'The History Boys' Film Review

The History Boys (2006) is an interesting yet at the same time a disappointing movie. The movie takes place in Yorkshire, England, 1983 at Cutler's Grammar School. The movie follows the senior year of eight boys who are intellectually gifted and preparing to apply to either Cambridge or Oxford. In the process of preparation, they are helped by multiple teachers and the headmaster, who are determined to get them into the universities. Despite the extra help, the boys question authority and argue about the purpose of their education.

To be perfectly honest though, I cannot tell you the aims of this movie with confidence. The movie was so scattered in the plot and nearly all of the conversations were random with no resolution. Was the movie about the boys getting into college or was the movie about gay men? I cannot tell you. I have too many questions for this movie and do not understand what the writers were trying to convey to the audience. The only message that I have taken from this movie is that to get into prestigious schools, one cannot be dull. The headmaster hired another teacher, Mr. Irwin (Stephen Campbell Moore), specifically to help the boys have more than general knowledge but to give them "polish or an edge." How does this challenge the education system? I would think nearly everyone knows that to get into a prestigious school, one has to be not only be extremely smart but also an extraordinarily talented person. Also, why do these boys get special attention? What happened to the other students in the school? Are there only eight boys in Cutler's Grammar School? If anything, this movie highlights how the education system does not care about students who do not show intellectual potential. 

Despite these claims being made, they were more difficult to abstract from the movie than other movies. As I mentioned, I could not tell if The History Boys was about eight boys and their journey to get into college or about gay men. Sexuality was a common theme that seemed to have no relevance to the purpose of the movie. One of the teachers, Mr. Hector (Richard Griffiths) was a homosexual and mistakenly was caught touching one of the boys on his motorcycle. The boys were more than aware of his sexual orientation for some of them (Posner, Dakin, and Mr. Irwin) were also homosexual. When Mr. Hector was caught touching one of the boys while giving him a ride home, they were more upset about the potential of him getting fired than anything else. Why aren't there more people upset about Mr. Hector touching underaged boys? The boys clearly appreciate him as their general studies professor but why? The movie does not give any history or context about who the teachers are nor any character in general. All you know about the boys is that they have "A-Level Results," a couple are gay and some are affiliated with certain religions. Despite the movie titled, The History Boys, the movie does not give any history about these boys. Who are they? Why should the audience care about them?

If you cannot tell already, I do not like this movie. This has been one of the few movies were I cannot abstract the aims of the writers. I was left with too many questions and felt as though there was nothing to truly ponder about. If I were to rate this movie out of five stars I would give it two. There was no tension, no major climax nor reason to be interested in the characters. The only reason I gave it the two stars was because I thought the writing was clever and funny at times. Although, there was no clear purpose.