Friday December 22, 2006 SGN.org |
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Volume 34 Issue 51 |
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Friday, Oct 10, 2008
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Clever and touching History Boys looks at difference between learning and knowledge |
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| Clever and touching History Boys looks at difference between learning and knowledge | ||
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by Lorelei Quenzer -
SGN A&E Writer The History Boys Directed by Nicholas Hytner Starring Richard Griffiths, Frances de la Tour, Stephen Campbell Moore, Samuel Barnett, Dominic Cooper, Russell Tovey, Clive Merrison Now playing at the Harvard Exit It's 1983, northern (read: industrial, working class) England; a boy's parochial school. Eight bright lads have aced their A-levels and the Headmaster (Clive Merrison) has great hopes that they will be the first from the school to get into Oxford or Cambridge colleges. The only problem he foresees? "They're clever, but they're crass." So far their jovial "general studies" professor, Hector (Richard Griffiths), and by-the-book history teacher, Mrs. Lintott (Frances de la Tour), haven't been able to sufficiently polish them, so the Headmaster brings in the big guns: recent Oxbridge grad Mr. Irwin (Stephen Campbell Moore), who, he hopes, will give them "the write stuff" to impress the academic arbiters who will judge their entrance exams. This is the premise of The History Boys, a funny, touching film adaptation of the Tony award-winning play, and at its center is the struggle between what is real, gritty and true - literature, history, Homosexuality - and what is fake, showy and attractive. Mr. Irwin's stance that it's more important to capture the examiners' attention than it is to be right, along with his advice to find something nice to say about Stalin or Hitler, falls on eager ears. Stand out from the crowd and you many not need to follow up with substance; looking good, darling, is not the same as being good. I suppose it helps if you're able to stay along for the ride when you're not sure where you're going. Take, for instance, the scene in Hector's classroom conducted entirely in French. Without subtitles. Or the quotations, mercilessly strewn about, by everyone from Wittgenstein and Nietzsche to campy films like Brief Encounter. I didn't find it too daunting, despite having left my high school French behind (cough-cough) years ago, to follow along, and, after all, knowing the quotes isn't necessary. The point is the appreciation of learning for its own sake: you read literature because it gives you pleasure, you learn history because facts are important. These are the ideals that Mrs. Lintott and Hector would espouse, sans Mr. Irwin's spin. The movie's cast is the same as the original stage production in London, so it's no surprise that most of the young "boys" seem more grad-school age than sixth-formers. Most convincing, age-wise, is Samuel Barnett as Posner, who is both sad and resigned to his Gay identity. "I'm a Jew, I'm small, I'm a homosexual, and I live in Sheffield," Posner glumly opines; clearly, none of these qualities is a selling point to the colleges the lads aspire to. Sexual identity and posturing are central to the film's themes of honesty and pretense. No one is exactly as he presents himself, not even poor Hector, who gropes his lads as they ride pillion on the back of his motorcycle. It's no bad thing when a movie makes you think, and The History Boys has had me thinking for hours about the difference between learning and wisdom. When the boys are asked, point blank, what they believe, the least academically-minded student, Rudge (Russell Tovey), says, "History is just one fucking thing after another!" It's not just a funny statement from a movie about the acquisition of knowledge; it's a wise statement about spin, chance and interpretation. Don't be discouraged by the movie's highbrow overtones. Try The History Boys and you're sure to find some resonance - and something to think about - from your own life. |
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