The History Boys

Star Review

Grange Hill was never like this.
Set in 1983, Alan Bennett’s The History Boys follows a group of working-class boys in a Sheffield Grammar school as they are groomed for Oxford. As in 40 Years On, Bennett shows society changing via the prism of the schoolroom.
To ensure his students’ success, the school’s ambitious Head recruits brilliant young history teacher Irwin, who provokes the boys to use sharp quotations, look sideways at facts,
and strive for originality. His style contrasts with that of Hector, the boys’ avuncular and beloved General Studies teacher, who teaches them to love knowledge and appreciate
the beauty of truth. The boys themselves, intelligent,
confident and rebellious, shift back and forth between the easy success promised by Irwin and Hector’s willingness to stimulate their minds - as they tacitly tolerate his attempts to lay his hands on their bodies. Directed by Nicholas Hytner, who also helmed the stage production, the film sticks closely to Bennett’s original script, and includes the play’s award-winning cast.

milo on 27th January 2007

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Film Description

Based on Alan Bennett's play and starring the original stage cast, The History Boys is set in a school in the north of England in the mid 1980s, where the Headmaster is desperately trying to send boys to Oxford and Cambridge. To do this he enlists the help of a supply teacher to coach his brightest pupils into shape for the exam. The boys however are torn by their loyalty to the eccentric, poetry-spouting English master Hector. (Richard Griffiths). As they prepare for exams and admissions, the boys' journey becomes a reflection on how education works and where it leads.

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DVD Extras

• Documentary
• Cast biographies.

Film Details

Cast

Richard Griffiths, Frances de la Tour

Technical Details