Old-fashioned British film-making at its best, taking a literary classic, in this case Thomas Hughes's novel of the same name, and simply re-telling the tale in an un-flashy (pardon the pun) manner.
Reportedly faithful to the book source (although I've read the book, it was donkeys years ago, as a boy), the film certainly seems to accurately recreate the cloistered world of private boarding schools of the early 19th Century and all the calumnies which occurred on campus, none worse than the established but nefarious practice of older-form boys requiring the first-year intake to "fag" for them, which basically meant them doing any kind of menial task considered beneath their elders. The point is made in the film that most of the teaching staff were aware of and indeed condoned the practice, probably because they'd been through it themselves and took the view that it was a necessary rite of passage on the path to manhood. Utter nonsense, of course, it was authorised institutional bullying, involving both psychological and physical abuse, usually combined at the same time with anyone trying to change the status quo, such as one of the junior masters or even the humanitarian headmaster Dr Thomas Arnold, denounced as reformers, terrible thing.
Into this battle-, sorry, school-ground comes young Tom Brown, a reserved boy of eleven who despite making friends his own age soon learns his place at the bottom of the school hierarchy and worse, comes into the orbit of the school's most notorious bully, Flashman, who takes an immediate dislike to him and tries to make his life a misery. But young Tom, despite being pushed to his limits, is no quitter and finds a way to get back at his tormentor by learning a new skill over the summer break.
The climax of the film involves Tom and a couple of his chums carrying out a brave and selfless act which sees one of their number face a life or death struggle while the rescued party, in classic blame-avoidance fashion tries to twist the truth for their own ends.
Thankfully truth will out and helped along by a healthy dose of Christian prayer, wrongs are righted although you suspect Dr Arnold might need to apply some root and branch treatment to rid the school of some of the more ingrained practices perpetrated by both senior staff and pupils.
I could have done without the forced religiosity at the end and unsurprisingly some of the child acting is a little stiff and wooden in places but there's no denying this is a rattling good tale with an exemplary young hero who learns fast how to handle himself in an alien environment (I had to smile at the second-year Tom calling his new protege "young 'un"). Young John Howard Davies and Robert Newton are happily reunited from David Lean's "Oliver Twist" three years before, the latter in a markedly different role, while John Forrest shines as the venal, rascally Flashman.
A success at the U.K. box-office with its example of the national stiff upper lip to a land still enduring the stringencies of post-war rationing and all that, it's an entertaining, well-made British drama with an underlying anti-bullying message still highly topical today.
Reportedly faithful to the book source (although I've read the book, it was donkeys years ago, as a boy), the film certainly seems to accurately recreate the cloistered world of private boarding schools of the early 19th Century and all the calumnies which occurred on campus, none worse than the established but nefarious practice of older-form boys requiring the first-year intake to "fag" for them, which basically meant them doing any kind of menial task considered beneath their elders. The point is made in the film that most of the teaching staff were aware of and indeed condoned the practice, probably because they'd been through it themselves and took the view that it was a necessary rite of passage on the path to manhood. Utter nonsense, of course, it was authorised institutional bullying, involving both psychological and physical abuse, usually combined at the same time with anyone trying to change the status quo, such as one of the junior masters or even the humanitarian headmaster Dr Thomas Arnold, denounced as reformers, terrible thing.
Into this battle-, sorry, school-ground comes young Tom Brown, a reserved boy of eleven who despite making friends his own age soon learns his place at the bottom of the school hierarchy and worse, comes into the orbit of the school's most notorious bully, Flashman, who takes an immediate dislike to him and tries to make his life a misery. But young Tom, despite being pushed to his limits, is no quitter and finds a way to get back at his tormentor by learning a new skill over the summer break.
The climax of the film involves Tom and a couple of his chums carrying out a brave and selfless act which sees one of their number face a life or death struggle while the rescued party, in classic blame-avoidance fashion tries to twist the truth for their own ends.
Thankfully truth will out and helped along by a healthy dose of Christian prayer, wrongs are righted although you suspect Dr Arnold might need to apply some root and branch treatment to rid the school of some of the more ingrained practices perpetrated by both senior staff and pupils.
I could have done without the forced religiosity at the end and unsurprisingly some of the child acting is a little stiff and wooden in places but there's no denying this is a rattling good tale with an exemplary young hero who learns fast how to handle himself in an alien environment (I had to smile at the second-year Tom calling his new protege "young 'un"). Young John Howard Davies and Robert Newton are happily reunited from David Lean's "Oliver Twist" three years before, the latter in a markedly different role, while John Forrest shines as the venal, rascally Flashman.
A success at the U.K. box-office with its example of the national stiff upper lip to a land still enduring the stringencies of post-war rationing and all that, it's an entertaining, well-made British drama with an underlying anti-bullying message still highly topical today.