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19 out of 20 people found the following review useful: a fantastic film! one of the best, 12 March 2003 Author: nwyatt1608 from nottingham, england, uk
This film depicts the change of britain through the use of a public school as a metaphor. The films shows the changing views of class distinction, the idea of a devloping society and the view of change through the flemming report.The guinea pig tells show class in britain in the 1940s changes as the result of the changing attitudes due to the second world war, now working class people are having the chance to develop in the clasist world as read does at the end of the film.The film shows the different attitudes from the traditionalist housemaster hartley to the new tutor Lorraine who wants to develop the new society and to bring equality to those who needed it.I recommend this film not just for entertainment value but also for the significance it represents in the history of britain in the 1940s, the after-effects of the second world war and the development of a new society.ENJOY!
5 out of 6 people found the following review useful: Saintbury School, host to a truly wonderful experiment., 29 September 2008 Author: JohnRouseMerriottChard from United Kingdom
Based on a Warren Chetham Strode play and directed by the supremely talented Roy Boulting, The Guinea Pig is a cinematic delight of the kind that makes me proud to be British. Set in the 1940s, the picture is showing us the wind of change that occurred in Britain in the 40s as regards the breaking down of class system snobbery after the advent of World War II. Here our main protagonist is Jack Read {a simply wonderful Richard Attenborough}, a young fresh faced kid from a basic working class family, his father sends him away to posh Saintbury School. A school famed for it's Henry The Eighth heritage, Rugby, Cricket and it's affluent laden scholars. In short our Jack is not so much a fish out of water, but more like a tadpole in a sea of sharks, he his bullied by class mates for his humble origins, even the house masters are looking down their noses at him, but a bit of love and support from home and astute teacher Nigel Lorraine {Robert Flemyng brilliant} and Jack, coupled with his guts could yet make his mark on Saintbury School and beyond. An important film in many ways, The Guinea Pig seems to be something of an under seen piece, very few user comments written for it and only 100 people have voted on it. With that in mind please ignore the current 6.3 rating here, this film is a positive delight, from the harsh early days of Jack's schooling to a delightful Thomas Wolsey inspired wind of change, The Guinea Pig not only gave me a tear in my eye, it also gave me pride within my chest.Wonderful indeed 9/10.
5 out of 6 people found the following review useful: Easy Terms, 12 September 2007 Author: writers_reign from London, England
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Shown on television more or less 60 years after its initial release this holds up remarkably well in contrast to Brighton Rock made one year earlier with the same leading man and the other twin director brother at the helm. Perhaps it is because The Guinea Pig presents Britain in a positive rather than a negative light or, to put it another way, perhaps we can feel nostalgia for an IDEA of a lost Britain rather than an actual one. Dickie Attenborough then 23 and already married for three years (to Sheila Sim, who marries Robert Fleyming here) 'got away' with playing the working class schoolboy awarded a scholarship to a Public school as a 'socialist' experiment and part of the enjoyment is watching the traditional 'values' of that lost England reflected in the prism of the Public school as they had been in Goodbye, Mr. Chips and would be again in The Browning Version though all three films had a different focus. Today when ANY form of education is anathema to the Blairites it's difficult if a film like this would last five minutes should anyone be foolish enough to produce and screen one but as long as Channel 4 is prepared to air this type of movie we can bask in its core values for an hour or so even as the barbarians are at the gate.
1 out of 1 people found the following review useful: Oh Gosh, Sir!, 2 July 2009 Author: JoeytheBrit from www.moviemoviesite.com
Yes, we're in that Britain of the distant past, but one on the cusp of a social revolution as public schools, once the enclave of plummy-voiced toffs, open their doors (if just a crack) to working class boys.This film is so old-fashioned it looks, at times like one of those parodies Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse used to excel in. Even when men are arguing they do so in a terribly civilised manner, with their conversation peppered with such phrases as 'now look here' and 'steady on old chap.' It's difficult to imagine Britain could really have been a place like the one described in this film, but I suppose it must have been so.The plot tells of young Jack Read (Richard Attenborough deftly playing a 13-year-old at the age of 23), a gifted working class boy who receives a place at Saintbury public school as part of a vague experiment. Naturally, Read stands out like a sore thumb and is bullied by his school chums, and it is only thanks to the support of forward-thinking new teacher Robert Flemyng that Read gathers the fortitude to carry on.Of course, Saintbury is a metaphor of post-war Britain and the resistance of the old order to inexorable change, and the consequence of all Read's ordeals are fairly predictable. Lloyd Hartley (a rather good Cecil Trouncer), the traditionally-minded school master who has an inherent dislike of the working class, has a change of mind that is quite touching and almost Mr Chips-like in its sentimentality - even if it is a little unlikely.The Guinea Pig looks like a relic from a bygone age today, and it's difficult to see who would be interested in such a film other than film buffs and historians. For all its' predictability, it's a pleasant enough little film that touches upon many sub-plots without actually exploring them in any depth.
