X
- 1973
- PG
- Twentieth Century Fox
- 1 h 53 m
- 1973
- PG
- Twentieth Century Fox
- 1 h 53 m
Summary A first-year law student at Harvard Law School struggles with balancing his coursework and his relationship with the daughter of his sternest professor.
Directed By: James Bridges
Written By: John Jay Osborn Jr., James Bridges
- 1973
- PG
- Twentieth Century Fox
- 1 h 53 m
- 1973
- PG
- Twentieth Century Fox
- 1 h 53 m
The Paper Chase
65
7.2
Summary A first-year law student at Harvard Law School struggles with balancing his coursework and his relationship with the daughter of his sternest professor.
Directed By: James Bridges
Written By: John Jay Osborn Jr., James Bridges
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 7 Critic Reviews
65
43% Positive
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
57% Mixed
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 7 Critic Reviews
65
43% Positive
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
57% Mixed
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
What's best about the movie is that it considers interesting adults--young and old--in an intelligent manner. After it's over we almost feel relief; there are so many movies about clods reacting moronically to romantic and/or violent situations. But we hardly ever get movies about people who seem engaging enough to spend half an hour talking with (what would you say to Charles Bronson?). Here's one that works.
The Paper Chase has some great performances, literate screenwriting, sensitive direction and handsome production. Timothy Bottoms is excellent as the puzzled law student, Lindsay Wagner is very good as his girl, and John Houseman, the veteran legit and film producer-director-writer, is outstanding as a hard-nosed but urbane law professor.
Assisted by Gordon Willis's cinematography and John Houseman's performance as the demanding Professor Kingsfield, director James Bridges manages to do a fair job with the semihokey material.
Bottoms is a Minnesota-bred law student who comes to Harvard and the lecture hall of Houseman, an instructor who seemingly takes great pleasure in puncturing his students' egos. Bottoms falls in love with Wagner. Essentially, this is a military school plot with a change of venue.
A muddled and slick youth film. Excellent sequences of his quarrelsome study group tearing one another apart under fierce competitive strain - and a fine performance by Houseman as their olympian, sadistic professor - make the film watchable.
The picture, written and directed by James Bridges, tries to be thoughtful and provocative, but it has nothing to say.
It takes a long while for The Paper Chase to disintegrate, and there are some funny, intelligent sequences along the way, but by the end it has melted into a blob of clichés.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 6 User Ratings
7.2
83% Positive
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
0% Mixed
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
17% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 6 User Ratings
7.2
83% Positive
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
0% Mixed
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
17% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
There are no user reviews yet. Be the first to add a review.
Awards
Academy Awards, USA
• 1 Win & 3 Nominations
Golden Globes, USA
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
National Board of Review, USA
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
