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.
- 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
Reviews & comments
bewitched, bothered, and bewildered
This has got to be up there as one of my all-time favourites. The characters are portrayed amazingly, and every line is overbrimming with wit. honestly, I have watched this 4 times in 5 days and wanting to watch it again tomorrow!! And even if it WASN"T an incredible film, I'd still watch it just to hear Samuel Barnett's beautiful voice.
Refreshingly different
As a prudish male of 75, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. Not least because it is one which is so 'English' as to be incomprehensible to Americans, and impossible for them to make. If a little stereotyped, and I don't admit it was, never irritatingly so. In fact, the sparkling originality (of treatment, not theme) of the film mirrors that of the teachers'...
Just one BORING thing after another....
I found this movie a challenge...it was a challenge to continue sitting there and keep watching it! Being a Mothers Day event I felt that it was only courteous to do so...but , oh, what a disappointment this film was. The plot, dialogue and screenplay was swimming laboriously, in its own meaningless, lumpy cerebral stodge. One-dimensional, cardboard...
History is one f......f event after another.
This is one very funny and enjoyable movie. It traces a story of a class of boys headed for university and the efforts of their teachers to lift their game to a standard acceptable for Cambridge or Oxford. Sounds light and potentially weak, but it is well worth the going to. One warning though, the movie might not be appreciated by the prudish.
Wall Street Journal
pressThe screen, like the stage, can barely contain this marvelous play of intelligence...
Variety
pressAudiences 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...
The New York Times
pressThe current of intellectual energy snapping through the ferociously engaging screen adaptation of Alan Bennett’s Tony Award-winning play feels like electrical brain stimulation...
Hollywood Reporter
pressIf you liked the play and the compelling ideas Bennett kicks around, the movie makes for an intellectually invigorating couple of hours...
Rolling Stone
pressThe 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...
New Zealand Herald
pressEqual parts drama, comedy, mystery, satire and spoof, this is a cracker. Do not miss it...
BBC
pressPart 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...
Wall Street Journal
pressThe screen, like the stage, can barely contain this marvelous play of intelligence...
Variety
pressAudiences 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...
The New York Times
pressThe current of intellectual energy snapping through the ferociously engaging screen adaptation of Alan Bennett’s Tony Award-winning play feels like electrical brain stimulation...
Hollywood Reporter
pressIf you liked the play and the compelling ideas Bennett kicks around, the movie makes for an intellectually invigorating couple of hours...
Rolling Stone
pressThe 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...
New Zealand Herald
pressEqual parts drama, comedy, mystery, satire and spoof, this is a cracker. Do not miss it...
BBC
pressPart 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...
bewitched, bothered, and bewildered
This has got to be up there as one of my all-time favourites. The characters are portrayed amazingly, and every line is overbrimming with wit. honestly, I have watched this 4 times in 5 days and wanting to watch it again tomorrow!! And even if it WASN"T an incredible film, I'd still watch it just to hear Samuel Barnett's beautiful voice.
Refreshingly different
As a prudish male of 75, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. Not least because it is one which is so 'English' as to be incomprehensible to Americans, and impossible for them to make. If a little stereotyped, and I don't admit it was, never irritatingly so. In fact, the sparkling originality (of treatment, not theme) of the film mirrors that of the teachers'...
Just one BORING thing after another....
I found this movie a challenge...it was a challenge to continue sitting there and keep watching it! Being a Mothers Day event I felt that it was only courteous to do so...but , oh, what a disappointment this film was. The plot, dialogue and screenplay was swimming laboriously, in its own meaningless, lumpy cerebral stodge. One-dimensional, cardboard...
History is one f......f event after another.
This is one very funny and enjoyable movie. It traces a story of a class of boys headed for university and the efforts of their teachers to lift their game to a standard acceptable for Cambridge or Oxford. Sounds light and potentially weak, but it is well worth the going to. One warning though, the movie might not be appreciated by the prudish.
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