The History Boys (or, The History Boys: The Movie)

We finally managed to catch The History Boys last night. I'd been hanging out to see it since Richard and I saw the play about a month back. Rick and Donald had been in my ear about it like little angels and devils, one saying it was great and one saying it was decidedly mediocre. I thought it was solid, if not a little stagey.

Then, stagey is to be expected given that the film stars the NT/Broadway cast of Bennet's original play as well as its director, the inomporable Nicholas Hytner, who is making a name for himself filming his stage productions. Seeing as everyone had obviously said their lines a hundred thousand times before, it was a little "rehearsed" but not nearly as much as I had been warned of. Besides, I found the acting far superior to the stage production and thereby much more poinant. Except for the principal, who is obviously yet to realise that screen caricature is a little more subtle than its theatre counterpart.

I still have issues with the whole "you are a gay and a teacher so you must want to fiddle with your students" theme. I find it a little insulting and rather unbalanced in the film. The acceptance of the characters of Hector's proclivities seems highly unrealistic, even for the time. Not that it was meant to be realistic, it is all down to symbolic representation and on that score I think the movie fleshed out Bennet's attack on Thatherism quite effectively.

Brilliantly acted, well written though a little wooden in performance, The History Boys was an enjoyable night out. See it if you can't invent a time machine to see the original production. That is all.