The Pelican’s Perch

The History Boys
Score: 8/10
I’m not familiar with the play, so I can’t tell you if it truly conquered the world and was worthy of winning the most Tony’s in 20 years, but I did enjoy the movie quite a bit. For some reason, the fact that the boys were all incredibly smart and their conversations consisted more of them trying to outwit each other with rapid British banter than anything really made the movie for me. I sat there smiling as their subtlely sarcastic conversations about all things history went way over my head, but remained understandable enough for me to enjoy.

The basic story is the board at this particular upscale high school trying to figure out what to do with this particularly intelligent group of boys, the smartest they’ve ever had, and how they can get as many of them into Oxford, Cambridge, or any other big university like that so they can increase the school’s credibility. To do this, the school hires a man to come in and shape them into model applicants since he graduated recently from one of those very universities. His teachings are disliked initially as the boys stick with their long time favorite teacher, whose ways are rather old school compared to the new teacher’s, but eventually the boys learn who he really is and grow to like him.

By the time the movie is over, you know every one of the boys really well and root for them. The catch is most of the boys could care less whether they make it so you’re left wondering whether to root for them to get in, or root for them to just succeed with whatever it is they want, which in some cases is to not get in because they think the way their school is using them is wrong.

After seeing the movie, I can see how the play was so well received and wouldn’t mind seeing it myself. I don’t know if there’s another viewing of this movie in me in the future, but I have no problem recommending it to anyone who asks me. Nothing like any movies out right now, but it is an adapted play for the big screen, so if you remember that, you’ll come out of this movie satisfied and feeling a bit smarter as well.