The History Boys – Gay Interest Film Review

Adapted From the Acclaimed Broadway Hit Play by Writer Alan Bennett

May 14, 2009

Based on the award-winning play of the same name, The History Boys by Alan Bennett is an eloquent but rollicking adolescent gem of a gay interest film now brought to DVD.

The History Boys by Alan Bennett has long been lauded as one of Bennett's best plays, but there were doubts that this seminal piece of British theatre could be successfully adapted to work as a gay interest film, even under the guidance of original director Nicholas Hytner, and with the original cast, including the astonishing Richard Griffiths (Hector), the hypnotic Frances de la Tour (Mrs. Lintott) and the sublimely understated Stephen Campbell Moore (Irwin), on board for the ride.

Alan Bennett's The History Boys – A Gay Interest Film that Hides a Story Within a Story

Set in Yorkshire, England, during the 1980s, The History Boys follows a group of young men at Coutler's Grammar school as, off the back of outstanding A-Level results, they study for their Oxbridge admission exams. But getting into Oxford or Cambridge isn't necessarily about what you know, and even though they already have fine teachers, their petty headmaster feels they'd benefit from some outside help.

Enter Irwin to teach the boys that getting into Oxbridge is about journalism. Facts wont do it. Facts are mundane. Rather, what is needed is the subjunctive mood; the state of possibility. Turn a subject on its head and damn the truth, that's Irwin's motto, and Alan Bennett's ultimate disdain for education is revealed as a theme in The History Boys: that we are taught to pass exams, not to think or learn, but to be parrots spouting recycled and somewhat inane half-truths.

The History Boys' internal story, however, mainly concerns the dynamic between Hector and his student Posner (the firecracker Samuel Barnett), who are both gay and both repressed, but in very different and at times quite comically contrasting ways thanks to Alan Bennett's lively script.

Hector regularly offers the lads a ride home on his bike, and then summarily tries for a grope. He is tolerated because of his brilliance but never gets very far. Posner, similarly, longs for the attentions of fellow pupil Dakin (the enthralling Dominic Cooper) but is consistently left bereft. The idea of the unattainable seems to haunt Alan Bennett's work, and it is a chief theme in The History Boys.

The History Boys Brings Alan Bennett's Sense of Theatre to the Big Screen

They're not true to life, those History Boys. They're not meant to be. Adapting a stage play to screen presents the writer, in this case the epically talented Alan Bennett, with a choice: to rewrite the stage play and expand it as a film, or to simply adapt the play and graft it into the larger, bigger, bolder context of the big screen.

Alan Bennett chose the latter, and for this reason The History Boys still feels like a theatre production. Not a bad thing, but stylistically it sets the film apart in terms of both its literary language, and the claustrophobic feel of the camera work. This approach will not be to everyone's taste, but on the DVD it works surprisingly well and that is a positive owing largely to Nicholas Hytner's grounded directorial influence.

Special mention amongst the stellar young cast of The History Boys goes to Russell Tovey who plays the rather ordinary Rudge superbly. Russell Tovey's role was scaled down in the film, but for every minute of screen time that Tovey is given during The History Boys, he is brilliantly real and remarkably empathetic.

Alan Bennett's The History Boys is a Gay Interest Film Classic

The setting of The History Boys is incidental. The fact that all of the young British students tolerate homosexuality, both in one another and in their teachers, is not. For Alan Bennett's film to work that premise must be digested. This is perhaps the main sticking point for newcomers to the story. But once taken on-board, the film not only works, it soars, making this a thoroughly enjoyable gay interest comedy film.

The History Boys DVD itself contains some excellent features too, including behind-the-scenes footage and a video diary of the cast as they take The History Boys from the stage to the screen, with one or two cameos from the writer Alan Bennett along the way. This further reinforces the point that The History Boys will always be a theatrical production first and foremost, but the film adaptation of The History Boys and the talent within it, works on nearly every level, and for that reason deserves applause.

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