The History Boys
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Movie Reviews of The History Boys
Movie Review: Do we game the educational system or do we help students to use their minds well?
Summary: 4 Stars
This witty and articulate story about eight young men, all 17 or 18 years old, at a prep school who are preparing to take exams which, if they pass, will lead to scholarships and entry into various Oxford colleges, may seem simply a pleasingly intellectual duel between the forces of dark and light. Far from it. Alan Bennett, who wrote the script based on his stage play, is arguably Britain's best playwright in the last fifty years. His style is bemusement and indirection, which suddenly leads us into seeing the complacencies of English life and institutions. Sounds heavy, but Bennett is such a good writer that seeing and hearing his work is pure pleasure.
The History Boys puts ideas in the ring and lets us see what happens. The contest is about these eight young men, all smart and articulate. In one corner is Irwin, played by Stephan Campbell Moore, a young, clever teacher brought in by the head master to coach these eight students in what it takes to pass the exams. In other words, how to game the system legally. In the other corner is Hector, played by Richard Griffiths, the boy's English/classics teacher. Hector lets the boys make choices. His classroom is a place where he shapes ideas to be formed, talked about and defended. He's unconventional. He occasionally gropes them when he offers one or another a ride on his motorcycle, something that is taken with amusement and a roll of the eyes by the boys. Hector wants these young men to learn...but to learn how to use their minds. In the middle, something of an understanding but sharp-tongued referee, is another teacher, Dorothy Lintott, played by Frances de la Tour.
The contest we are witness to is intelligent and civil, and very much in earnest. Irwin may get more of the best lines, "Truth," he says, "is no more at issue in an [education] examination than thirst at a wine-tasting or fashion at a striptease," but Hector has the wisest. He quotes A. E. Housman: "All human knowledge is precious whether or not it serves the slightest human use." That's also Bennett speaking. We hope someone hears it over the chuckling at Irwin's good-natured realism.
Bennett also deals with sexuality, humanity, ambition and fuzzy thinking about history. As Lintott points out once with asperity, "History is a commentary on the various and continuing incapabilities of men. History is women following behind with the bucket." The clever Irwin, of course, has his own view. "History," he says, "nowadays is not a matter of conviction. It's a performance. It's entertainment." The point of The History Boys, it seems to me, is to show how learning to use one's mind well cannot be taught, only encouraged, and that the last place to have this happen is in a school. Unless, or course, as a student you are very, very lucky to have a teacher like Hector who works to make you think. Bennett wants us to consider this, and he frames the argument with some of the best writing you'll encounter.
All this, of course, applies to American education just as it does to British. It's not by accident that America has developed a multi-million-dollar industry, the whole purpose of which is to teach students how to game the educational system, with the enthusiastic participation of parents and education administrators.
For fans of Alan Bennett, I recommend his Talking Heads, a series of television monologues he wrote for the BBC. Listening to one person tell us about things that happened to her may seem deadly, but in Bennett's hands it becomes engrossing. He gives us ordinary people who find themselves dealing with issues they do not completely comprehend. And one of these days perhaps we'll see a DVD release of his television play, An Englishman Abroad (1983). This gentle flaying of the British establishment and politically correct betrayal features Alan Bates as Guy Burgess. It would make a great pairing on a DVD with Bennett's A Question of Attribution, with James Fox as Sir Antony Blunt.
The acting in The History Boys is exceptional. All the actors from the London stage version recreate their roles. There is no sense of staginess in the performances. The actors playing the young men know what they're doing. Moore and de la Tour are fine actors. And Richard Griffiths gives us a tour de force. He carries off a role that demands subtlety and understanding (the groping becomes an issue). He carries us along, leaving us puzzled at what he is doing as a teacher during the first part of he movie and then demonstrating as we go along what he is after. That's as much Bennett as Griffiths, or course; the two make a powerful combination.
Movie Review: "History" clashes with "journalism" in British school tale
Summary: 4 Stars
"The History Boys" is often referred to as a "British Dead Poets' Society." This is an unfortunate comparison that is unfair to both films. While "DPS" was an uplifting fable championing non-conformity and self-reliance, "THB" uses the setting of a British grammar school to explore a universal theme, which is whether true knowledge must be sacrificed upon the altar of material success.
Set in 1983 in Yorkshire, "THB" takes place during the middle of England's Thatcher period, where materialism was taking hold along the same lines of Reaganism in the United States. The movie follows eight bright students who have graded out well enough to take their "Oxbridge" exams, which one must pass in order to attend either Oxford or Cambridge, the two most prestigious universities in England.
