The Paper Chase

The Paper Chase_360P

source: The Paper Chase

It's been almost 40 years since I entered law school during which this movie was released and viewed with great interest by just about everyone in my class. For some, it was a fairly accurate depiction of the emotional drain first year law school can bring about. We didn't see these folks again after the Christmas break. For most, however, it was a bit 'over-the-top' fun - strategically useful to impress family and friends who always seemed to be oddly curious about the academic rigors involved in becoming a lawyer. Our law school sponsored a frosh-night just before the first week of classes and, after the movie was released it was played as the highlight of the evening. For those of us in second and third-years who were also invited, it was great fun to observe the incoming, first-year students squirm and grimace as if it were they who were called-upon to recite the facts and finding in Carlill & Carbolic Smoke Ball. Housman's performance, while undoubtedly brilliant and, indeed, a major dramatic focal-point of the film, would have been rather softened in reality. The students in my class (and no doubt the ones both before and after) were superbly aware of their own social rights and responsibilities and they certainly were no wall-flowers by any stretch. They would have very quickly and resoundingly stood-up to that sort of intimidation and it wouldn't have happened again. And yet, now, some 40 years later, having just seen the movie again, I must say, upon reflection, it really does capture the essence of the law school experience. It is a jealous mistress; romantic relationships, sports, hobbies, casual fun - all of it becomes secondary to the almost overwhelming curricular demands. As is suggested in the film, it is not just a question of learning material, memorizing statutes and jurisprudence; it is more than that. It is a matter of changing the way one sees reality. To this day, even though I am a retired lawyer, I look at a vehicular accident and I think 'tortious liability'. I hear an ambulance and I think 'wills and estates'. I watch Dads alone and fumbling uncomfortably with their kids in MacDonald's on Saturday morning and I remember the 'custody and access' battles in which my clients were engaged. To me, the movie is as fresh and evocative today as when I first saw it.

I had dropped out of Harvard Law school in 1969, not because of a girl, but because I wanted to see life before I saw Vietnam. I later found out about the Marine Reserves and avoided Vietnam, but I had always wondered if I had made a BIG mistake (I did have a successful career in data processing, however). When I saw this film, I immediately knew I had made the right choice. Most of my professors were just blustering blowhards who were trying as much to intimidate me as teach me (Kingsfield must have taken lessons from one professor of mine in particular, although Houseman was not half as intimidating as he was!). Hart's realization that experience is almost as important as education( although sometimes not as lucrative) was a turning point in my life, and I have never looked back. Not enough credit is given to Lindsay Wagner in without a doubt what was her best performance--brava!

Thirty six years ago (!) before multiplexes and without the blunting effect of Tarantino and Bigelow, regular effective and intelligent movies like THE PAPER CHASE were made by film companies who co-existed in a gentleman's game called production and exhibition. Films like this were made as stand alone statements about life and love and education, and were shown in luxury cinemas that had furniture (lampshades, even!) in the foyers and well dressed, informed adult staff. Today, in this clever new century we have an industry that has sawn off its own creative head in order to film the blood spurt, and reduced movie-going to all the elegance of a supermarket. Other comments here will tell you the whole story, but as with this comment, each distill down to one thing: THE PAPER CHASE is an excellent and interesting film made in a year of truly exceptional memorable films. Sadly THE PAPER CHASE has not been seen on TV or in cinemas for three decades either, a calamity hopefully balanced by a DVD release so new generations can discover what sensible life and times 1973 was....and how life had hope and success within reach. Timothy Bottoms and Lindsay Wagner have never really gone on to anything better either. The late great John Houseman reinvented a career at aged 71 in this film and won an Oscar for his withering excellence. What a great script and performances, and a defining film in many ways. Students in film schools everywhere should study THE PAPER CHASE ...perhaps along with LOVE STORY and CARNAL KNOWLEDGE two other films of the same period that fit the look and style and success of this film. I would love to sit in on a discussion by today's 20 year olds who having seen each of those three films can explain their success.

