The History Boys poster & wallpaper
Get movie widget Recommend it Add to Favorites

Richard Griffiths, Frances De La Tour, Stephen Campbell Moore, Samuel Barnett, Dominic Cooper ... see more see more... , Clive Merrison , James Corden , Jamie Parker , Russell Tovey , Samuel Anderson , Sacha Dhawan , Andrew Knott , Penelope Wilton , Adrian Scarborough , Georgia Taylor , Sam Anderson

An unruly collection of clever but crass Thatcher-era English high-school students seek to earn the scores needed to enroll in Oxford and Cambridge in director Nicholas Hytner and screenwriter Alan Be... read more read more...nnett's screen adaptation of Bennett's Tony-winning play. The History Boys focuses on a group of eight students, all of them deemed by their overeager headmaster (Clive Merrison) to be the best and the brightest. Though they've been coddled by their humanities-loving instructor, Hector (Richard Griffiths), and their acerbic history teacher, Mrs. Lintott (Frances de la Tour), the boys are deemed in need of additional tutoring; thus, the brash, young Irwin (Stephen Campbell Moore) is recruited to challenge them further. The subtle power games the boys used to their advantage with their previous tutors are of no use with Irwin, whose wit borders on the callous. Meanwhile, Irwin's presence -- and a hush-hush scandal -- forces all of the faculty members to reassess their position at the school. Hytner shot The History Boys shortly after the play's Broadway run, to capitalize on the enthusiasm and energy exhibited in the live shows. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Flixster Users

70% liked it

34,454 ratings

Critics

65% liked it

105 critics

R, 1 hr. 49 min.

Directed by: Nicholas Hytner

Release Date: November 21, 2006

Invite friends to see

DVD Release Date: April 17, 2007

Get It:

Stats: 3,533 reviews

report incorrect info

Photos

The History Boys - Musical theater production (Not the film) The History Boys Dominic cooper The History Boys Dominic Cooper History Boys The History Boys Georgia Taylor Jamie Parker Stephen Campbell Moore and Dominic Cooper in The History Boys sitting in the park The History Boys (2006) The History Boys (2006) The History Boys (2006) The History Boys (2006) The History Boys (2006)
Upload a Photo | View All The History Boys Photos

Your Rating


clear rating

Flixster Reviews (3,533)

  • vierasesine
    February 14, 2012
    vierasesine
    Entertaining and humorous yet thought-provoking film with a wonderful cast and a brilliant soundtrack. Probably as far removed from reality as I am from Mars, but I don't mind.
  • Tomassgringo
    December 18, 2010
    Tomassgringo
    I liked it better as The Dead Poets Society! This movie feels like an English transformation of The Dead Poets Society but at the end I do not want to stand on my desk a say, "Oh Captain, My Captain". It is not a pain or a bore to watch, but it just did not feel original.
  • hunterjt13
    August 14, 2010
    hunterjt13
    Though the film lacks a central, driving conflict - a problem that we eagerly wait to be resolved - and its foray into a quickly abandoned sex scandal distracts from the best parts of the film, it is nevertheless an absolute pleasure to watch. The main characters are unflaggingl... read morey committed to the pleasures of the intellectual life, and the film replaces devotion of the "saving" teacher with a meditation on the question of intellect's usefulness. Headlined by Richard Griffiths's amazing performance, the cast is quite strong. This is surely a film to "pass on."
  • gor41
    December 6, 2009
    gor41
    Proficient but rather underwhelming adaptation of the stage play which had some implausible plot points and no flare. Well honed script and the context appealed to me though.
  • FiLmCrAzY
    August 26, 2009
    FiLmCrAzY
    i was extremely disappointed although an ok movie i didnt llike the storyline very well i found it a bit confusing and weird and a bit unrealistic!
    This movie is funny and i did love the cast and their acting that was brilliant and i really love the ending it really got i really... read more think that was a fantastic ending but i guess this movie isnt my cup of tea!
    Its about a group of really smart lads trying to get into cambridge and oxford university and its sort of a coming of age learning thing sort of movie and its also got a teacher that torches the boys (which is the main poiint i dont understand as to why they would let hin do it) and a new teacher that tries to help them pass!
    a watchable movie as it is funny and a fantastic cast!
  • Gx7
    December 23, 2008
    Gx7
    Its the end of term in Cutlers Grammar School, eight bright young lads just got their A-level results. The headmaster is bent up on getting these boys in Oxford and Cambridge, and have asked three teachers to help the kids with their university entrance exams.