While not as destitute as the inner-city school from "Stand and Deliver," the Yorkshire grammar school is not upper-crust, and the headmaster has dreams of placing all eight students in either Oxford or Cambridge - not for their own good, but for his own glory. To do so, the headmaster enlists a hot young teacher, a recent graduate of Oxford (Stephen Campbell Moore) to bring some "polish" to the eight young lads.
American audiences might be surprised that these kids need any further grooming. In-class debates with history teacher Mrs. Lintott (Frances de la Tour) and Hector (Richard Griffiths, most famous on this side of the pond for playing Mr. Dursley, Harry Potter's uncle) are more erudite than pretty much anything heard in an American high school. These kids are smart, well-read, and they know it.
Mrs. Lintott and Hector are understandably concerned about the new teacher, particularly when he advises the students to take a more "journalistic" approach when writing their critical essays. He reminds the students that if the question is about Stalin, the reader has already read 70 essays observing that Stalin was a monster. So to make yourself stand out, you must (a) find a novel interpretation and (b) spice up your essay with sexy little quotations, even if they really don't say anything relevant.
This horrifies Hector, a fussy old man whom the students adore, even though his homosexual tendencies can be a bit intrusive. "THB" operates in a world where British teenagers are much more frank about their homosexuality - while I'm not sure how accurate this is for 1983, it adds a level of maturity for these boys that is quite revealing. Hector fights valiantly for his students' minds, exhorting them to appreciate language, words, and ideas for their own sake and rather as a tool to exploit in order to get into their dream college. To Hector, what does it matter if you have an Oxford diploma if you don't appreciate the true meaning of words?
The teachers fight a liesurly battle for the souls of their students, but the students come across as stronger than the teachers. Ultimately, some students fall more into Hector's line, while others follow the new guy.
The climax of "THB" may not be all that surprising, but it's an enjoyable ride. I'm sure the play on which the film is based was a powerful one - this movie is more of an enjoyable lark, with some admittedly somber moments.
Movie Review: "History. It's just one [bloody] thing after another."
Summary: 4 Stars
(3.5 stars) Set in the 1980s in a boarding school in the north of England, this newly released film adaptation of Alan Bennett's play (which won six Tony Awards during its 2006 New York run), follows eight young "sixth-formers" who are preparing for the history entrance examinations for Oxford or Cambridge. To help the students prepare for the exams, the headmaster hires a young teacher, Irwin (Stephen Campbell Moore), to improve the students' "presentation" so that they will stand out from the crowd. Irwin's goal is to teach the students to think "outside the box"--not to be dull--when they answer examiners' questions.
His mission conflicts with the goals of the English and History teachers. Hector, the motor-cycle-riding English teacher (Richard Griffiths), has taught the students reams of poetry, along with the French subjunctive (though it is not his subject), having students practice their French by pretending to negotiate at a brothel. He takes the long view and values education for its own sake. The History teacher, Dorothy Lintott (Frances de la Tour), has taught the facts: "Plainly stated and properly organized facts need no presentation, surely," she remarks to the headmaster. The students' efforts to be accepted at Oxford drive the action.
The film features many of the same actors who appeared in the stage play, notably the brilliant Griffiths as Hector, the sensitive Moore as Irwin, the tough-talking, heart-of-gold de la Tour as Dorothy Lintott, and the same eight students, joking, bantering with their teachers, and pursuing their favorite subject--sex. The film, however, is very different in tone from the play. In the play the conflict between the teachers and their views of education unites the action and gives depth and universality to strong themes. In the film, this conflict is much less clear, with the themes largely subordinated to questions about sexual orientation by various students and their possible abuse by a teacher. Some characters (especially the headmaster, Clive Merrison) are caricatures, a startling contrast to the more realistically presented students.
In some ways the film is better than the play. The film shows the students within the context of a large school, and film close-ups make their emotional conflicts an intimate experience. Hector (Griffiths) is a far more sympathetic character in the film, due in large part to the close-ups, and Irwin has a more fully developed role. Unfortunately (and I'm not sure how universal this problem is), the film I saw (in a major theater chain), was fuzzy, with vertical black lines showing throughout the entire film, making it appear more like an 8 mm home movie than a major studio production. The film tries to take advantage of the broader possibilities of film vs. stage, but as the context broadens, the film becomes less unified, and the drama loses some of its punch. n Mary Whipple
Movie Review: Subjunctive History
Summary: 4 Stars
Having somehow missed the play by Alan ("The Madness of King George") Bennett when it was reaping awards in both London and New York, I was unprepared for the richness of the film version of "The History Boys," which manages to say something profound about literature, sex, adolescence, and, of course, history. The story concerns a group of eight over-achieving grammar-school students in Thatcher's England who hope to be admitted to Oxbridge. The scene in which Hector (brilliantly played by Richard Griffiths, of "Withnail and I," who was criminally overlooked at this year's Academy Awards) explicates Thomas Hardy's poem "Drummer Hodge"--about the transiency of youth in a time of war--for young Posner (Samuel Barnett), a gay boy in love with Dakin, the class Romeo, is alone worth the price of admission. At the same time that the scene speaks volumes about the romantic ideals and disappointments of both teacher and pupil, it is a set-piece that may be appreciated without reference to the remainder of the film.
