Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by dave c (A) on May 04, 2007 at 14:35:18

This is Alan Bennett's adaptation of his own play.
This is about a small class of boys about to leave a British grammar school and who apply to Oxford.
It is the story of how their teachers try to prepare them and how they look at the world on the brink of leaving school.
The cast is that of the original National Theatre production and it is a BBC produced movie.
The staginess of the original remains, with many of the set pieces clearly "theatre", but in a good way, especially the movement during dialogue and the short song extracts (don't ask, you'll have to see it).
The dialogue is dense which I like and the whole thing reminded me of my days at just such a school.
The headmaster is a perfect foul mouthed version of the colonel from Fawlty Towers.
The way the politics of the education system (having to "measure" everything), of Thatcherism, even, a new teacher with even a hint of Blair about him and the class nature of both history and Britain are all cleverly woven through the film.
This is not blunt propaganda.
It may be just so British that others may have a problem, it may even miss any Brits who did not attend a grammar school!
But the cast are tremendous
Its a rich film if you go with it.
Interestingly it's R rated for the USA and 15 for Britain.
"History? It's just one fuckin' thing after another".