The Paper Chase
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Movie Reviews of The Paper Chase
Movie Review: A minor classic about the law school experience.
Summary: 4 Stars
Having attended Law School myself, I can vouch for the fact that it is typically a very special experience in one's life, perhaps not quite like any other. The first year of law school in particular is often a jarring and transformative experience. This is the theme of this film, which is a quite good, if perhaps slightly overdone, story about a small group of law students' first year in law school. Law school is shown to be a ruthless process of competition and weeding out, where the professors take students who have "a skull full of mush ...." and teach them how to "think like a lawyer...!"
John Houseman turns in a classic performance as Professor Kingsfield, the brilliant, stern, and unforgiving Contracts professor, whom law student Timothy Bottoms comes to idolize. Bottoms' attempt to succeed in Kingsfield's brutal Contracts classroom, where students are put on the spot and roasted on a daily basis, is the basic theme of this film.
Although (typical of so many Hollywood films) this film overdramatizes the law school experience, it nevertheless does capture the essence of what is usually a unique experience for those who undergo it. I doubt that there is an American law school student for the last 30 years who has failed to see this film--it is a legend among law students. And the wider American audience seems to have appreciated it as well.
An excellent film that most viewers will appreciate.
Movie Review: Fun, but NOTHING like real law school
Summary: 4 Stars
"The Paper Chase" is that movie that terrifies future law students with visions of cut-throat competition and horribly stressful conditions. If you realize it's heavily fiction, you can take if for what it is: a unique movie about high stress and how people react to it. John Houseman is unforgettable as the notorious Prof. Kingsfield.On the subject of how this movie represents _actual_ law school:
I am currently a law student at a top-20 law school (2003), I have plenty of friends who attend the other top-20 schools in the nation (including Harvard, portrayed here). Even when this film debuted in 1973 it was considered a high dramatization to strike fear in the non-law student. If you're considering law school, watch it realizing that. The Paper Chase shows the darkest view of law school as much as Legally Blonde makes it out to be silly and fun. Law School is neither: it's that boring movie no one would ever pay to see.
With that side note, the movie is a fun diversion. Definitely worth the time to see what all the fuss is about.
Movie Review: Chase This Paper Down
Summary: 4 Stars
AS I said Chase this Paper down, it is worth it if you love great films!
This small film won actor/producer John Houseman his best supporting Oscar for his playing the character of Professor Kingsfield. I start off with that fact because you can see this fact while the film unfolds before you. This movie is John Houseman tout de force all the way. Kingsfield plays a teacher's teacher..he runs the students thru their paces.
Timothy Bottoms plays Hart, a young law student who is dazed by all the excitement of his first year. He meets Susan ( who isa played by a very young, prew-Bionic Woman Lindsay Wagner) who Hart finds out is Kingsfield's daughter.
It is an amazing character study of the first year of law school and those who teach them. Note this film also has the talents of James Naughton and Edward Herrmann in their early tv/film careers.
Worth every second of film. It barely date himself, and it was released in 1973
Bennet Pomerantz AUDIOWORLD
Movie Review: Thank you, Mr. Kingsfield - Yessir, Mr. Kane
Summary: 4 Stars
I only write to add my unreserved support to the comments of those who have already insightfully covered this movie for Amazon.
Let me not waste any words. John Houseman, an exceptionally talented founding member of Orson Welles' troupe, and respected director/actor since that era, is both delightful and outstanding as the humorless, unbending, venerable and universally familiar Harvard Law icon, Professor Kingsfield. The movie is a professional job and has other aspects to recommend it, but Houseman and his character as written in a clearly insightful script, is the perennial draw to this tribute to positive, life-altering student/teacher tension.
The rest of the story reflects the American college-centered moral popularism of the late 1960s -- but is still relevant, as it is pitted against the really much more weighty and unshakable philosophy enshrined in the principles and the person of Professor Kingsfield.
This is worth seeing.
Movie Review: Modest story, but a strong cast
Summary: 4 Stars
John Housman, as the brilliant, unapproachable, Harvard Law professor, pulls this train. A first year law student, Timothy Bottoms, is not satisfied with getting what his professor has to teach him about contract law; he is driven to get the professor to recognize him as an individual. His professor is like the old school football coach; He doesn't care if you like him, but you will be a great football player when he is done with you. Houseman, plays the professor to perfection even with a slight hint, but nothing revealed, of a human being. The high levels of anxiety and competition, that are awash in ego, is depicted through Bottoms' fellow students. Modest story, but a great cast of characters.