There are many such moments, and performances, in a film whose cast first performed their roles on stage at the National Theatre in London in 2004. Some viewers might have trouble with the fact that some of the "boys" look (and often are) older than the actor (Stephen Campbell Moore) who plays Irwin, their pragmatic university coach, who is, like Prosner, surprised into romance by the charismatic Davin (Dominic Cooper). The latter "boy," though basically heterosexual, is not adverse to experimentation. [That the film tends to take a rather myopic view of homosexuality as pederasty will probably keep it from being seen by mainstream audiences.]
Despite its flaws, however, "The History Boys" manages to say some important things about young boys and their choices in the modern world (the female slant is relegated to a few barbs from Mrs. Lintott, played by the always reliable Frances de la Tour). Rudge, for instance, would rather be playing rugby than attending university, although as a "legacy" (his father was a servant at Oxford) he is a shoo-in for admission. It is Rudge (Russell Tovey) who defines history as "one f---ing thing after another." Ultimately, it is Alan Bennett's own definition of history as "subjunctive" (i.e., a product of wish-fulfillment) that leads him to revisit the days of childhood "innocence." Perhaps, in memory, he is somewhat blinkered to the potential for tragedy that is inherent in child abuse, even when the abuser is as likeable as Griffith's Hector. [Indeed, the boys are so sophisticated (some might say jaded) that they willingly take turns allowing themselves to be groped by Hector when riding tandem on his motorcycle.] But the film itself triumphs over such flaws, especially in its audacity for milking entertainment out of poetry and for not stooping to apologize, or condescend, to its audience.
Movie Review: Good, but Flawed
Summary: 4 Stars
THE HISTORY BOYS is a compelling, though imperfect film. It tells a absorbing story. A group of young men from working class England circa 1983 take exams which show they are of above average intelligence and have excellent shots at getting into either Oxford or Cambridge. We meet the young men after they have taken the exams. The headmaster (played by Clive Morrison) knows that the students have been well prepared by teacher Dorothy Linnott (Francis de la Tour) but fears what they've learned from a teacher affectionately known as Hector (Richard Griffiths). So that the young men can be "polished" the Headmaster hires Irwin, (Stephen Campbell Moore). Irwin obliges the headmaster but knows what it is the boys truly need, namely an edge that makes them different from the other applicants, and he does his best to try and shape his young charges in a short period of time.
If the film had consistently stuck to this story line, it probably would have been more convincing, but there are a number of subplots which at times distract from the overall story. One involves Hector. Hector enjoys giving his students a lift home on his motorcycle which includes a" friendly" bit of groping which seems to be accepted by the students as a small, almost endearing quirk. The school discovers his actions and decides to dismiss him at the end of the semester to avoid controversy. Perhaps this could happen, but in working class England in 1983, this behavior would hardly be acceptable nor would the pining of love by Possner (Samuel Barnett) for fellow student Dakin (Dominic Cooper). American audiences and critics found this a bit less than believable, especially the nonchalant reaction to the abuse of students by Hector, and a friend from England who attended a similar school told me that his compatriots would not have accepted it either, nor would a young man like Possner be so forthcoming about his feelings in such a setting. While one person from England's "two cents worth" may hardly be an exhaustive survey, my feeling is that his opinion is accurate. These subplots seem to keep us from getting to know some of the other characters, namely Lockwood (Andrew Knott) and Rudge (Russell Tovey) who seem to be more interesting than either Posner or Dakin, at least in my opinion. Also, there is a scene where Linnott discusses what happens in the future to may of the characters and while it probably works well on stage, it's somewhat confusing in the film version.
Still while it may be a less than perfect film, it does maintain a viewer's interest and presented a good story. The characters can be multifaceted which makes them interesting and there are a number of ironies in the film which likewise gives it strength. Perhaps on stage it would work better, as can be the case with so many stage works. Still, in spite of its weaknesses, it's still an enjoyable film.