"I'm a Jew, I'm small, I'm homosexual and I live in Sheffield.... I'm fucked."
Tsukamoto Takashi is getting married.
I won't lie. I was devastated when I read the news. Not so much because Tsukamoto Takashi is a sex god and I want to have his babies myself, but because he is tying the knot because his girlfriend is pregnant. Honestly, with vending machines selling condoms at practically every street corner, you'd think the Japanese should have a better grasp of contraception and safe sex than the rest of us. Or is getting knocked up the only way for a woman to get married these days?
Has anybody seen The History Boys? It is a charming charming charming little British number with a gorgeous cast and an even better looking script. Adapted from Alan Bennett's play of the same name, History is, basically, all about growing up. Now, before you all groan at the thought of yet another American Pie remake, let me assure you it is not. These boys aren't blundering idiots who are only capable of thinking with their dicks and that is a most welcomed surprise. The film follows the lives of 8 boys as they prepare for their Oxbridge entrance exams. And because the headmaster has heard there is a vacancy in history (for what, I don't know), so history it is. The boys are guided by two main forces. The first is their homosexual (but married) "general studies" teacher, Hector, who is for teaching knowledge as it is - plain and simple. He fills the boys with poetry, movie quotes and song for no particular reason other than to impart knowledge and leaves it at that. He also fondles the boys at red lights while he's giving them a lift home on his Velocette, but that's another story. The second is recent Oxford graduate Irwin (the beautiful Stephen Campbell Moore), brought in especially to help the boys pass their exams. He basically tells them they are all academically brilliant, but intellectually dull. He tells them to sod the truth because the truth doesn't matter. Oxford and Cambridge don't care about what you think, they care about what others don't think. It's all about wowing your examiners with outstanding - but calculated - responses. Needless to say, the boys don't take to Irwin very well. After 6 years of being told they are the school's pride and joy and only scholarship hopefuls, they are now being told they are really boring tards with no hope in the world unless they start thinking the "wrong" way, NOW. But despite a chilly first meeting, the boys quickly warm up to Irwin's style of teaching because honestly, what is there not to like? The man is young, gorgeous, very intelligent, not like anyone they have ever met before and did I mention absolutely gorgeous? They also become increasingly disillusioned with Hector's teaching and that's when the first tragedy (and I use the word very loosely) strikes.
History is a struggle between traditional and more performance specific methods of teaching. Hector is the old-school teacher, trying to instill in his pupils a genuine love and passion for knowledge. Irwin is the revolutionary, teaching the boys to think the think, so to speak. To be honest, I'm not too sure why these two ways of teaching can't go hand in hand. I suppose the issue here is Irwin TRAINING the boys to think differently rather than letting them do it themselves, but is that really so bad? The film leaves this question (along with many others) open ended and I think that's what makes it such an enjoyable watch because it doesn't try to ram social commentary down your throat, preferring, rather, just to raise the issues and leave them on the table. What results is a film that is intellectually stimulating rather than outright angsty or whiny. It is brilliantly subtle yet strangely affecting at same time. The boys themselves are all colourful characters and they really bring the humour and wit of the script alive. The fact that they're all nice to look at is just icing on the cake, really. There's been some criticism (by the Americans, surprise surprise) that the boys (who all reprised their roles from the stage production) hadn't dialed down enough for the camera and were prancing around melodramatically as if they were still on stage. Now, if high school is not one big drama after another then I don't know what is. When else can one lament about unrequited love and one's confused sexuality without sounding like a complete knobhead?
I also felt a compelling sense of nostalgia as the film progressed. It made me remember sitting in Modern History and listening to Flood talk about how kids used to be taught. He used to hand us photocopies at the beginning of class, tell us to read them in our spare time and then spend the rest of the lesson telling us about his wife, his house, the share market and everything else other than history. I loved it! I loved his classes. He was the reason why I kept Modern History and slaved away at 13 units even though it was my worst subject and took up so much of my time.
There was a beautiful reference to the party game "pass the parcel" made early in the film, which admittedly I did not get until it was repeated again at the very end (when all the boys come back together to reflect on their lives), but which I absolutely adored and almost made me cry:
"Pass the parcel. That's sometimes all you can do. Take it, feel it and pass it on. Not for me, not for you, but for someone, somewhere, one day. Pass it on, boys. That's the game I want you to learn. Pass it on."
Loved the film. Please all watch it.
ETA: DAMN IT! I wish I'd known about this film last year when the play (featuring the same cast, OMG Stephen Campbell Moore IN PERSON) showed here in Sydney. In April of all months too! DAMN DAMN DAMN IT! ARGH! DAMN!
