"It makes Oxford look so gross and full of vile people"..well, as one of the members states during the film, Oxford has several thousand students, but there are only ten members of the club. Indeed, Cameron, Boris and others were members of the Bullingdon Club, upon which this film is based. Moreover, the producer of this film shared a flat with Cam when they left Eton. so, one wonders how many stories have come straight from the horse's mouth.
Not all "toffs" are so vile and have such a disrespect for the "normal" (i.e. working class) folk of Britain. Those portrayed in this film are in the minority. Sadly, that minority do run the country at present.
However, the culture at schools such as Eton is that boys - estranged from their parents and local community - are very quickly socialised into this kind of thing. One either controls or is controlled. I do not doubt you have heard stories of unspeakable bullying which has affected people at boarding schools, to the extent they can no longer form relationships well into their adult lives.
Sadly, many such young people neglect to take advantage of three or more years at University to "decompress" from the closed community of Public School and learn how to deal with people in a decent manner. And equally as sadly, their own children will be doomed to such a life too.#
Look at the Netherlands, where even the King's children attend a normal local school, There isn't the class inequality there. The British class system really is an anachronism!
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JeopardyLeyton
9 years ago
I know that Oxford isn't all like that - I went there. I just think a lot of people have this idea of it as a posh place for posh people, and films like this just reinforce the stereotype. There are plenty of people at Oxford trying desperately to change those stereotypes and encourage people from different backgrounds to apply, and they get very frustrated when its portrayal in popular culture often focuses on the super-posh-toff types.
Still, there are quite a few people who are obviously there because of their money and not because of their brains, but mostly everyone is normal. The very rich don't socialise with the rest much though, which like you say, would teach them a lot about the real world.
It really is bad for our society though. I look at our society here in Britain and it is just so evident to everyone that the rich, selfish minority basically run our country for their own benefit. Just look at the news that broke today, where the Tories were handed information 5 years ago about what HSBC was doing to help filthy rich citizens illegally evade paying their taxes. And all they did was ignore it, and give the boss of the bank a peerage and a ministerial position. Surprise surprise, he also attended Oxford.
It's so beyond the pale - I just don't understand why anyone other than the so-called 'elites' would vote for these completely sociopathic b**tards.
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davethemathtutor
9 years ago
Thank god we don't have anything like that here in the U.S.! Here you would never see, for example, a millionaire's son get admitted to a prestigious university like Yale as a legacy student despite being a mediocre student with below-average (for Yale) SAT scores; get arrested three times (for theft, disorderly conduct, and drunk driving) with no serious consequences; join the Texas Air National Guard just in time to avoid being drafted and sent off to war, and get pushed to the top of a waiting list for pilot training through family connections, past 500 other applicants (most with some aviation experience), despite having no experience with aviation or engineering or ROTC; then shirk his duties and fail to show up for mandatory physical exams, with no consequences; and finally wind up being installed as President of the United States, despite receiving fewer votes than his opponent. No, you'd never see that here!
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