Boys will be boys, even in the movies
A universal theme in movies is the coming of age tale and one
common backdrop for such stories is the all-boys school.
Boys will be boys, even in the movies
A universal theme in movies is the coming of age tale and one common backdrop for such stories is the all-boys school. When I read blurbs about “The History Boys” and reviewed the back of the DVD before renting it, I thought I was in for a film similar to “Dead Poets Society.” Both films focus on a group of high school boys who have a young, new teacher who changes the way they see the world. And in both, a teacher is threatened with removal from the school – in one case justified and in the other, not.
But the films couldn’t have been more different when it came down to their morals. If Carpe Diem is the refrain of the 1989 film “Dead Poets Society,” the refrain for 2006’s “The History Boys” would be just lie.
Dead Poets Society
In “Dead Poets Society” teacher John Keating (Robin Williams) challenges his students – a group of high-achieving boys – to “seize the day.” For one boy that means making a move on the head cheerleader from a local public school. For another it means ruffling the authoritative feathers of the head master. For all of them it means restarting a secret society founded by their teacher and sneaking out at night to read poetry together.
Though the film has an ensemble cast with half a dozen young men at the center of the story, two performances are particularly well done.
The film is one of the first Ethan Hawke made and is probably the reason I’ve always had a soft spot for him. Hawke plays Todd Anderson, a painfully shy boy who lives in the shadow of his older brother. Hawke, who has made dozens of films since, plays Anderson with downcast eyes that look as though they might fill with tears at any moment. Viewers can feel his anxiety as the day approaches when he must read a poem out loud. Robert Sean Leonard, who now plays Dr. James Wilson on the TV show “House,” is the other stand out performance for me. He creates Neil Perry as a young man who is torn between pleasing himself and pleasing his father. Watching both actors 18 years later, their turn in “Dead Poets Society” still tops my list of their best performances.
In the end seizing the day for these young men doesn’t mean their lives will always be easy, but for Keating it is about teaching them that they can have extraordinary lives even if he risks his own career.
The History Boys
It is the characters and their goals that really separate the two films. “The History Boys” is set in England at a second-tier prep school. It is based on a stage play by Alan Bennett and there are moments in the film that feel better suited to the stage.
In the film, the head master wants to improve the reputation of the school by getting more students into the top English universities, such as Oxford and Cambridge. To make this happen, he enlists Irwin (Stephen Campbell Moore) to polish the students when it comes to writing essays and interviewing at the schools. This film, too, has an ensemble cast of boys, though none is as visible as Dakin (Dominic Cooper). He is the boy everyone loves, including the young school secretary, a classmate and a male teacher.
Irwin’s philosophy is that the boys should do anything but be themselves in their essays and interviews, even if it means lying. When one young man says he enjoys the theater in a mock interview, Irwin tells him that is too ordinary. As with Keating, he teaches the boys to challenge the norm but he doesn’t necessarily want them to think for themselves. For Irwin it is all about making a lasting impression.
Irwin is pitted against long-time teacher Hector (Richard Griffiths), who disdains the younger man’s teaching methods. Hector teaches general studies and in his class the boys practice French, recite poetry and act out scenes from movies, things the head master sees as frivolous. Hector’s territory is infringed on when the head master receives information that Hector has been inappropriately touching some of his students and decides Hector will share his class time with Irwin. But the screenplay treats the violations as trivial and the boy’s themselves laugh about it. It is clear Hector is being punished not because of his bad behavior but because he hasn’t been getting boys into the top schools.
The movies conclude in very different ways. In “Dead Poets Society,” the students salute their teacher and viewers are left to believe that knowing Keating will have a lasting impact on them. But in “The History Boys,” we get a sample of what the boys are doing 20-30 years down the road. Irwin and Hector’s influence over the long haul – as well as attending Oxford – seems to have little to do with where they ended up so the lying seems all for naught.
For those interested in a coming of age tale, skip the history lesson and go straight for the poetry.
