The Paper Chase | |
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Directed by | James Bridges |
Screenplay by | James Bridges |
Based on | The Paper Chase by John Jay Osborn Jr. |
Produced by |
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Starring | |
Cinematography | Gordon Willis |
Edited by | Walter Thompson |
Music by | John Williams |
Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
Release date |
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Running time | 111 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $3.6 million [1] |
The Paper Chase is a 1973 American comedy-drama film starring Timothy Bottoms, Lindsay Wagner, and John Houseman, and directed by James Bridges.
Based on John Jay Osborn Jr.'s 1971 novel The Paper Chase , it tells the story of James Hart, a first-year law student at Harvard Law School, his experiences with Professor Charles Kingsfield, a brilliant and demanding contract law instructor, and Hart's relationship with Kingsfield's daughter. Houseman earned an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as the professor. Houseman later reprised the role in a TV series of the same name that lasted four seasons, following Hart, played by James Stephens, through his three years of law school.
James T. Hart starts his first year at Harvard Law School in a contract law course with Professor Charles W. Kingsfield Jr. When Kingsfield immediately delves into the material using the Socratic method and asks Hart the first question, Hart is totally unprepared and feels so humiliated that, after class, he throws up in the bathroom.
Hart is invited to join a study group with five others:
Each member of the group agrees to focus on a specific course and write a synopsis of their notes to share with each other before the final exams. Hart chooses contract law.
While out getting pizza, Hart is asked by a woman, Susan Fields, to walk her home, as she says she feels uncomfortable about a man who has been following her. Hart returns to her house soon after and asks her on a date, after which they begin a complicated relationship: she resents the time he devotes to his studies and his fascination with Kingsfield, while he expects her to provide him with considerable attention and wants a firm commitment. When Hart and a select few of his classmates are invited to a cocktail party hosted by Kingsfield, he is stunned to discover that Susan is Kingsfield's married daughter. She is, however, separated from her husband and eventually gets a divorce. She and Hart break up and get back together several times.
Hart categorizes his classmates into three groups: those who have given up; those who are trying, but fear being called upon in class to respond to Kingsfield's questions; and the "upper echelon" who actively volunteer to answer. Hart strives to move from the second classification to the third, and succeeds as time goes on.
Hart eventually learns of the existence of the "Red Set", the archived and sealed personal notes that Harvard professors wrote when they were students, which are stored in a locked room of the library. Late one night, Hart and Ford break into the library to read Kingsfield's notes.
The mounting pressure gets to everyone as the course nears its end. Brooks attempts suicide and drops out of school. The study group is torn apart by personal bickering, with only three of the six members remaining. With final exams looming, Hart and Ford hole up in a hotel room for three days and study feverishly. On the last day of class, Hart and his classmates give Kingsfield a standing ovation. Later, as Susan brings Hart his mail at the beach. Hart climbs to the highest rock, makes a paper airplane out of the unopened envelope containing his grades and sends it flying into the water.
The film is a faithful adaptation of the novel, although it adds two elements not in the book: Hart's first name and middle initial (James T.), and his final grade in contract law (93, an A). [2]
There are several possible inspirations for the character. The late [3] Harvard Law professor Clark Byse is said to have been the inspiration for the character's position at Harvard Law School, though not the character's personality. According to John Houseman, [4] the inspiration for Kingsfield was crusty professor Edward "Bull" Warren, also reflected in The Boston Globe in 2004. [5] Houseman had noted that Kingsfield's behavior is actually a toned-down version of Warren's famous classroom rudeness, as enshrined in classroom lore, and recounted several examples of the professor's putdowns.
James Bridges originally earmarked James Mason for the Kingsfield role, but he was unavailable. After attempts to cast Melvyn Douglas, Edward G. Robinson, John Gielgud, Paul Scofield, and other famous actors in the role, Bridges offered it to Houseman, who agreed to fly to Toronto (where the film's interior sequences were to be shot) for a screen test. Bridges called it "fabulous", and Houseman accepted the part, thus launching his acting career. He had seldom acted before, but knew Bridges from the time he was a stage manager in Houseman's UCLA Professional Theater Group. Houseman then recommended Bridges as a writer for the television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents , for which Bridges wrote 18 teleplays before establishing himself as a motion picture writer-director. [6]
The exterior shots of the Harvard Law School buildings were filmed on the Harvard Law School campus, and the library shots were filmed in the Harvard Andover library at the Harvard Divinity School. All interiors were shot on stages in Toronto. In a 1999 interview, Gordon Willis said production designer George Jenkins "reproduced the Harvard Law School in The Paper Chase beautifully." [7] The hotel scene was filmed at the Windsor Arms Hotel. [8] The scene of Hart and Ford entering a building to take their final exam near the film's end was shot in front of the Law School's oldest building, iconic Austin Hall. Most of the extras for the Harvard Law School venue scenes were then current Harvard Law students, paid a $25 per diem by 20th Century Fox.
