Wall Street Journal
The screen, like the stage, can barely contain this marvelous play of intelligence...
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The History Boys
Based on screenwriter Alan Bennett’s own highly-acclaimed play (using the same director and cast also), ‘The History Boys’ is a comedy/drama set in 1983 Yorkshire. It follows eight A students, about to leave college for uni. But before they leave, they must prepare for university entrance exams and thinking them a little rough round the edges their headmaster hires Irwin (Campbell Moore) to ready them.
Irwin clashes with their flamboyant and idealistic English teacher Hector (played by the awesome Griffiths, always to be known by me as Uncle Monty from ‘Withnail & I’). Whilst at first an academic rivalry, it soon becomes clear that feelings run deeper. Dakin (Cooper), the boys' unofficial leader, is the one both teachers play to most fervently and to whom they both nurse a crush on.
2007Rating: M, contains offensive language & sexual references109 minsUK
ComedyDrama
- Director:
- Nicholas Hytner (The Crucible, The Object of My Affection)
- Writer:
- Alan Bennett
- Cast:
- Richard GriffithsFrances de la TourStephen Campbell MooreClive MerrisonSamuel BarnettDominic CooperSamuel AndersonJames Corden
The History Boys / Reviews
Variety
Audiences coming cold to this largely faithful adaptation of Alan Bennett's clever but contrived classroom comedy won't be so wowed, given picture's irrevocably stagy feel. Nicholas Hytner's flat-footed direction doesn't help, nor do picture's younger cast members' over-rehearsed performances, although the seasoned thesps shine...
Full reviewThe New York Times
The current of intellectual energy snapping through the ferociously engaging screen adaptation of Alan Bennett’s Tony Award-winning play feels like electrical brain stimulation...
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Hollywood Reporter
If you liked the play and the compelling ideas Bennett kicks around, the movie makes for an intellectually invigorating couple of hours...
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Rolling Stone
The film can't hide its stage origins, and in cutting almost an hour on the journey from stage to screen some resonance is lost. But Bennett's dialogue sparkles and skewers with killer wit. Dig in...
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New Zealand Herald
Equal parts drama, comedy, mystery, satire and spoof, this is a cracker. Do not miss it...
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BBC
Part school days nostalgia trip, part gay-themed drama Alan Bennett's The History Boys won endless awards when it hit The National Theatre. Cut'n'pasted to the big screen - same director, same cast - it's kept all its probing, comic smarts...
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