4/5 Interesting Adaptation; Good Acting
  by Andrew Raker (PA)

Pretty much my title of "Interesting Adaptation; Good Acting" sums up what I thought of this adaptation of "Tom Brown's Schooldays."

A few points, however, I think deserve mentioning:

1.
This film contains violence. While I don't think any adaptation of "Tom Brown's Schooldays" is suitable for little children, I think it is especially so in this case. Flashman's (Joseph Beattie) behavior is not something young children should see. [I make this point because some people have written reviews saying they have been surprised by the violence.]

2.
At just under 100 minutes, this adaptation does not follow the novel very well. This usually perturbs me. However, in this case, since "Tom Brown's Schooldays" is not a classic novel, I can accept considerable deviations.

3.
I thought the acting, especially that by Alex Pettyfer (Tom Brown) and Stephen Fry (Dr. Arnold) was quite good.

4.
I watched the film on YouTube. This said, I don't know what special features, if any, are on the DVD disk if you order it from Amazon.com

2/5 Not what we expected.
  by Mom and Teacher (Midwest USA)
This story had a compelling plot and story development. I chose it for a family movie based on everything on the front and back jacket covers. The drama was intense and disturbing at times. There is slight nudity and some amount of mature theme. It is not rated, but it was not at all what I expected based on the information on the jacket. From other reviews I have now read, the movie is more extreme (than the actual book) in its display of the bullying which occurred in this school. Even though the main culprit does get asked to leave, you always get the feeling he is not punished enough and should have been punished as a criminal. I felt like I made a mistake in choosing it as a family film even though the story has some merit. For the most part, good triumphs over evil in the end. Our family felt like it should have been rated PG-13 due to some mature sexual content.

4/5 An Interesting Story
  by David K. Gervais (Citronelle, Al United States)
This well made, and very well acted movie held my interest all the way through. Some of the bullying vaguely reminded me of Junior High and High School physical education classes, but I overlooked it and watched it anyway. I've never read the book, but now I plan to as the movie made me interested in it.

5/5 First-class treatment of a first-rate Victorian novel
  by The Bookworm Sailor (All at Sea)
The story is well known: Rugby, a public school in the English midlands and where the game was invented, acquires a new headmaster in 1828: Dr Arnold managed single-handedly to change the way of life at boys' schools in the whole country. (To put this into context, these were the days when great social reforms were just beginning, with the abolition of slavery on the horizon and the first glimpses of "human rights".) When he arrived the masters were idle and often drunk, and the boys were left to develop without guidance or discipline which led to bullying - mental, physical and sexual - being the order of the day (remember the descent of the young into savagery in Lord of the Flies?).

This beautifully filmed and acted work conveys the life and hard times of Tom Brown and his battle against the principal school bully, the appalling Flashman (subject of a series of novels by George MacDonald Fraser 100 years later), mostly following the original novel. It well shows the tribal loyalties that prevent the boys from betraying their tormentors to the staff, and allows Tom's intelligence and innate decency to develop with the discreet but firm pressure from Dr Arnold who early recognises that Tom will be his best hope of an ally in his campaign to civilise the beasts. This by no means implies that Tom is a goody-goody: on the contrary, he gets into trouble quite often. I found this film to be satisfying and rather charming as a portrayal of Victorian toughness, while at the same time the sentimentality that was also very Victorian is given a brief airing with its treatment of the short life and death of a quiet child whose temperament is wholly out of step.

I cannot fault this film. But on no account should it be marketed as any kind of "coming of age" film, nor will there be anything to stir those who fancy boys or young men: it is a powerful statement about a period of educational and social reform which spread around the whole English-speaking world.


4/5 Historical brutality?
  by Randall C. Woltz
This is a very well made film and probably historically correct as far as the private (public) school system was concerned but it is hard to watch the cruelty and brutality towards the younger boys. Alex Pettyfer is excellent as the young Tom Brown but he is continually "beat up" by the system of older sadistic students and disconnected teachers. He does stand up to it all and triumphs at the end, but at what cost? The saddest was the torture of a sensitive new student who never really recovers. It reminded me too much of Junior High and what a scar it can leave on you. Historically correct but disturbing.