    Well, this ... read moreis what happens when you make a theater play like this one into a film, it gets edited to fit homeviewing (meaning, there were alterations made.)

    I still enjoyed watching it, although I dont think most people would get some scenes and some of the humor in it. The story isnt just all about history and the boys trying to get into Oxbridge, its about the diverse characters relationships and stories with each other.


    "Pass it on, boys. That's the game I want you to learn. Pass it on."

    Directed by Nicholas Hytner
    Highly Recommended!!
  • danperry17
    December 18, 2008
    danperry17
    After watching this film, I can say that it was really like no other movie I've ever seen before: in the "More Like This" section, I've tagged three of my faves (Dead Poets Society and School Ties) and a classic (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie) as being similar, but I think they a... read morere only important as touchstones when trying to talk about this film, because it undoes a lot of the cliches of the "[Boarding] School for Boys" and/or "Great Teacher Movie" genre.

    More than any similarly-minded films, The History Boys is about the students and not the teacher(s). In fact, making sure that there were four very different authority figures went a very long way to providing countless curious situations that, though not properly "exciting", were certainly exciting for the attempted anticipation of the results. It was kind of like a geneticist's punnett square: if this mixes with this, then we'll have this outcome... and if this meets that, then we'll have that outcome...

    This was a very cerebral movie as well: accessible for its compassionate portrayal of eight young men and their intellectual (and sexual) awakenings, not to mention teachers equally on the upswing (Irwin) and downswing (Hector) of their careers, the film also says a great deal about history that I'm sure only my history-major friends could appreciate as schools of thought and epistemological theory related to "how to study" history. (Luckily, my background in literature studies helped me to at least understand Hector and his outmoded style of studying and teaching poetry.)

    The historian Hayden White, for example, talks of the "emplotment" necessary when writing history. To recount a factual history, one must turn it into a narrative: Neville Chamberlain spoke for the appeasement of Adolf Hitler, which led to his consolidation of power, which led to the Second World War (etc.) - all narratives must have a sequence of events that makes sense, otherwise it's hard to accept the story. One paints some events as turning points, but they may be completely insignificant; as one of the boys in the film points out, Halifax was much more likely to become Prime Minister than Winston Churchill, but went to the dentist on the wrong day. If Halifax had had better teeth, would the war (and everything since) have turned out the same way? Who knows?

    The discussion of history as "turning points", and it's contrasting characterization (from the supposedly dull boy, Rudge) as "just one thing after another" is a discussion that can be applied to the plot itself, which is the true brilliance of this film... looking back on the many contrasting moments, one has to ask oneself how the narrative worked: why the story was told the way that it was, and which moments (if any) are turning points? Is there a cause and effect relationship, or is this just one event stacked on top of another?

    The film's ability to keep you hanging on insignificant plot points is a triumph, because you too must wait and see if, in the end, this moment will be a turning point. You'll reach the end, and you'll make a mental list, but you'll want to check it again by watching the moments unfold to see if they cause the ensuing events or merely precede them.

    An excellent movie to purchase and watch over and over again, whether you've heard of Richard Rorty or not, the film carries a lot of its devices honed in the theatre (it's an adaptation of a play) onto the big screen, and is one that leaves many impressions on many levels... any of which, of course, may or may prove to be significant when one looks back on it the future.
  • hobster1
    August 12, 2008
    hobster1
    English high-school students seek to earn the scores needed to enroll in Oxford and Cambridge in writer Alan Bennett's witty screen adaptation of his Tony award winning play. Ensemble film wisely features the talented original London cast, however the film's moral confusion is u... read morensettling.
  • rezpatriot
    March 2, 2008
    rezpatriot
    The story is probably based on some old piece of literature, but is actually about some boys at grammar school learning for there exam, its quite funny, and educational too, its not about rebellion, but its pretty good for adults.
  • binky013
    February 29, 2008
    binky013
    I used to be a teacher. At one stretch of four years, I taught kids exactly this age. Trust me, you don't have to be a jackass to get into a good college. Are there any of these bozos I'd have wanted in my classes? Ah . . . no.