Willis shot The Paper Chase in anamorphic format due to the "schoolroom and the graphics in the film." [7] He also commented on the cinematography, noting that the composition of the scenes with Houseman and Bottoms "related to who had command of the situation. We used huge close-ups of John, and demeaning shots of Timothy. Then as the movie goes along and Timothy begins to get on top of it, you'll notice the shot sizes begin to diminish on John and begin to get a little bit bigger on Timothy—until finally they are equal partners shooting back and forth."
Vincent Canby wrote that the film "goes slowly soft like a waxwork on a hot day, losing the shape and substance that at the beginning have rightfully engaged our attention;" he concludes "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." [9] Jay Cocks called it a movie of "some incidental pleasures and insights and a great deal of silliness:" [10]
What [writer/director] Bridges catches best is the peculiar tension of the classroom, the cool terror that can be instilled by an academic skilled in psychological warfare. His Ivy League Olympian is Kingsfield, a professor of contract law who passes along scholarship with finely tempered disdain. In an original bit of casting, Kingsfield is played by veteran theater and film producer John Houseman. It is a forbidding, superb performance, catching not only the coldness of such a man but the patrician crustiness that conceals deep and raging contempt.
The University of Chicago Law School called Houseman's rendition of the Socratic method "over-the-top", telling prospective students: [11]
John Houseman may have won an Oscar for his impressive performance, but if anyone ever did teach a law school class like his Professor Kingsfield, no one at Chicago does today. The Socratic Method is a valuable tool used to engage students in discussion and develop critical thinking skills. It is employed at Chicago to foster intellectual approaches to the law, rather than to intimidate or break down new students. Through probing questions, the method helps students delve into the core of the subject matter and encourages them to think critically.
Others disagreed; another reviewer found it accurate:
This is really the only serious flick about law school life. It's brooding and intense, perfectly capturing the dynamic between law professor and student. The movie is worth watching just for actor John Houseman's Academy Award-winning performance as Professor Kingsfield. Every school still has a professor that knows how to absolutely terrify the 1Ls — for us at UChicago, that was Richard "The Hammer" Helmholz. The Paper Chase's Professor Kingsfield is like a distillation every one of these scary arch-villain type professors. [12]
One law professor, Ed Fallone, opined:
From the point of those of us who are law professors, it makes sense to criticize the oppressive law school environment reflected in the movie. However, from the point of view of current law students, the movie illustrates a heroic journey by the protagonist that they would like to emulate. [13]
Roger Ebert gave the movie four stars and singled out the performances of Bottoms and Houseman for praise. [14]
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 81% based on 31 reviews, with an average rating of 7.2/10. [15] On Metacritic, which sampled seven critic reviews and calculated a weighted average score of 67 out of 100, the film received "generally favorable reviews". [16]
Award | Category | Nominee(s) | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
Academy Awards | Best Supporting Actor | John Houseman | Won | [17] |
Best Screenplay – Based on Material from Another Medium | James Bridges | Nominated | ||
Best Sound | Donald O. Mitchell and Larry Jost | Nominated | ||
Golden Globe Awards | Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture | John Houseman | Won | [18] |
National Board of Review Awards | Best Supporting Actor | Won | [19] | |
New York Film Critics Circle Awards | Best Supporting Actor | Runner-up | [20] | |
Writers Guild of America Awards | Best Drama – Adapted from Another Medium | James Bridges | Nominated | [21] |
The film was followed by a television series that ran for one season on CBS (1978–79) and three seasons on Showtime (1983–1986).
The Socratic method is a form of argumentative dialogue between individuals, based on asking and answering questions.
Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United States.
Lloyd Vernet Bridges Jr. was an American film, stage and television actor who starred in a number of television series and appeared in more than 150 feature films. He was the father of four children, including the actors Beau Bridges and Jeff Bridges. He started his career as a contract performer for Columbia Pictures, appearing in films such as Sahara (1943), A Walk in the Sun (1945), Little Big Horn (1951) and High Noon (1952). On television, he starred in Sea Hunt 1958 to 1961. By the end of his career, he had re-invented himself and demonstrated a comedic talent in such parody films as Airplane! (1980), Hot Shots! (1991), and Jane Austen's Mafia! (1998). Among other honors, Bridges was a two-time Emmy Award nominee. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on February 1, 1994.
