| | | Ground Breaking! Award Winning! History Making!
Features: DVD, Widescreen, Aspect Ratio 1.85:1, English, French, Spanish, Subtitled
From award-winning playwright Alan Bennett (The Madness of King George) comes this delightfully witty comedy of eight boisterous-yet-talented schoolboys hoping to gain admittance to England's most prestigious universities.They're aided on their quest by two teachers, a shrewd young upstart and an inspiring old eccentric, whose opposing philosophies challenge the boys to confront the true meaning of education and the relative values of happiness and success. Adapted from the original Tony Award winning play and starring the original Tony Award winning cast, The History Boys is an engaging, thought-provoking, and wickedly funny look at history, the pursuit of knowledge, and the utter randomness of life.
"Vibrates with exuberance and erudition." Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer
"...a dazzling verbal cleverness--the gleeful rat-a-tat of snappy banter expertly executed..." Nathan Rabin, The Onion A.V. Club
"Brilliant and infectious. Explosively alive!" New York Magazine
Editor's Note
IN THEATERS NOVEMBER 24, 2006 Alan Bennett's lauded play about the high school experience is brought to the screen in this production. The movie focuses on a group of boys and the teachers in charge of them--funny and often poignant material.
| Features | Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound | | Audio: Spanish Dolby Digital Stereo | | Dubbed: Spanish | | Interactive Menus | | Scene Selection | | Subtitles: English, French, Spanish |
| Entertainment Reviews
 | The History Boys - DVD By: Daniel Solomon - Cinema Blend DVD Reviews Published on: 4/6/2007 7:07 AM | | When an adaptation is attempted, the idea is always for the film to stand completely on its own. The original version must act like a mother mare, allowing her gooey, placenta-soaked baby to gain its own footing before licking it clean. In the case of The History Boys, this natural process succeeds, creating an excellent piece of film that, while it could not have existed without the play that birthed it, still has the look of a proper show-horse. ...read the full review |
| Technical Info
|
Release Information
| | Studio: Foxvideo |
| Release Date: 4/17/2007 |
| Running Time: 112 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 2006 | | Catalog ID: 2242519 | | UPC: 00024543425199 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English, Spanish Dubbed | | Available Subtitles: English, French, Spanish | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Widescreen 1.85:1 |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
Nominee (2007) | | | British Academy Awards, Richard Griffiths, Best Actor in a Leading Role | | | British Academy Awards, Frances de la Tour, Best Actress in a Supporting Role |
|
| | Professional Reviews | Total Film
3 stars out of 5 -- "THE HISTORY BOYS is at its most moving in the quieter, more reflective moments..." 11/01/2006 p.46Premiere
3 stars out of 5 -- "THE HISTORY BOYS is a pretty grand and juicy entertainment....There's no one today writing English dialogue as sharp as Bennett's..." 12/01/2006 p.43 Rolling Stone
3 stars out of 5 -- "Bennett's dialogue sparkles and skewers with killer wit. Dig in." 11/30/2006 p.124 Box Office
"[G]iven flesh and substance by veteran dramatist Alan Bennett's witty and muscular way with dialogue." 12/01/2006 p.79 New York Times
"[F]erociously engaging....The acting is wonderful. Mr. Moore's avid Irwin and Mr. Griffiths shambling Hector are matched by the extraordinary Frances de la Tour as Dorothy Lintott..." 11/21/2006 p.E7 Entertainment Weekly
"The movie adaptation has been lifted from the theater with original cast and director Nicholas Hytner intact; the actors interact as cozily as chums on a playing field..." -- Grade: B 12/01/2006 p.64 Movieline's Hollywood Life
"THE HISTORY BOYS preserves some of the best writing to grace the theater in many years....The movie is highly entertaining." 11/01/2006 p.103 Ultimate DVD
4 stars out of 5 -- "THE HISTORY BOYS is an exhilarating experience; one that delivers the vivid pyrotechnics of language, and challenges the intellect..." 03/01/2007 p.122 FilmCritic.com 7 of 10
Plays do not always make the transition well from stage to screen - they can come off too talky or stagnant, mannerisms that work well on a far-off stage sometimes appearing stilted on a big screen...Fortunately, thanks to the rambunctiously energetic performances and Nicholas Hynter's equally jaunty direction, The History Boys looks right at home on screen; what poses a larger problem is whether it will translate as fluidly from Britain to America...The History Boys offers an ably immortalized version of a simple coming-of-age en masse drama that works nearly as well on screen as it would on stage. Whether the benevolent view of inappropriate teacher/student relationships, for instance, or the jokes made at the expense of the decidedly British social class system will fare as well in the U.S., remains to be seen. - Anne Gilbert
Reel.com 9 of 10
There is a certain familiarity to The History Boys, Alan Bennett's critically lauded, prize-winning play that arrives on screen with its entire original cast and director, Nicholas Hytner, in tow. There is a tradition of inspirational teacher dramas, from Goodbye, Mr. Chips and The Corn is Green to Dead Poets Society and Stand and Deliver, that The History Boys fits comfortably into, but few of these dramas have been this smart, witty, or playful, and fewer still have brimmed with the sheer energy of a cast that knows this material so well that it is practically encoded into their DNA...Much of it is set in classrooms, so it is bound to remain somewhat stagebound. For all of that, it is still an excellent adaptation, Bennett's wit and the fine cast surviving and ultimately triumphing in the transition from the theater to the multiplex. - Pam Grady
|
| |
|
|
|
