning cast, The History Boys is an engaging, thought-provoking, and wickedly funny look at history, the pursuit of knowledge, and the utter randomness of life.
The play's the thing in The History Boys. Unlike most stage-to-screen transitions, Nicholas Hytner assembled the entire original cast for the celluloid version of Alan Bennett's award-winning work. (The two previously joined forces for The Madness of King George.) As in Hytner's National Theatre production, a group of Sheffield sixth-form boys, Timms (James Corden), Lockwood (Andrew Knott), Rudge (Russell Tovey), Scripps (Jamie Parker), Crowther (Samuel Anderson), Akhtar (Sacha Dhawan), Posner (Samuel Barnett), and Dakin (Dominic Cooper)--the latter two standouts--spend an extra term in 1983 preparing for their Oxbridge exams. Hector (Richard Griffiths) and Dorothy Lintott (Frances de la Tour) are their regular instructors (both performances garnered Tony Awards), while Irwin (Stephen Campbell Moore, Bright Young Things) is the enigmatic new history teacher. The Headmaster (Clive Merrison) brings him on board to lend the precocious lads "polish." Irwin, however, is more interested in encouraging them to think creatively--not merely to recite facts. The boys just want to get into Oxford and Cambridge. If that means withstanding the occasional grope from Hector and harsh word from Irwin, so be it. In the end, which boy gets in where isn't insignificant, but Bennett's greater concern is what they learn along the way. If Hytner isn't always successful in reconciling the intellectual with the more earthbound, The History Boys is one of the funniest films yet about Britain's educational system--and education in general. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
Stills from The History Boys
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