Welcome to Harvard and The Paper Chase

8/3/13, The Paper Chase, Best Supporting Actor, 1973

It's not easy coming with a catchy title for the every new blog entry; I think it would be boring just to name the movie, but I have to admit, absolutely nothing came to mind for this one. Well, not nothing, but I wasn't sure if my reference would be so obscure as to mean nothing. Anyway, that lack of inspiration may sum up my feelings for The Paper Chase. I vaguely remember my dad watching the short-lived television series that was inspired by the movie, and I remember John Houseman being in it, but other than that, I didn't know who was in the movie. The first year of Harvard Law School is the setting for The Paper Chase, and it follows James Hart (pretty much just called 'Hart', never James) played by Timothy Bottoms (last seen in The Last Picture Show from 1971) with some crazy ass hair. John Houseman plays Professor Kingsfield, winning the Best Supporting Actor award for being a demanding task master, supposedly a proponent of the Socratic method. I had a philosophy professor in college who reminded me a little of Kingsfield, mainly in the way he scared the bejeezus out of me, and whom I only appreciated after the class was over and I escaped alive. Kingsfield has a daughter, Susan, (played by Lindsay Wagner) who lives in town and falls into a relationship with Hart, that in my opinion, that is doomed for failure. Kingsfield is tough on everyone, but he definitely is really hard on Hart, so the story becomes the evolution of this relationship, and Hart's need to get inside Kingsfield's head. There isn't anything really dramatic that happens, it just kind of moves along. Kingsfield is in almost every scene, even if he isn't physically present his aura is always there, he is always being talked about by the students, by Hart and Susan. Houseman was terrific, and probably created one of the most memorable characters in film from a not very memorable movie. I will also say I found the ending of the movie terribly unsatisfying, kind of like when you really look forward to eating something and it's not half as delicious as the picture makes it look.

I have 714 movies left to go. It's going much slower than I originally hoped, but I shall muddle on for the good of all.