The History Boys

Title: The History Boys

Director: Nicholas Hytner

Writer: Alan Bennett

Synopsis: A group of High School boys take their education to the next level as they attempt to get into Cambridge. They learn more than just academics, though, from teachers they’ve known for years and a radical newcomer who makes them step back and look at life, love and, yes, history, in a new and challenging light. Is it really just one f****** thing after another? Is it all random? Or can they learn from the mistakes of those who went before and make better choices?

My review: On a purely emotional level, the movie appealed to me. There actually was not a single character I vehemently disliked. There were a number of actions taken by various characters that made me growl, but unlike, say, the headmaster or the father in Dead Poet’s Society, there was no one to really hate. It made the whole thing a little bit more like real life for me in that often you can think someone is a decent person and still not agree with everything that person does.

The acting throughout was on the better side of decent, IMO, and the chemistry between the boys in the classroom scenes just worked. The whole movie just hummed right along. The dialog was smart, and while I’m no literature buff, by any means, I wasn’t left wondering what they were talking about. There was a lot of quoting of Auden, Shakespeare and many, many others whom I have never heard of, let alone read. Still, the quotes were appropriate and in no way obtuse. I never once felt like I was being talked down to even though the movie depicted a handful of high school boys all, obviously far better read than I. And I laughed out loud more than a few times at both the dialog and the situations. In short, I was entertained.

The plot, on the other hand, was slightly less than sterling. The idea of student/teacher bonding, while a noble one, might be considered hackneyed. (I almost never took it off the shelf. I’ve seen Dead Poet’s Society, thank you.) Throw in the twist of dealing with homosexuality, and, if done right, if done honestly, you might have something. My major gripe is this: homosexuality =/= attraction to school-age boys. Without exception, the characters depicted as gay were stigmatized in this way. ick, and no. I don’t need to be a gay man to know that is just wrong in the sense that being gay in no way predisposes a man to be attracted to teen-age boys. By not dealing with this issue in a realistic way, the movie skews peoples’ perception of what it means to be gay, and lessens the chance that any of the men in the film would find a way to live a happy and fulfilled life. I was happy when the teenager who knew he was gay stated, more than once, that it wasn’t a phase, and he didn’t want to grow out of it. This was completely undermined by his final destination in the film as a lonely teacher who (paraphrasing here) ‘didn’t touch the boys, but it’s a struggle. Am I happy? No. But I’m not unhappy about it.’ WHAT? This, then, is exactly why I don’t like these where-are-they-now segments at the end of films. I would much rather have drawn the conclusion, pointed to by the rest of the film, that he grew into a well-adjusted young man comfortable with his sexuality and happy in his life, partnered or not, than just another miserable pedophile fighting the urge.

Which leads to my main technical issue with the movie: the “where are they now” segment at the end. As a movie goer, I prefer to decide for myself if a given character grew into making good decisions and ended in a better place rather than be told by the omnipotent voice that they’re all okay now. Granted, this time, it was done a little more creatively than the standard freeze frame and close caption method. It felt more like a eulogy to their youth and innocence, and putting it in the boys’ own voices made it a little bit more palatable for me. Still, I would have preferred to make up my own mind about how much they learned and how much they grew from their time there.

Would I recommend this movie? Entirely too difficult to call. Based on the quality of the acting and dialog, it’s worth watching. Based on the skewed perception of what it means to be gay, it made me a little bit mad. I guess you’ll have to decide for yourself.