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The History Boys

The transition from stage to screen is rarely a fluid one. Not for the talent involved and not for the story itself. Some stories transition rather smoothly onto film, last year's little-seen Proof is an example of a strong character-driven story aided by filmic resources. Sometimes the impetus for turning a play into a film is the result of a strong dynamic between the original cast, such as Neil Labute's The Shape of Things, where the transition is predominantly an excuse to preserve these performances on celluloid. Nicholas Hytner's The History Boys belongs in similar territory as Labute's film. After garnering heaps of critical praise on Broadway and proudly becoming the recipients of "the most Tonys in 50 years" – as the trailer proudly boasts – the entire original cast reunites on screen for what feels more like a reward than a significant contribution to the cinematic medium.

After toiling away for eighteen long years in the British educational system, the group of eight young students at the center of The History Boys are invited back for an extra semester of education because of their excellent performance on their A-levels (read: a prestigious version of the GED that permits entrance to University). The aim of this extra semester is to increase the boys' chances of getting into the two most prestigious institutions in the UK: Oxford and Cambridge.

Their snarling Headmaster (Clive Merrison) is quick to acknowledge that the boys' acceptance will also reflect positively on the school's reputation. He laments that the boys are "clever but crass," and fears their chance of acceptance will be diminished because of their lack of refinement. He hires the young, pragmatic Mr. Irwin (Stephen Campbell Moore) to teach them history in hope that a hip new approach to education will keep them on the cutting edge of the applicant pool.

Irwin, who is barely older than the boys he is teaching, tries to impart them with knowledge from the field, implying he knows exactly how the admissions board will think. He preaches that the way to impress prospective schools is by picking up on exciting or entertaining details of history and pontificating on them rather than regurgitating tired facts. This approach both complements and contrasts with the boys' class taught by their General Studies teacher, Hector (Richard Griffiths). Hector, who emphasizes a well-rounded education, encourages his students to improvise narratives in French or to sing and play piano or break out into their own renditions of the final scene of Brief Encounter.

The students themselves seem presupposed with the ideal of knowledge rather than the actual acquisition. As one of the

boys angrily points out to Irwin, they're expected to learn so much in such a limited amount of time that they don't have the opportunity to actually read something, they need an outline instead.

The History Boys says a lot about education without making any declarative statements. It exists in the same realm as classroom classics like Blackboard Jungle and Dead Poet's Society, presenting radical approaches to teaching while admitting that they have both strengths and weaknesses. There's a remarkable scene in which the students and their teachers debate how one is supposed to regard the holocaust in terms of history. Hytner wisely leaves the viewer to draw individual conclusions from the scene, and even more so causes the viewer to want to chime in with their own opinions.

All of the subject matter that made this story such a runaway success on stage has been preserved on film but I believe that much of the novelty has worn off in the process. While the performances are strong and the characters have benefited from being literally 'lived-in' for over a year or two now, little effort has been made technically to distinguish the stage from film. The staging is all very theatrical, with characters entering scenes on cue and the rhythm of the dialogue pulsing with projection and enunciation. When the camera does move, it mostly roams around without much destination and therefore, a certain lack of class. The one element the film does possess that the staging inherently could not, are the picturesque Oxford and Cambridge campuses. While their aesthetic beauty is staggering, their presentation is ultimately nothing that cannot be seen in a promotional video for the respective institutions.

Hytner is a stage director of considerable talent with an exceptional track record. I was fortunate enough to see his staging of Henry IV Parts 1 and 2 at the National Theater in the summer of 2005, a production that managed to capture both the personal and epic nature of the Shakespeare text. While I did not get the chance to see The History Boys on stage, after seeing the film I have a pretty good idea of what it would have looked like. This will serve wonderfully as a nostalgic memento for the cast and crew, as well as the show's number of ardent patrons, but without the memory of a live performance as a supplementary material, the film version will feel somewhat limp and ordinary.

Movie Grade: B-

Synopsis:

The History Boys tells the story of an unruly class of bright, funny history students in pursuit of an undergraduate place at Oxford or Cambridge. Bounced between their maverick English master (Richard Griffiths), a young and shrewd teacher hired to up their test scores (Stephen Campbell Moore), a grossly out-numbered history teacher (Frances de la Tour), and a headmaster obsessed with results (Clive Merrison), the boys attempt to

sift through it all to pass the daunting university admissions process. Their journey becomes as much about how education works, as it is about where education leads.