    The beauty of this movie lies in the use of g

    ... read morereat literature outside this movie. There is, unfortunately, a permeating ugliness of character, of dubious motivation, and of bungled vision that sinks this woefully attempted and dreadfully executed project into an abyss of heavily empty rhetoric and ponderously rancid overacting. A truly ugly black-hole of a mess all the way around.

    God this sucks hard. And it's particularly irritating because they import so much great literature only to drag all of it down with their sinking, stinking ship.

    Hey, these kids at Hogwarts. Hmmm . . . Without a doubt, they would be Voldemort's minions. No, wait, I take that back. Without any doubt whatsoever, Dumbledore would have them "disappeared."

View All The History Boys Reviews

Critic Reviews

Roger Moore
December 22, 2006
Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel

Taking a production pretty much intact from stage to screen robs it of its surprises. The cast seems to know what's coming, and so do we. There's not a single moment where you sense 'discovery' taking... Full Review

Bruce Westbrook
December 22, 2006
Bruce Westbrook, Houston Chronicle

The film becomes a sermonette on tolerance. But with its one-sidedness, it fails to practice what it preaches. Full Review

Terry Lawson
December 22, 2006
Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press

The History Boys is a movie that asks questions like 'What is education really for anyway?' and asks them in an altogether witty, brainy way. It turns history into what it really is, the story of our ... Full Review

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie
December 21, 2006
Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Full of energy, ideas and fine acting. Full Review

Robert Denerstein
December 15, 2006
Robert Denerstein, Denver Rocky Mountain News

...History Boys manages a neat combination: It has both literacy and spunk.

Michael Booth
December 15, 2006
Michael Booth, Denver Post

There are no spontaneous moments on screen: The characters aren't reacting to each other; they're waiting for the cut to deliver a line they've had memorized since [the play] played the London National. Full Review

Chris Vognar
December 15, 2006
Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News

The History Boys is best when it crackles with the passion of ideas about the function and importance of ... ideas. Full Review

Bill Muller
December 15, 2006
Bill Muller, Arizona Republic

Although grounded in the fact-based world of academia, The History Boys offers little of substance. Full Review

Colin Covert
December 14, 2006
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune

It's been quite a while since movies have offered such a nice night out at the theater.

Hedy Weiss
December 8, 2006
Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun-Times

[An] exuberantly free-spirited but faithful movie version of Alan Bennett's masterful hit play about education, class, sex, love, death, memory and that often equally fantastical thing we call history. Full Review

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)

Cast

More Like This

Click a thumb to vote on that suggestion, or add your own suggestions.

  • Dead Poets Society
    Dead Poets Society (90%)
  • Starter for 10
    Starter for 10 (94%)
  • P'tang, Yang, Kipperbang. (First Love: P'tang, Yang, Kipperbang)
    P'tang, Yang, Kipperbang. (First Love: P'tang... (100%)
  • Doubt
    Doubt (67%)

More Movies like The History Boys

Facts

No facts approved yet. Be the first

The History Boys : Watch Free on TV

The History Boys Trivia

  • Who plays Hector in The History Boys?  Answer »
  • Which "Harry Potter" actor also starred in "The History Boys" as a professor?  Answer »
  • Which British playwright links The History Boys with The Madness of King George?  Answer »
  • In the film 'The History boys' which History boy does Posner 'Love'?  Answer »
More The History Boys Trivia

Movie Quizzes

Create a Quiz |

All Quizzes

Video Clips

No video clips yet. Want to upload one?

Meet Other Fans

Add The History Boys to favorites

Recent News

No recent headlines. Got one?

Recent Lists

Make a List |

View All Lists

Most Popular Skin

cigaretteburns Skin by cigaretteburns
33 Profiles
Add to Profile

More Skins