The History Boys by Alan Bennett (Play and Movie Review)

This is one half of what I studied for Year 11/Unit 2 English Literature GCSE. To see the review of the other half (Lord of the Flies) click here.

Play Rating: 3/5
Movie Rating: 3.5/5

The History Boys is a much loved play written by Alan Bennett. Set in 1980's Yorkshire, The History Boys follows the story of 8 boys as they strive to get places at Oxford and Cambridge.

I found the play enjoyable to read however I found after watching the movie I enjoyed it a lot more. The way some of the actors (particularly Richard Griffiths as Hector and Dominic Cooper as Dakin) brought the characters to life was incredible and I feel it added so much to the story. They managed to give the characters so much depth that I felt was a lot harder to get from just reading the play.

In my opinion, the casting for the movie was perfect. Richard Griffiths and Dominic Cooper especially I felt fitted the roles perfectly and I couldn't imagine them being played by any other actor. The casting of each character I felt was brilliant however those two stood out to me personally.

If this were not part of the English Literature course I probably wouldn't have picked it up. I did enjoy reading it but if I hadn't studied the themes and choice of language etc in school I probably wouldn't have enjoyed it half as much.

After a lot of debating with myself over whether to count this as part of my 50 books challenge or not I decided I would as I feel that although it's not a novel it is still noteworthy. What are your opinions on what counts and doesn't for the 50 books challenge?

(Book 12/50)

Lucy x