History Boys
Many times, movies based on plays feel narrow in scope while being linguistically florid. The movie of The History Boys, fresh from West End and Broadway, feels most of the time like it was written for the screen (a compliment). Many scenes are just two people plowing through a complex series of responses to each other, requiring the dramatic tools of faces and eyes, rather than distant pink blobs vocal dynamics. A major plot point occurs while riding a motorcycle; certainly, this is not impossible on the stage, but it is served well by the expanded capabilities of filming. Only the epilogue feels like a play, but to stage it any other way would have robbed it of its poetic voice.Richard Griffiths (the Harry Potter movies’ Mr. Dursley) plays an eccentric, unfocused, and much-beloved schoolteacher in Britain. He has been given the task of preparing his little class of 8 history prodigies for the rigorous trials of getting into Oxford or Cambridge. His cohort, Frances de la Tour (Harry Potter’s Madame Maxine), hovers with ponderous weariness nearby. Enter Stephen Cambell Moore (Bright Young Things), a very different sort of teacher, and the dynamics change forever in this happy, gobbety classroom. The students have normal student anxieties: getting into university, getting into someone’s heart (or pants), getting into heaven. They did not have a normal education, but it is evident they are all whip smart. The splash Mr. Irwin makes into their pool is significant, though only briefly handled.
This film is not exactly Dead Poets Society II: The Reckoning, but it is an apt comparison nonetheless. Teachers in all their flawed humanity are nonhuman models for young minds beyond the facts those minds may absorb. Learning is an antidote to the world, and the History Boys is an effective dose of that medicine. As the boys negotiate around and with each other, having the bond of their shared experiences but a certain uniquely male detachment from each other, we get a taste of what their life after these crucial exams will be like, regardless of the outcome. One scene is played out almost entirely in French, with no subtitles (just as if you saw it on stage), so you might miss some of the fun character development and humor if you can’t follow it.
The film’s cast is the same as both theatrical runs in London and New York. Some people next to me at the cinema saw it on Broadway and said it had many little differences (jokes, character emphases) but of course was overall much the same. I couldn’t help but ponder the challenges of adapting a work from stage to screen. Beyond the giant sandbox of potential locations and richly realized settings, the film demands a different intellectual journey than a play. Is it because of the loss of immediate physical presence of the actor? The freedoms and limitations of film stock and editing? Why would a character’s fate change yet the story remain thematically the same?
The film has much to say about history and remembrance, learning, proving one’s worth, possibilities, and adolescent crossroads. Randomness could take these boys anywhere. Movies, unlike plays, tend to be just about a very few things, or they feel rushed and overly sweeping, as this one occasionally did. Plays can linger and chew on their themes and keep the audience engaged much more easily. Overall I found the movie to be light yet serious and satisfying; and I hope it encourages productions of play around the country for deeper interpretations to be enjoyed by all.
MPAA Rating R-language and sexual content
Release date 12/15/06
Time in minutes 104
Director Nicholas Hytner
Studio Fox Searchlight
