USA
, 111 min
Shown in 1973
CREDITS
- dir
-
James Bridges
- prod
-
Robert C. Thompson, Rodrick Paul
- scr
-
James Bridges
- cam
-
Gordon Willis
- cast
-
Timothy Bottoms, Lindsay Wagner, John Houseman, Graham Beckel, Edward Herrmann, Bob Lydiard, Craig Richard Nelson, James Naughton
- source
-
Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation
OTHER
The Paper Chase takes the revolutionary step of being a campus drama which actually has to do with the experience of going to school. An honest script about intelligent people is rewarded with equally honest and intelligent performances—Timothy Bottoms and Lindsay Wagner add new dimensions to their screen personalities, and John Houseman’s Professor Kingsfield may well become the standard by which other actors in such roles will be measured. The story operates on various levels and in several directions—love, friendship, ambition, competition, cooperation. But the focus is always on the learning process itself, both within the structure of Harvard Law School and in the unstructured arena of life. This perspective raises the story beyond its academic environment and brings relevance, humor and meaning to all who have grown away from their origins and out into a new world.
FACTOID #188
According to an item in the 1969 Halloween edition of the Hollywood Reporter, Swedish director Bo Widerberg cancelled a Festival tribute at the last minute with a cryptic telegram from Stockholm that read, ’Sorry impossible to come. Must stay in bed.’
