Product Description: 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.System Requirements:Runtime: 112 minsFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: R UPC: 024543425199 Manufacturer No: 2242519
Amazon.com:
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
The Hysterical Boys I just watched this movie and loved it! If you're looking for bullets, blood or nudity then look elsewhere. If the subject of homosexuality bothers you then you might also be offended by this film.
If however, you are captivated by witty dialogue(there is some swearing along with it), an intelligent script, and can decipher English accents (there are subtitles available), then this might be a movie for you. There is plenty of action but it takes the form of verbal jousting.
The story centers around a tight knit group of older teenaged male students and the teachers who are trying to inspire them in order that they might be successful at gaining admittance to prestigious Oxford or Cambridge University. It is very much a story about relationships, and not surprisingly, the "natural" evolution of history.
The actors were expertly cast and use humour thoughout the film very effectively to make their points and simply entertain. The topic of homsexuality is touched upon more than once in the film but it is done in such a way as NOT to make the audience feel threatened or uncomfortable.
I highly recommend this film.
Young minds and all that...3-3.5 stars In the thoughtful and smart, yet somewhat unsuccessful film The History Boys there is a wonderful scene in which two of the characters, Posner (a would be candidate for Oxbridge)and Hector (the immense and immensely complicated and flawed teacher) talk about what makes a particular Hardy poem great. This scene almost does for teaching and poetry what (in Amadeus) Salieri's mental reading of Mozart's compositions did for classical music. It's a quietly powerful and moving scene and made me want to dig out that old volume of Hardy poems.
The History Boys makes learning about cultural history seem hip, musical, cinematic and contagious. Despite its subject matter (education and the methods of inspiration) it's not particularly profound (even though there is a death); but it's engaging, absorbing, and several of the characters are entirely magnetic to watch (Dakin, Posner and Tottie).
AND, if, like me, you want to hear yet another version of the immortal Lorenz Hart classic BB&B (put to mildly humorous and fun use) this is a pleasant few hours.
Another brilliant adaptation from a brilliant play Sometimes you just wonder why some adaptations from some plays are great and some are not. The History Boys is a very good example of a brilliant adaptation. Similar to Proof, The History Boys moved a single location play (sort of, although in the original play there are video footages projected to expand the space for imagination) to a multiple location film production but kept all the essence of the play.
The story is about a group of Oxbridge (Oxford & Cambridge) hopefuls at their last and extra term at their ordinary high school / secondary school after their A Level success. The play brilliantly talks about the validity and truth of history and the comparative and relative aspect of looking at history through a bunch of students and their three very distinct and different teachers. The teachers are the eccentric, free thinking, and completely fluid teaching approach Hector, facts-facts-facts Dorothy and "want anything but dull essays" Irwin. These teachers represent different approaches to their students and central ideas of how we should look at things. And they naturally provide a whole wealth of stimuli to prepare the boys for their Oxbridge dreams.
The teachers were played by three excellent actors - Richard Griffiths as Hector, Frances de la Tour as Dorothy (you can see them both in Harry Potter :) ) and Stephen Campell Moore as Irwin. This dynamic trio provided the much needed weight for the production as compared to the light heart side provided by the boys themselves. Richard Griffiths' performance was brilliant and so were the other two. The monologue by Dorothy about the role of women in history was brilliantly done. Also the double personality of Irwin (outward and articulate in classroom and retreating in personal life) was well portrayed by Stephen.
For the boys, none of them were particularly standing out except for Dominic Cooper who played Dakin. It is not because all the others were badly played or done but because all the parts were so well and balanced that you really feel that they are one group (which is important and central to the production). Dakin as a character stands out more because his beauty was the subject of various sexual tensions weaving in and out of the whole story. The History Boys did show us that how well a production could be if you got the ensemble right. All the boys show a different facet of humanity e.g. Posner's late coming of age and sexuality issues, Scripps' unconditional devotion to this faith while itching inside for sex, Rudge's black sheep role in the group etc. were all portrayal of humanity in one big group.
The dialogues in the movie were well written and there were a lot of quotations (or gobbets as Irwin put in the movie / play) of classic text but they were brilliantly mastered and articulated. Scripps and Posner got good chances of showing their performance range as they were the "performing duo" for the group during classes.
The History Boys is a clear demonstration of a good play with a good adaptation. The thing is all the main characters in the movie were played by the same actors on the stage that made the play a phenomenal success in the theatrical circle. So they really did live the characters' lives when they were shooting it. Alan Bennett brilliant writing once again proved that good writings will win over the audience.
One last thing though, if you do not like anything with same sex innuendos, this might not be your type of film as there are references to same sex issues from time to time. There are no sex scenes or such, but the references and connotations in the dialogues may put you off if you really dislike this kind of material. Otherwise, it is definitely a not to miss movie.
Better on the stage? I bought this DVD on sale, not knowing anything about the movie or the play. It was moderately entertaining (I'd have given it 2.5 stars if Amazon had let me).
There were two things that really stuck out as awkward and just plain *bad* about this movie:
#1. The dialogue. When you see people dressed in the costumes of Shakespeare's era, you expect them to speak a little bit like you might want to have a glossary or Cole's Notes on hand to interpret what they're saying. When you see teen-aged boys in modern clothes speaking in high diction on a screen, it's just laughably awkward. Maybe it works on the stage. On screen, I was wincing in embarassment for the screenwriter. It felt artificial and contrived.
#2. Dakin. Oh boy, I don't know what to say about this. It seemed as though everyone in the movie wanted to sleep with him, from the cardboard cut-out token teenage girl to the teachers. I took my glasses off, put them on, squinted, looked at him sideways and...the guy is unattractive. He's also irritating, and arrogent, and smarmy. It's just not believable that all those people (or even, any people) would want to sleep with him. Every time he appeared on screen I wanted to wave him off so I could watch the other characters.
The film was diverting enough. Lintott, the female teacher was matronly and sensible (in some ways, the only sensible character in the movie, as she seemed to be the only one who didn't want to sleep with Dakin). Posner was dewy-eyed and charming. But they couldn't save this movie from the influence of the unappealing Dakin.
THE MOST ENJOYABLE FILM I'VE SEEN THIS YEAR! THE HISTORY BOYS is the most enjoyable film I have seen this year. There were about 3 mins., late in the film, that made me somewhat uncomfortable (they deal with a planned sexual relationship between a student and a teacher), but otherwise I loved it. The script is amazingly witty and wise, and the acting is first rate throughout! One very funny scene is in French, and I was surprised to discover how much I remember from 3 courses I had long, long, LONG ago. (Using the DVD's subtitles, which show the French words, helped me quite a bit.)
Basically the film shows eight first-rate students at a British "high school" getting ready to take an entrance exam for Oxford, with three teachers prepping them--plus an administrator whose personality is often like 10 fingernails in search of a chalkboard. At the end, after we get the results of their exam, we are briefly told what becomes of the eight students in later life.
The extras on the DVD include a commentary track for the whole film, a short behind-the-scenes video about making the film, and some so-so home movies of the the actors' world tour with the stage play from London to Hong Kong, New Zealand, Australia, and finally Broadway in New York City, where they were awarded a Tony (the cast of the movie were all in the play).
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