1 out of 3 people found the following review useful: Equality in education will not be achieved by "Tokenism"., 25 February 2009 Author: ianlouisiana from United Kingdom
"One Englishman only has to open his mouth for another Englishman to immediately despise him" said Bernard Shaw,an Irishman who,despite its faults chose to live in England for most of his life.This was never more true than in the 1940s when after two world wars and Lord knows how many revolutions,the British Working Class began,in fits and starts, to seek their place in the sun. Shaw's aphorism of course works both ways and the Cockneys,Geordies, Scousers,Mancs,Brummies,Tykes etc had a healthy contempt for the chinless wonders who considered themselves infinitely their superiors. "Scholarship Boys" had been a fact of Public School life since Billy Bunter rolled along the remove Passage at Greyfriars,but "The Guinea Pig" offers the phenomenon as if it was newly-minted. To most people Richard Attenborough will be the only member of the cast who speaks normally.The masters,their families,the other boys all employ the ridiculous strangled tones that make Noel Coward seem like Bob Hoskins. Young Master Attenborough's progress through the school is marked by the ragging,bullying and generally oppressive behaviour any "New Scum" could expect in such an establishment.The fact that he is an "oik" merely gives it extra flavour.However,he is made of stern stuff and triumphs over all adversity and is promised a "crack at University" (gulp),something that,sixty years on,every child may see as its right. The rise of the Grammar Schools ensured that Working Class children who wished to go onto Higher Education got the opportunity to do so. The fact that New Labour has done its best to destroy that institution reflects little credit on them and their small-minded and repressive educational policies. The movie is a passionate plea for equality of opportunity in education which,sadly,was not and will not be attained by tokenism. What was needed then and is even more needed now is better schools and better teaching.Apparently the government can find untold billions to bail out corrupt bankers but future generations of innocent children can go jump for a decent education.Ah well,that's Socialism for you,I guess.
0 out of 2 people found the following review useful: not to be taken seriously, 22 June 2009 Author: anthonyrwaldman from United Kingdom
The Guinea Pig is about a lower middle class boy called Jack winning a scholarship and going to an English public school called Saintbury. There he is bullied by other pupils for his lower class origins and disliked by his house-master who resents any sort of change. We see him flogged by a senior pupil for burning a couple of pieces of toast and by his house-master for walking along a riverside park with a local girl. His house-master is repelled not just by his class background but by things such as his eating habits. Jack wipes out a plate with a piece of bread. We do see Jack having a meal at home and there is nothing wrong with his table manners there. As for the infamous use of the word "arse" with Jack's upbringing he probably would not have used the word in the first place. Education at this school is muscular Christian with an emphasis on sports such as "rugger" and cricket. The teachers wouldn't know what a lesson plan was. Their method of teaching in this film is is take out your book and turn to page ... and lets read around the class. The school library cannot be of much use because we see Jack make a mess of a history paper and is then told by the progressive Mr. Lorraine to go to the local bookshop and buy a specific book on the subject. The book should have been in the library in the first place or why set the assignment? After four years at this institution we find that Jack wants to go to Cambridge to read for a degree and become a teacher. Well, he could have stayed in East London; there were some excellent nearby grammar schools during the postwar years and he then could have entered the University of London. This films message is that the public schools would have to change and accommodate a Labour government. The public schools didn't really change and the Labour party never had the backbone to take them on.
1 out of 4 people found the following review useful: Stout Defence of Public Schools in Socialist Britain, 19 June 2007 Author: dwm51 from United Kingdom
In 1948, Britain was being ruled by the Labour Party with a government more socialist than any in its history with an ambition to occupy the commanding heights of the economy on behalf of the people. If it wasn't the whiff of revolution in the air, there was the prospect of change that was unwelcome to the ruling classes of the time and this film represents a timely warning to the working classes not to rock the boat. A single working class boy, Read, is taken into a top public school as an experiment. He hates it at first and endures a mild caning and a bit of ragging, but emerges as a young toff himself, set for Cambridge and a career in teaching. He doesn't challenge the system but is merged into it. There is some conflict between the masters about the need for change and including boys like Read, but the conflict is resolved in such a civilised way that the audience is left in doubt that Britain must be uniquely blessed with a ruling class of impeccable character that it would be foolish to discard. Read's father, a working class demi-hero having played football for the Army (the best team in England in wartime), endorses his son's transition to the establishment, acknowledging that this school has taught him character building lessons he could not have learnt in a state school. So, the message to the working class is: a small number of your most talented boys can join the ruling class so long as you accept its right to rule. Having said that, the film has a good script and excellent ensemble performances from a raft of Britain's better screen actors of the time, including the great Bernard Miles as the boy's father.
7 out of 16 people found the following review useful: Richard Attenborough plays it young with expletive!, 12 March 2003 Author: Ian (laurian@waitrose.com) from London, England
This was the first movie that dared to use "arse" in the script. Young Attenborough was not that youthful even though his character was that of a schoolboy. The movie used academic extras from Kings College University for the rugby scenes which included the young Norman Fidler in an early role.
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