The History Boys, directed by Nicholas Hytner, is based on a London stage play by Alan Bennett and features the starting cast. The plot revolves around eight bright middle class prep school male students in Sheffield, Yorkshire, who seek admission to Cambridge and Oxford universities during the 1980s. After passing preliminary exams, the rest of the students go home while the eight have a final term to prepare for the essay exam and the interview. Three teachers prepare them. Mrs. Lintott (played by Frances de la Tour) is their feminist history teacher. Rotund Hector (played by Richard Griffiths) teaches English literature and drama. Believing that a hot shot teacher is needed to give the students the edge in the competition, the contrary headmaster (played by Clive Merrison) hires a very restrained Irwin (played by Stephen Campbell Moore) as a special tutor. In much of the film, the various characters are developed with considerable sympathy, especially Hector, who believes that students will do better through acting and singing because outgoing personalities tend to have more sparkle than bookworms. Although the headmaster is skeptical about Hector's methods, the students are particularly enthusiastic about Hector’s teaching, and he often gives a ride home to a student on his motorbike at the end of the day. During the rides, he sometimes grabs a student’s testicles, a practice for which the headmaster decides to fire him, though Hector is married and protests that “nothing happened.” Feeling crushed, Hector breaks down in tears in the classroom one day. Soon, Irwin coteaches his class, a further humiliation. Nevertheless, the students pass the written and oral exams, are admitted to Cambridge or Oxford, and there is a celebration. One of the themes of the film is homoeroticism. In addition to Hector’s secret attraction to muscular Dakin (played by Dominic Cooper), a student, Posner (played by Samuel Barnett), openly has a crush on Dakin, and the latter is sexually interested in Irwin. Ultimately, Dakin talks Irwin into a date on the weekend following his acceptance into one of the elite universities. On hearing that Hector is to be fired, Dakin bursts into the headmaster’s office to inform him that a certain sexual indiscretion involving the headmaster and a woman might be made public, so Hector is retained at the school after all. Although most filmviewers will dislike the climax of the film, the main delight of The History Boys is the realization that English prep schools are so much better prepared for college than American college students are prepared for graduate school, especially in the field of literature. Anyone who wonders why the English are so eloquent in speech will find an explanation in the remarkable recitation of verse throughout the film. MH
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