On P List of Movie Reviews

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The Paper Chase (1973)

Rate: 9
Viewed: 10/15

Paperchase
10/15: Forget Educating Rita which is a hogwash picture about college.

The real deal is The Paper Chase because it offers the most realistic perspective of what graduate school is like. Timothy Bottoms' and John Houseman's performances are incredible with the latter netting him an Oscar win.

A lot of viewers thought Bottoms' character was arrogant and stuck-up, but personally, I feel he played the role to perfection. Kingsfield reminds me of some mathematics professors I had because of their personalities. His putdowns on the students are very typical, believe me.

Kevin Brooks is an interesting character, too, and many people can identify with him. In fact, all of the characters are identifiable, and I've met many who are just like them. My opinion is Kevin took things too far because he was studying law at Harvard which is the highest standard imaginable. If Kevin can't hack the work, he should've transfered to a state school to make things easy on himself, he'll still be an accomplished individual, regardless.

All in all, The Paper Chase can be an inspiring film for some people and familiar for others but painful for the rest who don't want to relive the memories of their postsecondary studies.