MOVIE REVIEW: The Paper Chase (1973)

From the moment I made it clear I wanted to go to law school, to the countless times my LSAT practice course instructor made references and quotes to this film, it became clear that seeing The Paper Chase was a mandatory rite of passage for law students and unavoidable out of my own curiosity. For many 1Ls, Paper Chase is the first thing to scare them as far as what to expect out of law school, based on it's candid, honest apporach to the classroom environment, grounded in the difficult and often humiliating Socratic Method. But since the film is technically a dramatic work, I took these things with a grain of salt, albeit, with some slight unease. Above all though, Paper Chase is a good movie.

James Hart is a clueless, first year law student at Harvard. Hailing from Minnesota, Hart is unprepared to deal with the rigors and intense studying at his fingertips. He also has to deal with vying for recognition from his professor; the stern, authoritarian Charles Kingsfield. Hart retreats from the stress rather easily by partying, or sleeping with the local school socialite, who has become the object of his affection and reluctant psychological distress receptacle. What changes things for Hart however, is when he realizes his new sweetheart is actually Kingsfield's daughter.

Films like these have a knack for keeping my interest, because they deal directly with events going on at large in my life and speak in a way that art so brilliantly does by creating characters that one instantly relates to. While Hart is somewhat of a man-child, he gradually grows into what the school expects of him, and his will to succeede is a very admirable quality. Likewise, Kingsfield, for all his thorns is an intriguing figure, in spite of his imposing presence. The pacing is very strong, and the film has a wicked sense of humor; whose strongest source is at the taut verbal sparring between Hart and Kingsfield. Perhaps, this is a fairly apt viewpoint of the Socratic Method in action. For a 1L-to-be like myself, Paper Chase didn't fully intimidate me, because that Harvard isn't representative of every law school in the US, but it gave me some good, emotional insight from an entertaining, fictional angle.

8/10

Peace,
- Jon