Even though I have not always enjoyed practicing as an attorney, I absolutely loved law school. Among other things, I enjoyed learning the law, witnessing my professors’ theatrics, taking advantage of the more flexible schedule (I sincerely miss going to the gym during the middle of the day), and playing flag football and drinking on Friday afternoons (six figures of loans well spent). But my first exposure to law school life was not so rosy. In high school, I watched the movie The Paper Chase, which (to my high school mind) portrayed law school as a cold, depressing place that no one in his or her right mind would enjoy. Now that I am older (and have actually gone to law school), I decided to rewatch The Paper Chase and evaluate it both on its artistic merit and on how law school has changed in the time since the movie was released in 1973 (with the caveat that I graduated law school in 2011, so things may have changed even more in the past few years; for all I know, law school exams in 2015 are just a series of emojis).
The Paper Chase tells the story of James Hart (Timothy Bottoms), a first-year student at Harvard Law School. On the first day of class, Hart is called on by legendary contracts professor Charles Kingsfield (John Houseman) and is asked substantive questions about the first case in the casebook. Unfortunately, Hart had no idea that he was supposed to read any cases, as he assumed that the first class would be an outline of the syllabus. After being upbraided by Kingsfield, Hart ends up throwing up in the bathroom, to the mirth of his fellow students.
Despite this inauspicious start, Hart soon settles in at Harvard. He quickly joins a study group with Frank Ford (Graham Beckel), Kevin Brooks (James Naughton), Thomas Anderson (Edward Herrmann), Willis Bell (Craig Richard Nelson), and O’Connor (Robert Lydiard) (apparently the writers did not care to give poor O’Connor a first name, so I will assume that O’Connor’s first name is “Brian” in homage to Paul Walker’s character in the Fast & Furious films). Hart’s confidence grows as the year progresses and he eventually feels comfortable raising his hand and speaking in class at every possible opportunity (and basically becomes a gunner). Hart soon becomes obsessed with Kingsfield, to the point where he breaks into the school library to access Kingsfield’s notes from when Kingsfield was a student.
The Next Chapter In Legal Tech Innovation: Introducing Protégé™
Meet LexisNexis Protégé™, the new AI assistant that leverages personalization choices controlled by the user or their organization to optimize the individual’s AI experience.
At the same time, despite the warnings of his peers that he should not be distracted by romance, Hart begins to date Susan Fields (Lindsay Wagner), who he meets on the streets of Cambridge. As they get closer, Hart is horrified to learn that Susan is Kingsfield’s daughter (whose last name had been changed by a previous marriage). Keeping their relationship a secret becomes yet another complicating factor in Hart’s relationship with Kingsfield.
Houseman (whose IMDB credits run the gamut from Citizen Kane to The Naked Gun, which is apt because The Naked Gun is the Citizen Kane of comedy) won an Academy Award for his performance as Kingsfield, and the award is well-deserved. Houseman is a terrifying presence as Kingsfield, and he probably will give numerous lawyers and law students flashbacks about some of their own law professors. I love acting performances that seemingly come through the screen and cause anxiety in the viewer (which is part of the reason I loved J.K. Simmons’s performance in my favorite 2014 film Whiplash). Houseman definitely accomplishes that, as he is able to convey enormous fear in both the students and the viewers while barely raising his voice.
The movie smartly is coy as to whether or not Kingsfield actually knows that Susan and Hart are dating after Kingsfield almost catches Hart in Kingsfield’s house after a tryst. For example, after Susan and Hart plan a weekend getaway on Cape Cod, Kingsfield asks Hart to help with with some research that is sure to take up the entire weekend. The film never gives us an answer as to whether the timing of this assignment was a coincidence or whether it was a ploy to purposely drive a wedge between Susan and Hart. Nevertheless, we are led to believe that even if this is a coincidence, Kingsfield is certainly capable of such actions.
As Hart, Bottoms (who is perhaps best known now being a dead ringer for former President George W. Bush and playing the 43rd President in the short-lived Comedy Central show That’s My Bush!) is solid yet unspectacular. Bottoms does a good job of portraying Hart’s initial fear of Kingsfield, but I do not think that Bottoms sufficiently conveyed Hart’s increasing obsession with Kingsfield as the film progressed (though perhaps this is a fault of the writing).
How Lexis’ CounselLink+ Reimagines The Redline
Contracts are now integrated into an end-to-end system, and efficiencies abound.
Brooks unquestionably has the most depth of any of the supporting characters. He has a photographic memory and can remember the facts of all the cases, but is unable to undergo the critical thinking and analysis required by Kingsfield. While Brooks is an extreme example (and I wondered how Brooks got into Harvard Law School in the first place given the LSAT’s focus on logic and reasoning), his arc did remind me of my own anxiety and feelings of inadequacy when I first entered law school and discovered the extreme intelligence of every single one of my peers. Naughton smartly underplays the role, portraying Brooks as affable but suffering from an extreme inferiority complex that slowly eats away at him.
While the film contains an in-depth exploration of Brooks’s character, it misses the mark when it comes to Susan. Susan is completely one-dimensional, as her only defining characteristic is that she is Kingsfield’s daughter. Hopefully Susan and Hart have good physical chemistry because every single conversation they have revolves around Kingsfield. I spent the entire movie wondering why Susan would be in a relationship with a man who was so obsessed with her father. Freud would certainly have a field day.
Also, The Paper Chase would miserably fail the Bechdel Test (Google it), as the only two female characters of note are Susan and Brooks’s wife, who we never meet. I understand that the movie came out in 1973 and not 2015, but I would have appreciated a female member of Hart’s study group (as there were females in Hart’s class).
I was most surprised to see how few aspects of law school have changed over the years. While obviously there are some differences on account of the year the film is set (e.g., no students in The Paper Chase are reading Above the Law when they should be paying attention in class; a surprisingly large number of characters wear bow ties or smoke pipes; and the male characters who live in the law school dorms shower together (I did not go to Harvard, but I assume that communal showers have been eliminated in the last forty years)), so many aspects of the film felt familiar. The case that Hart was supposed to read for Professor Kingsfield’s first class — the “Hairy Hand” case (Hawkins v. McGee) — was also the first case I read in my contracts class. The types of questions that Professor Kingsfield asked, pursuant to the Socratic Method, are still prevalent in any law school today. I also sympathized with the anxiety and panic that the characters felt come finals time (though the long scene of Hart and Ford renting a hotel room to study was very gratuitous). Lastly, while the pompous Bell was an over-the-top character, even in 2015 it would not surprise me that a law student would think so highly of his outline that he would refuse to share it with his study group and would instead attempt to publish it.
Due to its realism (and the fact that, while certainly not perfect, it is nevertheless a very enjoyable film), The Paper Chase should remain required viewing for prospective law students (who will always know that there will be reading assignments for the first class). However, as I proposed in my January 15 column, I still think that The Paper Chase would be perfect fodder for a contemporary television show in order to update the law school story for the modern era. If any television executives out there are reading this column and want to make a Paper Chase show with me as showrunner, you know where to find me.
Harry Graff is a litigation associate at a firm, but he spends days wishing that he was writing about film, television, literature, and pop culture instead of writing briefs. If there is a law-related movie, television show, book, or any other form of media that you would like Harry Graff to discuss, he can be reached at [email protected]. Be sure to follow Harry Graff on Twitter at @harrygraff19.