The Paper Chase (1973)
Review by HTQ4
Film:
DVD:

Written and Directed by James Bridges, based on the novel by John Jay Osborn, Jr.
Original Music by John Williams
Starring Timothy Bottoms, Lindsay Wagner, John Houseman, Graham Beckel, James Naughton, and Edward Herrman

Features:

• Running audio commentary by producer Robert C. Thompson
  

James Hart (Bottoms) is in his freshman year at Harvard Law and he's finding it to be not quite what he expected. He works very hard to enter what he calls "the upper echelon" of students only to find out that he's got to work harder in order to stay in this elite group. One of his professors, Kingsfield (Houseman), is a tyrant in the classroom, and Hart both fears and respects him. Matters get much more difficult for Hart when he discovers that his girlfriend (Wagner) also just happens to be the daughter of his tyrannical professor.

There's no denying the importance of this movie in that it's the one that gave John Houseman his Oscar^©. That's about all this movie has going for it. I understand that it's about the interpersonal relationships between people and how the rigors of Harvard Law can change them (sometimes for the worse), but after a certain point, I just didn't care. The only part of the plot that kept me rapt throughout was the drive that Hart had to get to know his ice-cold Professor Kingsfield, but even then I wound up just getting bored with that. The relationship between Bottoms and Wagner was on-again/off-again, and was so to the extent that I gave up caring whether they were going to get together in a relationship or not. I mean, they were sleeping with each other, and he wanted to increase the level of commitment, but she seemed to not care in the least.

I know that the other thing we are supposed to get out of it is that he was supposed to be using his relationship with Kingsfield's daughter to try to get to him, but for so long there seemed to be absolutely no payoff to that that it didn't matter anymore. On the other hand, Houseman is perfectly icy in his role as Kingsfield, and Bottoms has his strong moments, but they are few and far between.

This is an interesting DVD, because the only thing it offers in the way of bonus material is commentary track--and it's with the producer of the movie. Very rarely do you see a DVD where they don't at least offer something else to go along with the commentary track; even if it's only a photo gallery or cast and crew biographies. This commentary track is almost as dry as the film itself. What is interesting about it is the way it's set up on the menu. When you select the commentary on the menu, you are presented with a list to choose from that allows you to jump to any section of the commentary track. I guess it's a tribute to the theme of organization and anal retentiveness that is present in the movie. Still, I think it's a neat idea that DVD producers should consider in the future when putting a package together. I mean, if you can use the scene selections to jump to any point in the movie, why shouldn't you be able to jump to any part of the commentary track, too, right? Still, it's understandable that Thompson was brought in, seeing as how writer/director Bridges is no longer with us--although the majority of the cast (with the exception of Houseman) are still around.

So, if you are into very cerebral dramas, you could do a lot worse than this one. However, I don't think that the film warrants a "buy" recommendation. Even if you loved the film, you might want to wait for a special edition DVD of some sort to come out.