The Paper Chase (1973)

Directed by James Bridges. Starring Timothy Bottoms, John Houseman, Lindsay Wagner, James Naughton, Craig Richard Nelson, Edward Herrmann, Graham Beckel, Bob Lydiard, Regina Baff, Lenny Baker. [PG]

First-year student at Harvard Law (Bottoms) pushes himself to the limit trying to tackle studies and a romantic life, desperately seeking approval from a venerable and imperious professor (Houseman) who inspires as much dread as reverence from his students. Sticks to the textbook, as far as sober collegiate dramas go, but also happens to be an example of a film completely hijacked by a supporting character. Bottoms’ well-meaning student is an okay protagonist, machine-cut and dyed, and we want to see him excel…but it’s Oscar-winner Houseman who commands the screen, and every time he fills it, there’s no one else in the classroom, the campus, the entire Northeast who can meet his challenge. Even as the film succumbs to formula as the semester progresses, and as it struggles to make much of anything with Bottoms’ dimmed-and-diligent romance with Wagner (can you guess who her father is??), there’s Houseman’s icy expression and modulated voice, and everything else may as well be a bunch of regurgitated facts from struggling classmate Naughton’s photographic memory. Inspired the same-named television series.

74/100