The History Boys Reviews

* * * This review contains spoilers * * *ShowHide

Diabolical

Beware – this is no Dead Poet’s Society as the trailers suggest! It’s a poorly written adaptation with completely unrealistic, 1-dimensional characters. Even worse – the hero is a self-proclaimed paedophile and your meant to feel sorry for him throughout out the film!!! The constant and bizarre homosexual references are extremely disturbing if not downright inappropriate. What boy asks his teachers if they want blowjobs in return for getting him into Oxford??? (This wasn't a joke. Insanely, this is meant to be a poignant scene!) It even ends with a gay student growing up to become a teacher yet fully admitting he is attracted to his students! I am extremely liberal-minded with plenty of gay friends, but I think this film crossed the line in many places – it would have been vaguely excusable if it had been well executed. But it wasn’t - it’s horrendous. Avoid at all costs.

exquisite

If you appreciate witty dialogue that gives way to profound realities of the human condition while maintaining a healthy and deprecatory eye on its own mo - watch it!

Yechhh!

My elderly mother was visiting and I had to find a film that she'd like. I read through the reviews of the films that were available, and chose this one. I'm sure others will rave about how absolutely marvelous this film is, but to be brutally honest, I found it obnoxious in the extreme. Richard Griffiths plays the inspiring teacher in this--we get to see him leching and drooling over his handsome male pupils. We get to see him feeling them up as he gives them lifts on his motorbike. The whole thing was smarmy and made my skin crawl. It was also extremely draggy in sections--I felt my eyelids fluttering more than once.

Brilliant Play, Very Good Film

Possibly not quite as good as the play, but the film provides a wholly entertaining and insightful piece in its own right. The DVD also shows the process of taking the play to the screen and a very informative commentary by the writer and director.

[Highly rated reviewer]

Boys will be Boys

This is an exquisite film, well made, based on a play by Alan Bennett, screenplay by Alan Bennett and with a cast that are not only very proficient, but have also benefitted from spending the best part of three years together both on stage and filming.

As can be seen from some of the other reviewers comments, you will either love or loathe this film, there is very little middle ground.

It tells the story of a group of eight teenagers with good 'A' Level passes who are being groomed for their interviews at 'Oxbridge' by a trio of staff at their Grammar School.

If you are still reading this then there is a good chance that you will enjoy the plot, the witty banter and the intellectual nuances produced by the cast working very well together.

The photography sets the mood for the early eighties (Ah! How the nostalgia comes in.) and one is transported back to a time when youngsters were cocky but not lethal and teachers still had a chance to survive hospitalisation.

Please give this film a chance as it has the power to tug at the heart strings as the eight youngsters line up at the start for their 'Rites of Passage' experience.

Worth the money and you don't have to be Gay to watch it!

big disappointment

i'm a fan of all Alan Bennet's work, but this movie is a real failure.

Characters are either poorly defined (the boys) or gross caricature (headmaster). The 'knowledge as useful' vs 'knowledge as character-building' argument is laid on very deliberately- there's no such convenient split in real life.

The script, as mentioned above, is not only verbose, but shows us a bunch of 17 year old lads talking with the kind of dialectical polish that could have only come from a writer's head, not a boy's troubled, energetic one.

The boys all think and feel as one. It was like watching 'Fame' with blazers and dreaming spires...

Why British films are so good

If you love well told, and excellently written films watch this. A gentle voice throughout, thanks to Alan Bennett's wonderfull play. All the male leads help tell this story of growing pains and adelesance. A story of a group of boys attempting to gain enterance to Oxbridge; and the challenges of what knowledge can give young heads. The undercurrent of sexual desire is portrayed with wit and intregrity by Richard Griffiths. Sublime. Anyone who enjoys strong characterisation and a great script should settle down for the evening with a good cuppa and dunking biscuits.

Perhaps I'm missing something

I think there are people out there who would appreciate this film, but I'm not one of them. People who don't know the play will probably miss the whole point of the film, and people who know the play may be disappointed with the adaptation. (I fall into the former category).

While the film did have the odd comic moment, the plot was so uncaptivating that I found myself thinking of how I would word this review rather than concentrating on the story.

I also felt that the interaction of the teachers with the pupils, and between the pupils themselves, was wholly unrealistic, particularly with regard to the openness with which they discussed their homosexuality. That said, I didn't attend a Boys Grammar School in the early 80s and so maybe I'm not qualified to comment (not a flippant comment, a serious one).

Overall I didn't enjoy this film at all, but as I've said, perhaps I'm missing something... someone with an appreciation of the play might enjoy the film, especially as it apparently stars much of the same cast.

could have been good...............

a film about a bunch of lads who forgot they were all gay and then some remembered , and then they all did some homework.................boring.

Oh my God

I cant believe how many good reviews this utter drivel got. After 5 mins I had already decided I did not like it as the acting was shoddy and the lines they were given were totally unbelieveable. I did not go to school with anyone that spoke how they did or quoted from poetry and I refuse to accept that anyone in the world has even if they went to private school. This film seemed to condone s.exual abuse towards teenagers and was almost like a paedophiles guide book on how to molest children and get away with it. It was sickening, had no plot that made any sense what so ever and as stated already some of the cheesiest bad acting I have ever seen in a movie and Ive seen save the last dance. I was expecting this to be an English version of Dead Poets society, instead I was treated to lame version of brokeback mountain set in a school. Total tosh and I can imagine the only people who would enjoy this is men with a liking for young boys and pretentious people who have seen the play and pretend to like it for arts sake. Its not art, its just cr.ap. Oh and top of that, if I ever found out that the school my sons go too had such a laspe interest in a teacher touching them up I would sue them for every penny they had. Total unbelieveable mind numbingly bad pile of rubbish. Avoid at all costs. Seriously the worse film I have ever seen. so bad I cant stop wrting about how bad it was.