Rating: 
Summary: Fun, but NOTHING like real law school
Review: "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.
Rating: 
Summary: Great for Law Students and Teachers; not much for others
Review: For those to whom college is more about the love of learning than the freedom to party (this reviewer tended to fall somewhere in between) this is a pretty good film about the rigors of law school, but perhaps still not a great one. Some of the fault may lie with lead actor Timothy Bottoms, who doesn't entirely succeed in drawing us in. A better actor (or in any case a better script) would have made us really care about his fate, but Bottoms remains a bit of a cipher, as do most of the characters in this story. Houseman, of course, plays this perfectly, but we aren't supposed to understand him -he's from another generation and almost another world.
This story was the blueprint for many "training" movies made since - a small cadre of competitive young bucks are thrust together to master some skill that will push them to the limits of their abilities. They're different types from different backgrounds, a girlfriend, a wife, and maybe a death or two among them. But we aren't training fighter pilots here, it's Harvard Law School, where the most exciting thing that happens is getting called on in class, so viewers should be prepared for the fact that there's really no action. Which is not to say that this isn't an interesting film (certainly the best film ever made on the subject of Studying Contract Law) but this is not "Top Gun", or "Officer and a Gentleman" or even "Meatballs" and it would be a mistake to let the film's accolades convince one otherwise.
The real power of this story is with the students who fall by the wayside, unable to compete in an environment where competition is everything. Their story has a "Death of a Salesman" punch that really has to carry the film, since very little actually happens to Bottoms' character. His relationship with the professor's daughter is very shakily presented - one suspects that scenes between them were cut, because they often shift gears inexplicably.
Ultimately there's a problem of artistic distance. Director James Bridges assumes we will relate to the bearded, hippie-ish, privileged intellectual Bottoms, whose grades will determine whether he becomes one of the men who run the world, or whether he will be forced to settle for merely being inordinately wealthy. Those who relate best (real-life lawyers and law-students should be shoe-ins) can be excused for loving this film, but many others will surely see these characters as detestably greedy, self-centered, and elitist. High-school teachers and college professors can expect to see some recognizable characters and pick up a few tips on the Socratic teaching method, which might make the experience worth their while. But women should be unsurprised to find that they are only bit players in this story, and as for minorities, there's none of the diversity we've come to expect in modern films - people of color are completely absent.
Five stars for law students past, present and future - four for teachers. Others will prefer to watch "Animal House" again.
Rating: 
Summary: A Classic
Review: Great acting, an interesting and moving account of the great pressures faced by a Havard Law School freshman facing a tyranical Professor.
Rating:
Summary: The Paper Chase!! a classic film
Review: Hello everyone!! I chose to rate this film cause at the young age of 33 I have decided to try Law School. The film, while dated in the 70s, provides an excellent cast and a totally deserving Oscar winning performance by Houseman. When I show my friends the video, I alway tell them that Kingsfield is the "Hannibal Lecter" of any past, current, or future law school students! By the way, does anyone know if the TV series adaption is on VHS? Please email me if you have this knowledge!!
Rating:
Summary: Required Viewing for Teachers: You too can be Kingsfield!
Review: I always warned students at the beginning of each year that I had screened "The Paper Chase" once again and was interested in using the Socratic method to spin the little tumblers of their minds. Certainly this was the film that made me want to curb my innate desire to stand up in the classroom and pontificate on every subject under the sun. Ostensibly the film is about the pressures of first year students at Harvard Law School, but since most of us do not want to become lawyers, know any lawyers, have any dealings with lawyers or even watch television programs with lawyers, "The Paper Chase" ultimately succeeds as a film about wanting to learn and learning to think. At the heart of the film is James Hart (Timothy Bottoms), come from Minnesota to learn at the feet of the great Professor Charles Kingsfield. Despite some painful moments of confrontation in the classroom with his would be mentor-my favorite: "Mr. Hart, here is a dime. Take it, call your mother, and tell her there is serious doubt about you ever becoming a lawyer"-Hart finds he can play the game and play it well. Having given his mind over to Kingsfield, the question then becomes whether his heart and soul will follow as well. The other members of his study group (which includes Edward Herrmann and James Naughton), make different choices and take different paths in order to survive the year. By the end of the film Hart is more alone than he was at the beginning. As Kingsfield, John Houseman is the powerful center of the film. A producer and drama teacher for almost half a century, Houseman won the 1973 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and began a new career as an actor in films and a pitchman in television commercials (however, this was not Houseman's first film, since I know he played an admiral in the political thriller "Seven Days in May"). Indeed, Houseman went on to play the Kingsfield character in the ambitious television versions of the movie. However, it is important to note that those who knew Houseman as a producer or teacher were always quick to point out that he really was acting in "The Paper Chase." There might be Harvard professors fighting over the honor of being the real Kingfield, but Houseman was indeed just doing a role. As the autocratic master of his domain, Kingsfield is very much the antithesis of the traditional dedicated teacher usually presented in films about school, a point driven home in the film's final meeting between Hart and Kingsfield. If there is a happy ending in this film, it is achieved by Hart's character on a personal, almost private level. The original novel by John Jay Osborn, Jr. was brought to the film my director James Bridges, who also did the screenplay. Although the sub-plot where Hart discovers the young woman of his affections (Lindsay Wagner) is in fact (gasp!) Kingsfield's daughter is decidedly contrived, overall the film is an intelligent and thoughtful piece. If you are a teacher, or are thinking about becoming a teacher, "The Paper Chase" is just as much recommended viewing as the more conventional fare as such classics as "Goodbye, Mr. Chips," "To Sir, With Love," "Up the Down Staircase," or more contemporary efforts such as "Songs of the Heart."
