This drama is based on a popular 1971 novel by John Jay Osborn Jr. written when he was a Harvard Law School student. The movie, directed by James Bridges, is well acted and will resonate with anyone who has ever pondered the value of learning or wrestled with the difficulties in a love relationship. Hart (Timothy Bottoms) is a shallow but diligent year law student who is alternately terrified and fascinated by one of his professors, Kingsfield (John Houseman). On the first day of class, this imposing figure tells his students that he views the course as “a treadmill” and “an operating table.” He uses a Socratic method of teaching to make sure these lawyers-to-be are quick on their feet.
Sufficiently frightened, six of the students organize a study group. By coincidence, Hart meets and falls in love with a beautiful girl named Susan (Lindsay Wagner) who lives nearby. Only after a considerable period of time does he learn she is Kingsfield’s daughter. Before the term is over, Hart is forced to come to terms with his reactions to his professor and parenthetically, his capacity for discipline. A second challenge is to sort out his response to Susan, an independent woman who is divorced and determined not to marry another traditional law student.
Bottoms is convincing as the boy emerging as a man. He is supported by some excellent bits of acting by fellow classmates: Graham Beckel as a priggish go-getter, James Naughton as a well-meaning student with a photographic memory but an inability to make sense of legal details, and Craig Richard Nelson as a hyperintellectual who persists in putting down his peers. But John Houseman takes center stage with his near-perfect depiction of the self-possessed Kingsfield. The Paper Chase is both emotionally rewarding and intellectually satisfying.
The DVD edition contains an audio commentary with producer Robert C. Thompson.