I won't lie. I was devastated when I read the news. Not so much because Tsukamoto Takashi is a sex god and I want to have his babies myself, but because he is tying the knot because his girlfriend is pregnant. Honestly, with vending machines selling condoms at practically every street corner, you'd think the Japanese should have a better grasp of contraception and safe sex than the rest of us. Or is getting knocked up the only way for a woman to get married these days?
Has anybody seen The History Boys? It is a charming charming charming little British number with a gorgeous cast and an even better looking script. Adapted from Alan Bennett's play of the same name, History is, basically, all about growing up. Now, before you all groan at the thought of yet another American Pie remake, let me assure you it is not. These boys aren't blundering idiots who are only capable of thinking with their dicks and that is a most welcomed surprise. The film follows the lives of 8 boys as they prepare for their Oxbridge entrance exams. And because the headmaster has heard there is a vacancy in history (for what, I don't know), so history it is. The boys are guided by two main forces. The first is their homosexual (but married) "general studies" teacher, Hector, who is for teaching knowledge as it is - plain and simple. He fills the boys with poetry, movie quotes and song for no particular reason other than to impart knowledge and leaves it at that. He also fondles the boys at red lights while he's giving them a lift home on his Velocette, but that's another story. The second is recent Oxford graduate Irwin (the beautiful Stephen Campbell Moore), brought in especially to help the boys pass their exams. He basically tells them they are all academically brilliant, but intellectually dull. He tells them to sod the truth because the truth doesn't matter. Oxford and Cambridge don't care about what you think, they care about what others don't think. It's all about wowing your examiners with outstanding - but calculated - responses. Needless to say, the boys don't take to Irwin very well. After 6 years of being told they are the school's pride and joy and only scholarship hopefuls, they are now being told they are really boring tards with no hope in the world unless they start thinking the "wrong" way, NOW. But despite a chilly first meeting, the boys quickly warm up to Irwin's style of teaching because honestly, what is there not to like? The man is young, gorgeous, very intelligent, not like anyone they have ever met before and did I mention absolutely gorgeous? They also become increasingly disillusioned with Hector's teaching and that's when the first tragedy (and I use the word very loosely) strikes.
History is a struggle between traditional and more performance specific methods of teaching. Hector is the old-school teacher, trying to instill in his pupils a genuine love and passion for knowledge. Irwin is the revolutionary, teaching the boys to think the think, so to speak. To be honest, I'm not too sure why these two ways of teaching can't go hand in hand. I suppose the issue here is Irwin TRAINING the boys to think differently rather than letting them do it themselves, but is that really so bad? The film leaves this question (along with many others) open ended and I think that's what makes it such an enjoyable watch because it doesn't try to ram social commentary down your throat, preferring, rather, just to raise the issues and leave them on the table. What results is a film that is intellectually stimulating rather than outright angsty or whiny. It is brilliantly subtle yet strangely affecting at same time. The boys themselves are all colourful characters and they really bring the humour and wit of the script alive. The fact that they're all nice to look at is just icing on the cake, really. There's been some criticism (by the Americans, surprise surprise) that the boys (who all reprised their roles from the stage production) hadn't dialed down enough for the camera and were prancing around melodramatically as if they were still on stage. Now, if high school is not one big drama after another then I don't know what is. When else can one lament about unrequited love and one's confused sexuality without sounding like a complete knobhead?
I also felt a compelling sense of nostalgia as the film progressed. It made me remember sitting in Modern History and listening to Flood talk about how kids used to be taught. He used to hand us photocopies at the beginning of class, tell us to read them in our spare time and then spend the rest of the lesson telling us about his wife, his house, the share market and everything else other than history. I loved it! I loved his classes. He was the reason why I kept Modern History and slaved away at 13 units even though it was my worst subject and took up so much of my time.
There was a beautiful reference to the party game "pass the parcel" made early in the film, which admittedly I did not get until it was repeated again at the very end (when all the boys come back together to reflect on their lives), but which I absolutely adored and almost made me cry:
"Pass the parcel. That's sometimes all you can do. Take it, feel it and pass it on. Not for me, not for you, but for someone, somewhere, one day. Pass it on, boys. That's the game I want you to learn. Pass it on."
Loved the film. Please all watch it.
ETA: DAMN IT! I wish I'd known about this film last year when the play (featuring the same cast, OMG Stephen Campbell Moore IN PERSON) showed here in Sydney. In April of all months too! DAMN DAMN DAMN IT! ARGH! DAMN!