It's not often you see a good British film. The cinema industry is bursting with overblown action, sickly sweet rom-coms and tired old slasher movies churned out over and over again. An American twang cuts through adaptations of English literature, legends of British history now speak like the bloke from Family Guy. An inevitable fact of life, albeit a little annoying. We have all this fantastic history and culture, and the Yanks are acting it out for us most of the time.
The answer is open to debate. There is no doubt that the film version of this acclaimed and very, very British play has a hard act to follow. Its stage predecessor, written by Alan Bennett, scooped a Tony Award in 2006 for Best Play and the production was a smash hit on both sides of the Atlantic for the same director and the original cast. Making a film of the production can be seen as a natural development of the play's scope and imagination, but what does it bring to the UK cinema genre?
Set in the 1980's, a group of intelligent and diverse young men are turned onto Oxbridge by their eager headmaster. Desperate to bring stardom to the school, the boys are subjected to some unusual extra coaching by Oxford graduate, Irwin. The film has substance, style and a touch of acidity in the addressing of some dark subject matters. Not just a light-hearted romp, the film tackles issues of what it means to be British, class, culture and some difficult aspects of sexuality.
Class, elitism, culture and sexuality all combine to form thought-provoking stories throughout this intelligent film and a hint of darkness can be found amongst the dreaming spires in Hector; the quirky and lonely General Studies teacher who is not all he first seems.
The History Boys gives us something to be proud of and a source of 'bright relief' from the braindead shoot-em-ups of most DVD nights I have had lately. The subject of British class and education, the pursuit of knowledge and the struggle of frustrated transition from child to adult in a demanding and changing world is certainly a tale for the telling. Watch The History Boys for a film actually worth thinking about, for a change. It makes you proud to be British.
The answer is open to debate. There is no doubt that the film version of this acclaimed and very, very British play has a hard act to follow. Its stage predecessor, written by Alan Bennett, scooped a Tony Award in 2006 for Best Play and the production was a smash hit on both sides of the Atlantic for the same director and the original cast. Making a film of the production can be seen as a natural development of the play's scope and imagination, but what does it bring to the UK cinema genre?
Set in the 1980's, a group of intelligent and diverse young men are turned onto Oxbridge by their eager headmaster. Desperate to bring stardom to the school, the boys are subjected to some unusual extra coaching by Oxford graduate, Irwin. The film has substance, style and a touch of acidity in the addressing of some dark subject matters. Not just a light-hearted romp, the film tackles issues of what it means to be British, class, culture and some difficult aspects of sexuality.
Class, elitism, culture and sexuality all combine to form thought-provoking stories throughout this intelligent film and a hint of darkness can be found amongst the dreaming spires in Hector; the quirky and lonely General Studies teacher who is not all he first seems.
The History Boys gives us something to be proud of and a source of 'bright relief' from the braindead shoot-em-ups of most DVD nights I have had lately. The subject of British class and education, the pursuit of knowledge and the struggle of frustrated transition from child to adult in a demanding and changing world is certainly a tale for the telling. Watch The History Boys for a film actually worth thinking about, for a change. It makes you proud to be British.
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