John Houseman was a Romanian-born British-American actor and producer of theatre, film, and television. He became known for his highly publicized collaboration with director Orson Welles from their days in the Federal Theatre Project through to the production of Citizen Kane and his collaboration, as producer of The Blue Dahlia, with writer Raymond Chandler on the screenplay. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Professor Charles W. Kingsfield in the 1973 film The Paper Chase. He reprised the role of Kingsfield in the 1978 television series adaptation.
The University of Chicago Law School is the law school of the University of Chicago, a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. It employs more than 180 full-time and part-time faculty and hosts more than 600 students in its Juris Doctor program, while also offering the Master of Laws, Master of Studies in Law and Doctor of Juridical Science degrees in law.
Nicholas Ray was an American film director, screenwriter, and actor. Described by the Harvard Film Archive as "Hollywood's last romantic" and "one of postwar American cinema’s supremely gifted and ultimately tragic filmmakers," Ray was considered an iconoclastic auteur director who often clashed with the Hollywood studio system of the time, but would prove highly influential to future generations of filmmakers.
A vavasour is a term in feudal law. A vavasour was the vassal or tenant of a baron, one who held his tenancy under a baron, and who also had tenants under him.
Timothy James Bottoms is an American actor and film producer. He is best known for playing the lead in Johnny Got His Gun (1971); Sonny Crawford in The Last Picture Show (1971), where he and his fellow co-stars, Cybill Shepherd and Jeff Bridges, rose to fame; and as James Hart, the first-year law student who battles with Prof. Kingsfield, in the film adaptation The Paper Chase (1973). He is also known for playing the main antagonist in the disaster film Rollercoaster (1977) and for playing President George W. Bush multiple times, including on the sitcom That's My Bush!, the comedy film The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course and the docudrama DC 9/11: Time of Crisis.
The Paper Chase is a 1971 novel written by John Jay Osborn Jr., a 1970 graduate of Harvard Law School. The book tells the story of Hart, a first-year law student at Harvard, and his experiences with Professor Charles Kingsfield, a brilliant and demanding contracts instructor whom he both idolizes and finds incredibly intimidating.
John Hart Ely was an American legal scholar. He was a professor of law at Yale Law School from 1968 to 1973, Harvard Law School from 1973 to 1982, Stanford Law School from 1982 to 1996, and at the University of Miami Law School from 1996 until his death. From 1982 until 1987, he was the 9th dean of Stanford Law School.
Hawkins v. McGee, 84 N.H. 114, 146 A. 641, is a leading case on damages in contracts handed down by the New Hampshire Supreme Court. It has come to be known as the "Hairy Hand" case from the circumstances, because a subsequent decision uses the phrase.
The Naked City is a 1948 American crime procedural produced by Mark Hellinger, directed by Jules Dassin, written by Albert Maltz and Malvin Wald. Starring Barry Fitzgerald, with Howard Duff, Dorothy Hart and Don Taylor in support, the film depicts the police investigation that follows the murder of a young model. It was shot almost entirely on location in New York City.
This articles lists various works of fiction that take place in Boston, Massachusetts:
James Stephens is an American actor best known for his starring role as James T. Hart in the television series The Paper Chase. He is also known for his role in Tom Bosley's ABC television series, Father Dowling Mysteries (1989-1991), in which Stephens was cast as Father Philip Prestwick.
John Jay Osborn Jr. was an American author, lawyer, law professor, and author of The Paper Chase, a bestselling novel published in 1971, and other works.
Betty Harford is an American actress. She appeared in numerous classic television shows such as Gunsmoke, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, The Paper Chase and Dynasty.
The Associates is an American sitcom television series that aired on ABC from September 23, 1979 to April 17, 1980. Despite being cancelled after nine of its thirteen episodes aired, it was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards and two Primetime Emmy Awards.
The Paper Chase is a 1978 American drama television series based on the 1971 novel of the same title by John Jay Osborn Jr., and a 1973 film adaptation. It follows the lives of law student James T. Hart and his classmates at an unnamed law school, modeled on Harvard Law School.
One L: The Turbulent True Story of a First Year at Harvard Law School is a 1977 autobiographical book by Scott Turow.
Edward Henry Warren, nicknamed "Bull", was an American lawyer, the Weld Professor of Law and the Story Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. There he briefly taught second–year equity law and property law until 1908, and then first–year property law for the rest of his academic career and third–year corporate law until 1929. He taught from 1904 to 1929 and 1932 to 1943. He was the acting dean during 1920–1921.
Toronto locations are next to impossible to spot, but there's one scene where a couple of the law students lock themselves in a hotel room to cram for finals. It was shot at the Windsor Arms...