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| The History Boys [2006] | ![The History Boys [2006]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51rpo6BkzCL._SL160_.jpg)
 enlarge | Director: Nicholas Hytner
Actors: Richard Griffiths, Stephen Campbell Moore, Frances De La Tour, James Corden, Sacha Dhawan
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Category: DVD
List Price: £19.99
Buy Used: £1.99
You Save: £18.00 (90%)
New (12) from £3.49
Avg. Customer Rating:  78 reviews
Sales Rank: 833
Format: Anamorphic, Pal
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Running Time: 100 minutes
Number Of Items: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
EAN: 5039036029759
ASIN: B000M2DLIY
Theatrical Release Date: 2006
Release Date: March 5, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: Only been watched once -- very good condition
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| Customer Reviews:
 Fantastic March 26, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Marvellous film. I've just read Alan Bennett's book 'Untold Stories'. Perhaps that helped me understand the film, as I'm not very bright. There are better reviews than mine on this site but, for what it's worth, I thought this film was marvellous. Bennett is practical, clever, and has a sense of humour which, to me, is the most important thing in life. He can laugh at himself. It's these attributes which made him able to write such a good film. I wish him well.
Funny and Provocative March 6, 2008
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
The humour in this film is very much in keeping with Alan Bennett's, dry, pithy, observational and ironic style. I found the script much richer and satisfying during a second screening. This film will provoke; it explores a number of themes. The issue of late adolescent homosexuality is dramatized through a pupil who confides to his (probably straight) teacher that he "thinks" he is gay. The angst and frustrations this pupil suffers in coming to terms with this circumstance ultimately lead to an emotionally well balanced adult. This is in stark contrast to the clearly frustrated, aged closet homosexual played so well by Richard Griffiths. If there is a message here, it is how confrontation and non concealment about sexuality can affect dramatically our emotional well being as adults. The other themes are about how we use knowledge - striking the balance between learning versus thinking - and indeed how to teach - instruct versus inspire. This is a film that will leave the open minded thinking and reflecting; it forces you to take a position on these themes I have outlined.
Highly recommended.
British Talent at it's Best January 19, 2008
3 out of 6 found this review helpful
If you don't like films which have subtly and gay references in them then best steer well clear as this really wont be your cup of tea and will probably go straight over you head.
I recognised so may of the actors from other things on TV and this film can be considered their showcase for any audition. The characters are ordinary people who you really can relate to. I felt that it may have been geared to be politically correct as there is a muslin and a black character introduced right from the start (albeit truly representational of the area the film is set). But how wrong could I be.
Griffiths is at his very best and looked throughout as if he was playing himself and hadn't actually learned any lines at all. The film centres around the group of students with shared interests. Samuel Barnett who plays Posner is immensely talented and this shows throughout the film. His undying love to Dakin never falters throughout the film and eventually he gets a lingering hug at the end of the film (better than nothing I suppose). Frances de la Tour is the no nonsense teacher and couldn't be different to the Miss Jones in Rising Damp. Stephen Campbell Moore is perfect as Irwin, lying about his academic background and trying desperately to give the boys a new perspective on learning.
The film is witty, clever and has a fantastic ending which is the cherry on the cake. If you want to sit back and just enjoy the film without having to concentrate on complicated plot lines and be dazzled by CGI etc then this is just the ticket. British film making at its best. A 5 Star rating.
 Qutie boring :( January 13, 2008
2 out of 17 found this review helpful
This DVD is just about OK personally i dont think its worth the money its boring and at times quite confusing :( also the story is predictibal but its not much of a story and quite unreal although it can be funny at times:S
 Unrealistic and very poor January 11, 2008
6 out of 16 found this review helpful
Having been a fan of Alan Bennett's writing over the years (although I found his recent book Tall Stories rather hard-going) and having read good reviews of this film, I found it very disappointing indeed. The film suffers from several problems. First is that it does feel like a play barely rewritten to work as a film, and several weaknesses in the plot that may have been less obvious in a play are heightened by having to cope with placing the action in a real-life setting rather than just on a stage. The biggest weakness exposed is the time setting of the action: we are told it is set in 1983, but apart from a few self-consciously credible tracks of the era like Blue Monday and This Charming Man being played sporadically, there is little else to make it feel like the action is happening in 1983 (or indeed in any fixed period of time, so incredible is much of what occurs). The attitude of the characters is at times very anachronistic - I am pretty sure that in the early 1980s, even in an all-male school, the students would have a much less laissez-faire view towards homosexuality than shown by all the students in the film. Although we are led to believe that the boys in the film are all academic high-achievers, is it really credible to imagine them all talking to each other in such an artificial manner? Would they really be so self-assured in their dealings with each other and authority figures? Was getting into Oxford or Cambridge ever considered to be of such importance by the applicant students themselves? I am pretty sure that the answer to all these questions is "no". One wonders how seriously Alan Bennett meant this to be based in the real world, as it seems much more like a fantasy. It's impossible to identify or sympathise with the characters in the film because they aren't believable - such people do not exist (and I'm not sure have ever existed) - and as a result you don't actually care about what becomes of them. The female roles are also rather underwritten and the character of the headmaster I can only assume was intended to be comic relief, for he is totally unconvincing.
The film does have at its core an interesting point to make about knowledge, as exemplified by the attitudes of the two competing teachers Hector and Irwin - whether knowledge for its own sake has a value of whether knowledge is only useful if it has a clear use and end. However, this point is drowned in the above shortcomings and the film certainly isn't worth watching just to see what Bennett has to say on this.
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