The Paper Chase
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Movie Reviews of The Paper Chase
Movie Review: One of my favorite movies
Summary: 5 Stars
I saw this movie as an undergraduate and found it even more resonant when I got into graduate school. Although I did not study law, this movie will feel all too real for someone in an intensive post-undergraduate program. The life of the post-Bachelor's individual is truly terrifying. It's not for the weak of heart. The Paper Chase captures the world of academic stress wonderfully. All the issues are represented here: Do I have time to date? If I do, will a lover understand the need to pull an all-nighter on the weekend to finish a paper? Do my professors really expect me to finish this reading? For the serious student, life is far more like the Paper Chase than Back to School or Animal House. It's lonely, hard work, and your girlfriend will hate you sometimes for ignoring her so you can hit the books. And your professors will sometimes leave you twisting in the wind if you can't carry your own weight. Some grad school advisors are indeed like Kingsfield, thus the Houseman character is not a myth. John Houseman gets most of the good lines in this movie, but not all. Take the student lines like "Nothing makes you hornier than studying" or the exchange between Hart (I found it funny that even Hart's girlfrend calls him by his last name) and the failing Kevin that goes (I'm paraphrasing here), Hart: "They're just grades, Kevin." Kevin: "You know better than that. It's a grade, it's a number, but it determines futures." Paper Chase is at times painful to watch, as Hart endures flak on all sides--from his girlfriend to Kingsfield to his "supportive" study group. Hart does well because he's the classic good college student: an ambitious overachiever. He isn't the smartest necessarily, but he cares the most. But in the end, Kingsfield shows that no one ever will get inside his head. The struggle between professor and student is the heart of education. No college film treats colleges as honestly or intelligently as the Paper Chase. Watch it on the same bill with one of the slob college movies. Animal House is for the heathen in us. Paper Chase is for the Puritan.Movie Review: A battle for the soul
Summary: 5 Stars
I am an older student who just finished my first year of law school. The film is right on when it depicts the battle for your soul--will you be master of your fate and choose to do the work, or will you be driven by fear and insecurity and be enslaved to it? I experienced a little of both, and I do not want to spoil the film by revealing more to any who are trying to decide whether to buy or rent it. I heartily recommend it to anyone struggling with a self-imposed challenge.
I would have wished that the film show more of the process of learning to "think like a lawyer" and what that actually means - turning the facts of the case over and over, looking for points to the advantage of either side, and weighing the relative strength of those arguments. However, I do commend the film for showing a little bit of the feeling I quite unexpectedly experienced of being part of a line going back to the Magna Carta, examining the value of a human being and her freedom and the needs of society and searching for the ever-evolving meaning of justice.
As for the relationship between Kingsfield and Hart--my main professor was nothing like Kingsfield, but I did experience something eerily similar, right down to the last scene.
One last aside-A previous reviewer noted the absence of the Carbolic Smoke Ball case from his edition of West--it is certainly in mine and is a very important case with regard to defining the law of a public offer.
Movie Review: A Classic (especially for Lawyer Wannabees)
Summary: 5 Stars
I just watched this movie again, 20 years after I first saw it. I was in law school (not Harvard!) when it was released and I also had a Professor Kingsfield-type for contracts. The types of students, the competition, the panic about grades and exams, it's all here. I've asked some newer lawyers, and the majority said that it still reflects their law school experience. There may be some schools out there that are different, but I still think that anyone thinking of a legal career should watch this movie. One of the messages for Lawyer Wannabees is that even brilliant people may not have minds suitable to succeed in the law (Timothy Bottoms comments that a friend was really smart and wanted to go to Harvard Law but didn't do as well on the LSATs...lawyers all know someone similar, and can tell you about people who got into law school and then either fail on the curve or drop out -- there's a lot more to getting a J.D. than just being smart enough to get into a law school). Surprisingly, the age of the movie doesn't get in the way of the messages described so well in the other reviews. If I didn't know it was released in 1973, it would still appear pretty current (except for typewriters instead of computers and no cell phones!). No funky 60 cars, the clothes are pretty much back in style, and there are even similar hairstyles in my kids' high school and colleges today. Definitely recommended.Movie Review: The film with the reluctant star
Summary: 5 Stars
This is one of my favorite movies and showcases a fabulous performance by John Houseman, who was asked at the last minute to act the part. Other stars,including James Mason, John Gielgud, and Edward G. Robinson had been asked to take the lead but refused, so finally director James Bridges asked his mentor Houseman to take the role. And Houseman won an Oscar for it as Best Supporting Actor! He fills the role with dignity and intellect and thoroughly intimidates Timothy Bottoms starring as an eager law student from Minnesota. The film is also the debut of Lindsay Wagner, see mostly doing mattress commercials these days, but she really is a good actress. The film is set at Harvard Law School but since the school hated the publicity from "Love Story", also set on the famous Cambridge campus, most of "Paper Chase" was filmed in Toronto. The movie has many touching and amusing moments and carries you along briskly to the end where the filmmakers finally hit a false note. I understand what the characters were doing but it struck me as out of character and I never found the ending very satisfying. That said, the film still has so much to offer including a fun score by John Williams from early in his brilliant career. The supporting cast is uniformly fine and this is a movie I enjoying watching again and again.Movie Review: One of my favorite movies of all time
Summary: 5 Stars
I loved this movie. It helped me to understand that even though the Professor, (this could be your customer, or your boss) bites your head off, this happens, but it does not diminish you.
I loved Kingsfield's Arrogance, earned Arrogance. It amazes me that some people can achieve so much greatness (yes, I know this is just a movie), but as the first reviewer said, these old men still walk the halls of Harvard (and every other prestigious University in this country).
Hart's innocence and his experience learning (I really enjoyed the TV series, and this to the downfall of TV, that such a great series did not last, or at least barely made it into syndication on Public TV for a short time)
The young married student, sorry I have forgotten his name, the one with the "Photographic Memory"... I loved it when he went over to the 3-L student's house, and the student gave him a hypothetical to work up and he'd figure out where his shortcomings in the Law were, and he'd help him merely from the answers he gives to the hypothetical.
What a great movie about Great men (and women). Again, those men and women set the standards for our lives today. In our Government, Courts, Schools etc.