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Click Here to Read the Theatrical Review!

The History Boys

Review By: Aaron Heredia
AaronHeredia@TheCinemaSource.com

The Setting: Yorkshire, 1983

The premise: A group of boys, learning history.

Thus, The History Boys. This film, originating from a National Theater play in London, spawned into a Broadway hit, winning six Tony’s in 2006. I guess that means it’s a pretty good story.

In reality, it is. The film still has an overly theatrical feel to it, so if you hate theater with a bitter passion, you may want to steer clear of this DVD. I’ve never seen the actual play, so I can’t compare, however, I can say that it seems to have transitioned well. The sparse amount of 80’s-ish pop music was just right to set the tone, saving it from becoming melodramatic. It has many funny, smart jokes, but a few do get muddled crossing the pond.

I was skeptical of the movie in the first few minutes, as Dakin (Dominic Cooper) walks in, trying to look like Fonzie. It just didn’t work as a tool to build him up to be the “rebel” of the group. The group, of course, is the British equivalent of the Advance Placement kids. Think Mean Girls-style “Mathletes,” but with history. Luckily, though. After that scene, its basically school uniform all the way through. It’s the maddest I’ve been about a costume since Batman and Robin. Besides that, though, the film is great.

The acting was extremely on point, as it should be, seeing as the actors had been playing these characters for two years on stage, prior to filming. It must not have been difficult for the cast to get in touch with their characters. The danger is in keeping the dialogue from sounding stale, which they did a good job of. Many of the lines reference to historical events that I have no clue on, but it wasn’t boring like a history class. Alan Bennett did a great job employing battles, revolutions, and executions to serve as metaphors for the trials of the teenage boy. This device was implemented amazingly.

The cinematography of the movie was interesting, particularly near the beginning of the story. They made use of the “camera moves forward, while zooming out” effect, most notably from Jaws. The camera also does a few nicely done tilt tricks to make the audience empathize with the characters.

At first glance, it’s just a group of eight boys, three teachers, and one headmaster. Breaching the surface, though, are four true stand-outs: Dakin (Dominic Cooper), Posner (Samuel Barnett), Irwin (Stephen Campbell Moore), and Hector (Richard Griffiths). It’s interesting how Bennett was able to balance four primary characters equally, giving them such distinct personalities.

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