Tom Brown's Schooldays

This at least fifth adaptation of Thomas Hughes' 1857 autobiographical novel "Tom Brown's School Days" provides a classic comparison to Harry Potter's Hogwarts, which has probably revived curiosity in portrayals of English boarding school life.

While I presume any 90 minute version (2 hours on BBC America with commercials), has to cut a lot more from the book than the 1971 mini-series that I haven't seen (nor have I read the book), the characters and the situations came through strongly.

Not the Dickensian deprivations of the poor house in "Oliver Twist", Ashley Pharoah's adaptation is much more about typical behavior in an all male environment that is a precursor to "Lord of the Flies," the dark side of "Peter Pan" where boys do adult actions without growing up, or at least various military movies (I only knew the naval song "Heart of Oak," used in a humiliating scene, because of "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World").

Key to enlivening this from just another costume drama with stock characters (the bully, the victim, the ineffectual leader, etc.) is the wonderful titular performance of Alex Pettyfer, billed as "introducing." I can't recall seeing a boy actor transform so much in front of our eyes other than Christian Bale in "Empire of the Sun," as he develops from timid to athlete to swaggerer to mature leader.

Stephen Fry is particularly good at conveying his guilt at the hypocrisy he gets trapped into as a well-meaning new headmaster trying to change a traditional den of testosterone gone wild. Jemma Redgrave doesn't get do very much as his oblivious wife.

Joe Beattie, in the thankless role of the arrogant, wealthy villain a la Malfoy in the Potter oeuvre, plays him foppishly, like Guy Pearce in the most recent version of "The Count of Monte Cristo." I was actually surprised when he cruelly seduced a maid, as I thought the homo-erotic potential in this hot house environment was implied, particularly when it is emphasized how "different" the weakest victim is as he shines at poetry readings.

A story of the perniciousness of bullying left unchecked never goes out of date, and this portrayal is universal and timeless, regardless of its period setting.

It's foolish to expect an exact equivalent in film/TV of a classic novel. Translating narrative prose into moving pictures offers opportunities as well as difficulties. But this was a botched job. The story was mangled and spiced up to a damaging extent. The story was seriously mangled. The aims of writer/production were confused. However quaint to us today, the story was real and based on Thomas Hughes' own schooldays. Hughes's sincere attempt to portray the great days at Rugby was thrown out the window. Several of the leading characters were retained but others were cut. Dr. Arnold was appointed to Rugby in 1827. Tom Brown (Hughes) came in the mid 1830's, this is clear from the book. Tom Brown and Scud East were pretty well portrayed. Bullyboy Flashman's wickedness was extended to include raping the matron's daughter. Brooke and Diggs, both important characters,were omitted. Young Arthur dies in this version. He does not die in the book but assists the reformation of the boys' behaviour by the example of his own piety.(He was based on Dean Stanley who actually wrote a celebrated biography of Dr. Arnold). Dr. Arnold's reforming character was fairly well presented. His regular meetings with the teaching staff etc. were pretty authentic, but his amazing reforms were more significant than shown here. His staff were all clerics with local livings but he made them sacrifice these, paid them handsome salaries and devote their professional careers to Rugby. Dr. Arnold's reforming zeal dragged British schools out of Regency degeneracy, brutality and educational sloth, paving the way for the golden age of the Victorian public school. He aimed to produce Christian Gentleman. He had little interest in games and the gift of a school gymnasium by the Flashman family an utter fiction. It was Thring at Uppingham who introduced games (as well as music) into the school curriculum twenty years later. Oddly enough, Stephen Fry was educated at Uppingham. As TV entertainment this was OK but taken as an attempt to bring a great classic to the small screen, well, really....

This adaptation has been tried and tested on four separate occasions. Right from the outset you could tell this screening of the famous story was sticking to the old traditional set. This was reassuring. Stephen Fry played the Doctor well with the casting of both Flashman and Tom Brown accurate. It was an average performance from Flashman, but a strong performance from the youngster who played Tom. Especially since it was his debut acting role. The story was intended for light entertainment and had no real meaning, therefore I can't scrutinise it for lacking depth. The other roles seemed too minor and the rest of the cast played their part well enough to go unnoticed. The viewers of this will forget it ten minutes after they've seen it but entertaining nonetheless and better than most in this genre.

Purchased DVD to have bonus material, which advertise Cast and Thomas Hughes biographies, History of Rugby School, Production Notes and Picture Gallery. What I was expecting was a short history of Rugby School featuring old clips of the School up to the present day, and perhaps what life is like for boys today at Rubgy School. How the production company cast for the roles, how the different parts were filmed in a School in use. Interviews with the Actors about what drew them to the part and what the film meant to them, the picture gallery featuring off screen images of the actors rehearsing/relaxing. What a disappointment. EVERY section is a let down. The cast biographies only feature four actors, two men and two women. Why, with a film using 99% of male actors, do we have a 50/50 split between men and women. Perhaps it's because most of the actors were young boys with little acting history ? This does not hold up to scrutiny, as the film did feature other well known and established male actors, which are not featured. The two male biographies are Steven Fry ( Doctor Arnold ), and Joe Beattie ( Flashman ), the main actor Alex Pettyfer is not featured, which I find unbelievable. A short History of Rugby School, Thomas Hughes Biography and Production Notes are only text, not even any pictures. The picture gallery was poor. I have seen two lovely images publicising the DVD, including one on the DVD cover itself, yet they are not featured. In conclusion, only buy the DVD for the film, which is very good. For the extras, forget it. Although not experienced in this area, even I could have made far superior bonus features. It seems the production company were not bothered with this part, and it probably only took one person a few hours to produce.

Tom Brown's Schooldays is a well acted drama by a large group of promising young actors. The drama is predominantly male, but I still managed to enjoy it! Stephen Fry played a firm but fair headmaster, and you can see how he really 'feels' for some of the boys, and gives every boy a second chance.

Alex Pettyfer, who plays the young Tom Brown is a very talented young lad, who carried the title character very well, and the audience could see what kind of character Tom Brown is like, and I felt he was really a nice character. His character development in the drama is good, and his acting improves and improved without, particularly when tragic events occur.

Joe Beattie who plays the bully Flashman is very good, and really evoked my feelings to a strong sense of dislike for the character.

Overall, I would say this drama is definitely worth a watch, and the actors cast to the roles fit them perfectly. They all give a really good sense of how cruel school life was for young boys in those times, and you really feel empathy for the young lads.

I also certainly hope to see more of Alex Pettyfer in more things to come, as many other girls I'm sure will agree with me!