Rating: 
Summary: Doesn't live up to expectations.
Review: I bought The Paper Chase on DVD because I like courtroom dramas (Perry Mason, The Verdict, 12 Angry Men, etc.) and I also like school dramas (The Emperor's Club). This film had no courtroom drama and very little in the classroom. John Houseman's scenes are the best, but he's only in a dozen very brief scenes, with perhaps a couple dozen lines in the whole film. The rest is like a soap opera set at Harvard, and very disappointing compared to the expectations set from reading other reviews here.
Rating:
Summary: One Component Unrealistic, The Other I Don't Know
Review: I don't know whether this film was an accurate representation of law school, though it certainly did manage to portray the overwhelming air of superiority that emanates from all the lawyers I've ever met. Perhaps "Arrogance 1101 - 4101" is a series of courses embedded in a typical law school curriculum. There's definitely no reason to doubt that, based upon the behavior of all the lawyers with whom I have come into contact. Law school aside, the movie was weak in its presentation of the Hart-Susan relationship. It was sublimely accurate during the episode in the park, when Hart told Susan that she was failing to provide him "sustenance." He reclined on a blanket and closed his eyes, and she abruptly, silently departed the scene. He awoke hours later, bewildered that she was nowhere around. Every reasonable viewer thought, "Good for her, that's exactly what this arrogant little flake deserves." Then, however, upon encountering Hart at a party in her professor-father's home, she immediately accepts him back into her life, and they pick up right where they'd left off. A real-life woman with her experience (she was divorced, having been married to a law student for two years) would not have wasted another moment of thought on a little worm like Hart. But then again, they had to have some romance in the plot, thus Susan kept coming back to him.
Rating:
Summary: James Bridges' Best Directorial Work
Review: I found myself compelled to write this review for a number of reasons: (1) I graduated from law school (although not Harvard), (2) My mother and James Bridges were childhood friends, (3) I've been an admirer of John Houseman's work for as long as I can remember, and finally (4) I've watched this movie several times and like it. Timothy Bottoms stars as James Hart, a midwestern boy literally dumped into his first year of Harvard Law School. John Houseman is Professor William Kingsfield, a curmudgeonly contract law professor about whom Hart has ambivalent feelings of dread and admiration. Lindsay Wagner is Kingsfield's daughter, with whom Hart is having a relationship. This picture brought the so-called Socratic method of instruction into the light of day and doubtlessly inspired many professors of subjects other than the law. It no doubt also inspired many impressionable young men to consider a career in the law (as it did me). But the reason to really enjoy this movie is neither of those...it's Houseman's electrifying performance that netted him an Academy Award for best supporting actor. This film also stands as a testament to the short but spectacular directorial career of the late James Bridges, who went on to direct "The China Syndrome" and "Urban Cowboy" among several other films. It should also be remembered that this picture inspired a short-lived CBS television series of the same name in which Houseman reprised the Kingsfield role. The show spawned the careers of, among others, Jon Lovitz of Saturday Night Live fame and Jane Kaczmarek (of the TV series "Malcolm in the Middle") and after its rather short-sighted cancellation by CBS was picked by Showtime, who ordered new episides, giving the series another five years of life until discontinued in 1984. Did this picture have an impact? Absolutely. Was it good? You bet! And to James Bridges, wherever you are "thanks for the career advice...and hello from my mom!"
Rating:
Summary: The Paper Chase
Review: I guess the first thing I should mention is that this movie is thirty years old. Today's graduate and professional schools including law school are more diverse than depicted in the film. Also, the John Houseman character is a bit over the top. I like his performance and maybe there are a few characters like him out there, but consider today's political and social climate on campuses. Would Kingsfield get tenure or high marks from his students with this kind of behavior? Possibly, but not highly likely.
Rating:
Summary: The Paper Chase
Review: I guess the first thing I should mention is that this movie is thirty years old. Today's graduate and professional schools including law school are more diverse than depicted in the film. Also, the John Houseman character is a bit over the top. I like his performance and maybe there are a few characters like him out there, but consider today's political and social climate on campuses. Would Kingsfield get tenure or high marks from his students with this kind of behavior? Possibly, but not highly likely.
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