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The History Boys

5.8

1,289

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Original title

The History Boys

Year

2006

Running time

107 min.

Country

United Kingdom

Director

Nicholas Hytner

Screenwriter

Alan Bennett

Cast

Music

George Fenton

Cinematography

Andrew Dunn

Producer

BBC, Free Range Films, DNA Films. Distributor: Fox Searchlight

Genre

Comedy | 1980s. Schools & University. Gay & Lesbian

Synopsis

Based on Alan Bennett's superb screenplay, directed by Nicholas Hytner and starring the original National Theatre cast members, including Richard Griffiths, Frances de la Tour, Stephan Campbell Moore and Clive Merrison The History Boys brings together eight bright, funny history students in the north of England in the mid 1980s.

With a headmaster obsessed with breaking into the ranks of those schools that regularly send boys up to Oxford and Cambridge he enlists Irwin (Moore), a shrewd newcomer, to coach the boys into intellectual shape for the trials ahead.

Seduced though they are by the exam-busting bag of tricks offered by the temporary supply teacher, the boys are torn by their loyalty to the hugely eccentric, poetry-spouting English master Hector (Griffiths).

As they prepare for the daunting admissions process, the journey of the History Boys becomes as much about how education works as it is about where education leads.

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Awards: 2006: Gijon Film Festival: Official Selection

2006: 2 BAFTA Nominations: Leading actor (Griffiths) and Sup. Actress (de la Tour)

2006: National Board of Review (NBR): Top Ten Films of the Year

2006: British Independent Film Awards (BIFA): 6 Nominations, including Best Screenplay

2006: Gijón Film Festival: nominated to Best Feature Film.

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Critics' reviews

"Vibrates with exuberance and erudition."

Carrie Rickey: Philadelphia Inquirer
"The movie is brilliant and infectious, much like Bennett's voice: English-deadpan but never snide, and generous to a fault."

David Edelstein: New York Magazine
"The cast courses through the material with disciplined exuberance--especially the eight young actors at the center of the drama, many of whom have never appeared in a film before."

David Denby: The New Yorker
"The current of intellectual energy snapping through the ferociously engaging screen adaptation of Alan Bennett’s Tony Award-winning play feels like electrical brain stimulation."

Stephen Holden: The New York Times
"The screen, like the stage, can barely contain this marvelous play of intelligence."

Joe Morgenstern: The Wall Street Journal
"Wildean panache of this caliber is not the norm in movie dialogue, so on this score alone, The History Boys is a blessing. The top-drawer work of a fine ensemble is another."

The Washington Post
"Clearly, the filmmakers did manage to capture some measure of lightning in a bottle."

Toddy Burton: Austin Chronicle
"If you liked the play and the compelling ideas Bennett kicks around, the movie makes for an intellectually invigorating couple of hours."

Kirk Honeycutt: The Hollywood Reporter

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