Naive and unassuming pipsqueak from the Midwest (Timothy Bottoms) goes off to an ivy league university, and, he is in for a rude awakening!! The aura of intellectual pretentiousness that an eastern law school flaunts around, becomes something that effortlessly obliterates Hart's idealistic and innocuous mid western demeanor in record time!! This movie is about decisions, decisions that are based on crystal clear reality!! Academia becomes fatiguing whether he wants it to be or not!! Hart (Timothy Bottoms) is hit over the head with the fact that law school transcends mandating adulthood, it now evokes the tenuous exuberance which correlates to an unprecedented personal challenge for him!! Hart (the student) is enamored with Professor Kingfield, his brilliance astounds him!! Coincidently, he is kind of seeing Professor Kingfield's daughter.. She points out to him time and time again that this diploma at the end of the rainbow concept is ludicrous.. This movie does not pair Hart with his professor's daughter for purposes of situational comedy; more to the point, it is for a comprehension of a full ideological perspective!! His relationship with her is not for comic relief, nor is it really about sex, more significantly, she acts as a succor for social enlightenment!!It is all pretty much laid out for Mr Hart: It does not matter whether he can understand Professor Kingfield, it does not matter if he passes or fails, and money does not necessarily matter either!! What matters is that Hart should get his head out of his rear end and decide whether or not he wants to become a lawyer!! "Paper Chase" is a very good film because it purports the essential concept about prevailing ground rules!!! College is not about precocious chicanery, it is about constructing your future, not just in terms of your career, but also, in terms of your fortitude as an adult! Ultimately, "Paper Chase" presented itself as one big acrimonious jeremiad!! Look at it this way, someone had to do it..Great acting!! Terrific Movie!! One more positive aspect to this film: How many movies make you think? Pondering the issue of what you plan to do and be in your life is, after all, very important!!! What is more important, however, is what your philosophical stamina enables you to prioritize effectively: Wouldn't you say so? "Paper Chase" points this out brilliantly!! The film "Paper Chase" possesses a saturated intellectual gratification which it provides for the movie audience to ruminate!! I give it five stars!!

I have friends who have gone to law school and their subjective descriptions of how intense an experience that was seem to be validated in this now 30-year-old film. Houseman and Bottoms shine, the rest of the cast (while a bit too stuffy) seem to compliment them without flaw. I liked seeing a very young (unspoiled) Lindsey Wagner in her pre-bionic woman days. Truthfully, though certainly dated at this point, this film still held my interest. I was, however, disappointed in the last scene, for although it may have meant to be liberating for the Bottoms character to shift his priorities the timing, (upon receipt of his final grades) seemed ill chosen. Still, one can't help but root for him through all of this. In the end one wonders if while retaining his idealism he sacrificed his sanity.

As a student at a fairly prestigious law school myself, I can tell you that this is a movie any law student today will find laughable. I don't know what law school was like 30 years ago, but now it's much more laid-back and accommodating than is portrayed in this film. If you're watching to get ideas about law school, you need to take this movie with a grain of salt: grades are nowhere near as important as they're made out here, professors are nowhere near as harsh, and if you've attended any American undergraduate institution within the last ten years, odds are you've experienced the Socratic Method. Our "hero" is a mewling, fawning sycophant, who lamely idolizes his professor, treats his girlfriend badly, bucks for attention in class (we call these people 'gunners'), has a silly 1970's hairstyle, and is shown (distubingly often) in a Speedo. My law school buddies and I like to watch this movie and laugh at it. Recommended for those who have no interest in attending law school and for those already there who want a good guffaw.

The acting was very good. The photography was good. So why didn't I like this movie? Because the script sucked. Are we supposed to believe at the end that Hart chucked the entire Harvard Law experience ... for what? To make a paper airplane out of the envelope containing his grades? Great symbolism if you're watching this and you're 20 years old (as I was in 1973), but nowhere up to that point do I have any reason to think he's going to become anything but a hotshot lawyer who's screwing his evil professor's daughter for good measure. The rest of the characters were so underdeveloped as to make the movie seem amateurish. Beyond John Houseman's acting, I don't understand the acclaim it got.

I cant say this movie is anything at all like law school, but I have been in a PhD program for seven years and I know this: The Paper Chase is far and away the most accurate representation of the first year of graduate school as depicted in film. Not there are really *any* depictions of graduate school in film, at least this one gets it right. The students at once detest and seek approval from a professor who cares very little about whether or not they make it. They must rely on one another to get through the year but in the end it is up to each one as individuals whether or not they succeed and go on, or even if they want to continue. Some may knock what might appear to be a cliched cast of first year law students(not unlike a World War II movie) including the arrogant one, the kooky one, the rich guy, the brainy one, the selfish one, the self doubting one--but honest, all of these stereotypes exist in every first year grad program in every department across the country. If you think you want to go to grad school, this movie may (and hopefully will) cure you.