The History Boys [DVD] [2006]

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Comedy adapted from the play by Alan Bennett. Eight bright, funny history students in the mid 1980s are pursuing an undergraduate place at the country's two finest universities. Their headmaster is obsessed with breaking into the ranks of those schools that regularly send boys up to Oxford and Cambridge and enlists Irwin (Stephen Campbell Moore), a shrewd newcomer, to coach the boys into intellectual shape for the trials ahead. Seduced though they are by the exam-busting bag of tricks offered by the temporary supply teacher, the boys are torn by their loyalty to the hugely eccentric, poetry-spouting English master Hector (Richard Griffiths) and the regular diet of nourishing facts and figures dispensed by Mrs Lintott (Frances de la Tour), their history mistress. As they prepare for the daunting admissions process, the journey of the History Boys becomes as much about how education works as where education leads. From .co.uk ----------- Based on the accled play of the same name, The History Boys is a faithful, intelligent piece of cinema, even if it is a little reluctant to stray from its theatrical roots. Penned by Alan Bennett and set in 1982 Yorkshire, The History Boys follows a group of ‘A’ Level students as they’re schooled through their attempts to get into Oxbridge. Under the tutelage of Richard Griffiths’ liberal Hector and Campbell Moore’s Irwin, there’s plenty here to admire. Firstly, the script crackles along, with snappy dialogue and characters well worthy of your interest. Secondly, the performances from the predominantly young cast are well worthy of note. And then there’s the deft directorial touch of Nicholas Hytner (The Madness Of King George, The Crucible), all of which lifts The History Boys into a film of real merit. There are questions to be asked over whether you’re expected to sympathise with one or two characters in the film, of course, and there’s the aforementioned issue that it’s far too faithful to the source play (which results in an overlong running time). But ultimately, The History Boys is a witty, challenging and testing film, whose qualities outweigh its problems. --Jon Foster