as much as i genuinely do love the history boys, it doesn't really age well on a rewatch. that said, it's still got a lot of merits to it (which i’ll try to get to after my main issue).
i know it's the thing to argue about, whether or not alan bennett intended for his work to make such a point in favour of grooming/paedophilia and whether or not this is good gay representation so my two cents aren't really needed but i think, for the most part, it just isn't. dakin, posner and scripps all already have such a brilliant dynamic between the three of them and their own personal explorations and commentary on sexuality without having to bring both hector and irwin into the fray. there's no need for their teachers to have any sort of attraction or engagement with them in any sort of sexual context unless you're going to actually commit to calling it out for the blatant abuse of power that it is. the way hector's celebrated by the end of this film (as well as irwin's frequent judgement of him only for him to be similarly inclined with regards to dakin) is just boring and in poor taste. i'd genuinely LOVE to see a west end revival of this some day (or a tour, i'm not picky!) but only if there was a way to revise certain plot points. there's nothing uncomfortable or 'wrong' about homosexuality, but immediately implying that every single one of the gay characters in this movie is physically incapable of being attracted to teenage boys sets a poor precedent that we could do without.
on a brighter note, i genuinely think the cast and chemistry in this film still delivers so fucking well even after all these years. samuel anderson, samuel barnett, dominic cooper, james corden, jamie parker, russell tovey, andrew knott, sacha dhawan and (dare i say it) james corden all play so well off of one another. perfectly cast. and frances de la tour is a marvel in her own right. just a brilliant cast of brilliant actors tbh.
anyway i wanted to rewatch this for jamie mostly because i adore him but i forgot how much i root for posner/scripps tbh
as much as i genuinely do love the history boys, it doesn't really age well on a rewatch. that said, it's still got a lot of merits to it (which i’ll try to get to after my main issue).
i know it's the thing to argue about, whether or not alan bennett intended for his work to make such a point in favour of grooming/paedophilia and whether or not this is good gay representation so my two cents aren't really needed but i think, for the most part, it just isn't. dakin, posner and scripps all already have such a brilliant dynamic between the three of them and their own personal explorations and commentary on sexuality without having to bring both hector and irwin into the fray. there's no need for their teachers to have any sort of attraction or engagement with them in any sort of sexual context unless you're going to actually commit to calling it out for the blatant abuse of power that it is. the way hector's celebrated by the end of this film (as well as irwin's frequent judgement of him only for him to be similarly inclined with regards to dakin) is just boring and in poor taste. i'd genuinely LOVE to see a west end revival of this some day (or a tour, i'm not picky!) but only if there was a way to revise certain plot points. there's nothing uncomfortable or 'wrong' about homosexuality, but immediately implying that every single one of the gay characters in this movie is physically incapable of being attracted to teenage boys sets a poor precedent that we could do without.
on a brighter note, i genuinely think the cast and chemistry in this film still delivers so fucking well even after all these years. samuel anderson, samuel barnett, dominic cooper, james corden, jamie parker, russell tovey, andrew knott, sacha dhawan and (dare i say it) james corden all play so well off of one another. perfectly cast. and frances de la tour is a marvel in her own right. just a brilliant cast of brilliant actors tbh.
anyway i wanted to rewatch this for jamie mostly because i adore him but i forgot how much i root for posner/scripps tbh
