MovieChat Forums > The History Boys (2006) Discussion > So unrealistic that I couldn't really ca...

So unrealistic that I couldn't really care

posted 15 years ago by itlyb
26 replies | jump to latest

I have a soft spot for movies with charismatic teachers and bright young students (ie Dead Poet's Society, Mr. Holland's Opus etc.).

This movie, however, went too far in its depiction of "bright young men". They were all so educated and quick to stand up and spontaneously perform scenes from plays and movies. WTF?? Where in the world do you find such a group of boys? What's even more unrealistic was the grown up way they dealt with some of them and some of their teachers being gay. It was like a perfect dream world where everyone is accepted for what he is.

What do you think?

[–] Rizzyay 9 years ago

You do realize that they were not supposed to be "normal" kids, but unusually bright ones? I can imagine that happening under certain conditions, most especially if their chemistry is right. Not in a normal classroom, though.

I have to admit that teachers being pedophiles and everyone being happy about it was a bit too much. Teachers like Hector would've been thrown out from every real school 20 years before retirement.

[–] claudja777 9 years ago

actually their naming charachters and doing scenes of old movies was the point of the whole movie. their teacher had teached him just this stuff that s why the school got one form outside to prepare them. easy. it couldn t have been any other way.

[–] louiseculmer 8 years ago

this is a group of boys who are studying for the oxbridge exam - they are exceptionally bright and they are very well educated. they have been encoruaged to express themselves. they may be a bit unrealistic, but they are interesting, and who wants films to be too realistic? I'd much rqther have The History Boys than the soggy sentimentality of Dead Poets Society.

[–] Superunknovvn 8 years ago

okay.

We learned more from a three minute record than we ever learned in school

[–] HarveyManfredSinJohn 8 years ago

From the age of 14 I was extremely interested in theatre/film, including classic and art-house cinema, and was an avid reader, yet no one in my year, not even the brightest and most high-achieving pupils, were remotely interested in these things, and I was seen almost as 'weird' or an 'outcast' for having a keen interest in the arts, politics and theoretical science. I vividly remember on lesson where the form teacher attempted to bring up a discussion regarding politics in lieu of the forthcoming general election, and members of the class, including most prominently some of the highest achievers, arguing that 'politics is boring' and derailing the entire class as a result.

All I can say is that if Alan Bennett really experienced an education anything like the one depicted in this film, and if students really were as articulate and erudite during the 1980s, Alan and early 1980s students were a lot luckier than I was in their education...but it's more likely that no school was ever like this and this film, including the rose-tinted presentation of the gay and lecherous history teacher, is an utterly false and rose-tinted view of a British grammar school during the reactionary and culturally-illiterate early 1980s.

I have a far easier time believing that an elite private school in 1950s New England is a lot closer to the 'soggy sentimentality' of Dead Poets Society than a typical British school class, even one made up of high achievers, is anything like that portrayed in The History Boys. And if I'm wrong, these kids should count themselves as extremely lucky spoiled brats who are obliged to give something back to those intellectually-aspirant people, like myself, who didn't benefit from such a halcyon education.

Moreover, are we really supposed to buy the likes of James Corden and Daniel Cooper as Britain's best and brightest? 

[–] louiseculmer 8 years ago

You have to be very articulate to get into Oxbridge, the selection process is quite intense. I don't think stupidity is valued there. I am sure that anyone who is marked down as capable of getting in will be carefully prepared for the interviews. Alan Bennet came from a working class background and got through in the mid 1950s. I think he probably has a fair idea of the effort involved. The pupils in The History boys are an interesting mixture of types. I should think it would be very difficult to make an interesting play out of people like the ones you went to school with.

I thought Dead Poets Society a tedious film, the History Boys is miles better. but i do think you have to have a sense of humour to appreciate it, and if you don't it's probably a bit of a handicap.

[–] HarveyManfredSinJohn 8 years ago

Wow! Thanks for the passive-aggressive snobbery.

To wit: "I should think it would be very difficult to make an interesting play out of people like the ones you went to school with" and "but i do think you have to have a sense of humour to appreciate it, and if you don't it's probably a bit of a handicap."

Comedies are among my favourite genre. My avatar is from a comedy film. I could be wrong, and I don't make any assumptions, but I believe I have a pretty well-developed, even sophisticated, sense of humour. However, I found this film so unbearably smug, unrealistic or at least remote from most British people's experiences, let alone the world's, and self-regarding, that it was difficult to enjoy the jokes.

For a man who has quite rightly railed against elitism he seems remarkably complacent and fond of the exclusive Oxbridge system. Bennett is far more left-wing than me, with his call to ban private schools. For what it's worth, and speaking as a social-democrat, I don't agree with the charitable status bestowed on private schools and I do think the system is inherently unfair, yet I would never call to ban private schools; it's a choice any parent who can afford the fees should be able to make for themselves, and besides, if we banned private schools we'd simply see a boost in the private tutor market instead, which is another way of paying for privilege/results. And the truth is that today the few grammar schools that still exist unfortunately cater to the children of middle-class families rather than those of us born poor and working-class.

And some of the kids I attended school with were quite articulate. In fact, it's a shame that they used all that innate intelligence and verbal dexterity to challenge a more rigorous academic education, rather than see that it might have been in their best interest to enhance their intellectual and cultural horizons. But that's the problem with comprehensive schools, like the one I attended; even the brightest children aren't pushed or even led to believe that they're capable or fit to aim for superior education.

[–] Fanamir 8 years ago

I went to an all boys prep high school in the US that's considered one of the most prestigious in the southeast. Many of the boys in my class went on to go to Ivy League schools, some did transfer studies at Eton, and one or two took the Oxbridge route. So roughly, the US equivalent of British grammar schools.
I actually thought this movie is one of the more realistic depictions of these types of boys. Smart, articulate, hormonal, dirty, and often making stupid flub (not being able to pronounce "nietzche") that humble them. I think they went a bit overboard with some of the play stuff, but not too much. I've seen people go over scenes from plays and movies on the spot like that.