GET OUT MORE....FILM REVIEW

THE HISTORY BOYS

24-10-2006

It was a smash hit in the West End and on Broadway, and recently sold out a run at Birmingham Rep. Now Alan Bennett's award-winning play The History Boys has made the transition to the big screen. Roger Shannon does the marking.

There's an old saying that history repeats itself - first as tragedy and
second as farce. In the case of THE HISTORY BOYS, it's more a case of
triumph followed by even more triumphs.

This is nothing less than anextraordinary rendition onto the big screen of Alan
Bennett's award winningplay, no doubt thanks in part to the fact thatits National Theatre director - Nicholas Hytner - also directs the movie with cast and script nigh on intact.

There's obviously something aboutthe Hytner/Bennettchemistry - a previous collaboration THE MADNESS OF KING GEORGE, Hytner's debut film direction, was an adaptation of Bennett's
National Theatre original.

As with most of Alan Bennett's writing, the surface velvet hides something
sharp within; to the credit of Hytner and his team in re adapting HISTORY
BOYS, they have not thwarted this spiky undercurrent, which is awash with
themes of education, history and social clas! s.

It is a comprehensive(!) state of the nation drama,and beneaththe charm and wit ofBennett's smart one liners,there is also acontinuing protest for greater sexual and emotional freedom.

The year is 1983, and the setting is a Sheffield Grammar School tuned into
the guitars and the synths of post punk New Order and The Smiths. A group of
eight sixth formers are gearing up to take their entrance exams that could
take them from steel city parochialism to study History in the university
cloisters of Cambridge or Oxford.

Their teachers are a mixed bunch. Richard Griffiths is the flamboyant and
thigh-groping General Studies Teacher, Hector, who's clearly modelled on his
WITHNAIL AND I role as Monty (and since the film is set in Sheffield, he
gives us the 'full Monty').

Frances de la Tour as Mrs Lintott is an old school pedagogue, serious,
straight backed and sensible. The headmaster is a snobbish Geography teacher
who's chasing better grades as a way of raising the school's profile. In
pursuit of this aspiration he brings in a newly graduated History teacher
whose task it is to groom the mainly working class students in the cynical
ways of impressing the Oxbridge dons who'll interview them.

Although the film remains solidly in the classroom (with scant references to
the Falklands and other historical landmarks) the director has avoided the
lingering 'stagey' pitfalls that often beset stage to screen adaptations to
fashion a smart and highly entertaining drama.

Alan Bennett's wonderful writing and a winning ensemble performance by the
students and staff alike make this one of the best British films for a
while. An excellent report all round.

Have you seen The History Boys? Has Roger got it right? Are there any other movies we should be watching? Leave a comment in our messageboard.