# The History Boys



## brandonnash (Sep 11, 2006)

To start this review off, I'd be willing to bet that, like a lot of movies I watch, The History Boys is one of those "indie" movies that I watch, but not many others do. I'm here to try my best to enlighten on these movies. 

The History Boys (nominated for 2 BAFTA awards) is set in England in the year 1983. The premise of the movie is a group of high schoolers have the possibility to attend Oxford university and agree to spend an extra term in school to better prepare for the interviews and other hurdles that are typically thrown at someone trying to gain attendance to this school. It's a very nice film with various very shocking moments. To quote the plot outline from IMDB, "An unruly class of gifted and charming teenage boys pursue of sex, sport, and higher education".

Richard Griffiths (you may know him as Uncle Vernon from the Harry Potter series) plays the character of Hector. Watch this film for his work. He was one of the BAFTA nominations for best actor. His character is also complex in that he has been a school teacher for years and years, is married, and is a pedophile. Even with this huge flaw, he is still a very likeable character. It's not _just_ his own acting, but the way that he interacts with the entire cast around him. Top notch roll for him. 

Moving on to the, for us HT guys, the "meat and potatoes", the AV side of this film was nothing that will hugely impress anyone or compete with the WOTW type dvds. The audio was good. Right from the start one of the things I noticed was a very large sounding early 80's alternative style music from the soundtrack playing. This is the way I enjoy movies starting out. Good sounds grab me from the start and this was right up my alley. The video side was, for the most part, drab looking. This was done on purpose being the movie is set in England. Lots of layered greys from the fog and clouds. 

Overall my feeling for this movie is that most people this would be a good entertaining rental. Full of drama with a few fall out of your chair laughing comedy bits rolled into it. Being the movie has an undertone of pedophilia, I don't believe most would care to own this movie to watch repeatedly. 

Ratings:

Video: 2/5 stars
Audio: 3.5/5 stars
Movie: 4/5 stars
DVD extras: 2/5 stars


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