So today is the day that my fave new obsession The History Boys goes from being a rather excellent stage play to being committed to celluloid for time and all eternity. What is rather alarming is that only one of the big "movie-plexes" in Birmingham – a fairly major and cosmopolitan city – has this little Brit-flik showing. I remained outraged that I have to go to Star City a) because it is full of chavs and b) it's not christened Stab City for nothing. I was lucky to come back with my kidneys intact.
But the movie, mercifully, was everything I had hoped. I was somewhat concerned that after taking the play around the world, the original actors would be somewhat weary of playing the same characters, but the film sizzles and pops along nicely, with the boys exuding the right amount of energy, wit, humour and pathos in every scene. And Dakin is almost (but not quite) as sexy as the touring Dakin who will be parking in West End next year…;) There are lots of things I want to talk about with this movie, but seeing as I already reviewed the play here, I want to focus on the music.
Music was a major part of the stage show, used as a backdrop to stage changes and to move forward the story. In the film, it successfully becomes part of the story. The boys sing a couple of times in class, but they sing the songs that their beloved Hector remembers from his youth (e.g. Bye Bye Blackbird at his funeral). The songs that backdrop the story are those which the boys would have been listening to in their own time (new Order, The Smiths, The Clash). The highlights from the soundtrack are those actually sung by the history boys, the dance remixes of old classics (Echo and The Bunnymen take a bow) and a rather gorgeous new take on Bewitched that has finally made me sit up and take notice of Rufus Wainwright. Just lovely…
MP3: The History Boys – Bye Bye Blackbird
MP3: Echo And The Bunnymen – Never Stop (Discotheque version)
MP3: Rufus Wainwright – Bewitched
