The History Boys (2006)
Country: GB/US
Technical: Todd-AO 109m
Director: Nicholas Hytner
Cast: Richard Griffiths, Frances de la Tour, Stephen Campbell Moore, Samuel Barnett, Dominic Cooper
Synopsis:
1983: Grammar school boys secure outstanding A level results and stay on a seventh term to sit the Oxbridge examination. While their charismatic General Studies teacher indulges his passion for culture and enriches them with points of reference, the headmaster enlists the services of a recently qualified teacher to prime them for success by adding polish.
Review:
Bennett's West End success is transferred to the screen intact and by pretty much the same team. The results are highly satisfactory and passably cinematic, although one wonders whether the property really merits big screen treatment. Griffiths is certainly effective as a figure of pathos, though not appearing at all well himself, and de la Tour scores in a rare movie appearance, but the headmaster is an overacted Bennett caricature painfully out of place in this context. As for the boys, they seem ever so mature and bright and full of themselves, speaking as one of their contemporaries; it all takes a lot of swallowing at times but is tremendous fun.
Country: GB/US
Technical: Todd-AO 109m
Director: Nicholas Hytner
Cast: Richard Griffiths, Frances de la Tour, Stephen Campbell Moore, Samuel Barnett, Dominic Cooper
Synopsis:
1983: Grammar school boys secure outstanding A level results and stay on a seventh term to sit the Oxbridge examination. While their charismatic General Studies teacher indulges his passion for culture and enriches them with points of reference, the headmaster enlists the services of a recently qualified teacher to prime them for success by adding polish.
Review:
Bennett's West End success is transferred to the screen intact and by pretty much the same team. The results are highly satisfactory and passably cinematic, although one wonders whether the property really merits big screen treatment. Griffiths is certainly effective as a figure of pathos, though not appearing at all well himself, and de la Tour scores in a rare movie appearance, but the headmaster is an overacted Bennett caricature painfully out of place in this context. As for the boys, they seem ever so mature and bright and full of themselves, speaking as one of their contemporaries; it all takes a lot of swallowing at times but is tremendous fun.
Country: GB/US
Technical: Todd-AO 109m
Director: Nicholas Hytner
Cast: Richard Griffiths, Frances de la Tour, Stephen Campbell Moore, Samuel Barnett, Dominic Cooper
Synopsis:
1983: Grammar school boys secure outstanding A level results and stay on a seventh term to sit the Oxbridge examination. While their charismatic General Studies teacher indulges his passion for culture and enriches them with points of reference, the headmaster enlists the services of a recently qualified teacher to prime them for success by adding polish.
Review:
Bennett's West End success is transferred to the screen intact and by pretty much the same team. The results are highly satisfactory and passably cinematic, although one wonders whether the property really merits big screen treatment. Griffiths is certainly effective as a figure of pathos, though not appearing at all well himself, and de la Tour scores in a rare movie appearance, but the headmaster is an overacted Bennett caricature painfully out of place in this context. As for the boys, they seem ever so mature and bright and full of themselves, speaking as one of their contemporaries; it all takes a lot of swallowing at times but is tremendous fun.