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Poster for The History Boys

The History Boys

History. It's just one bloody thing after another.

2006 · 1h 49m · R Drama
Directed by Nicholas Hytner

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Overview

The story of an unruly class of bright, funny history students at a Yorkshire grammar school in pursuit of an undergraduate place at Oxford or Cambridge. Bounced between their maverick English master, a young and shrewd teacher hired to up their test scores, a grossly out-numbered history teacher, and a headmaster obsessed with results, the boys attempt to pass.

Director and cast

Critics on Rotten Tomatoes

Top critics, in their words

All reviews
66%
Tomatometer
Rotten

Taking a production pretty much intact from stage to screen robs it of its surprises. The cast seems to know what's coming, and so do we. There's not a single moment where you sense 'discovery' taking place.

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel
Rotten

A funny thing happened to The History Boys on the way to the screen. The players are the same, the dialogue is pretty much identical, but the vibrancy of the play -- its exhilarating immediacy -- has been muted.

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald
Rotten

The film becomes a sermonette on tolerance. But with its one-sidedness, it fails to practice what it preaches.

Bruce Westbrook, Houston Chronicle
Fresh

The History Boys is a movie that asks questions like 'What is education really for anyway?' and asks them in an altogether witty, brainy way. It turns history into what it really is, the story of our lives.

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press
Fresh

Full of energy, ideas and fine acting.

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution

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