The acting was very good. The photography was good. So why didn't I like this movie? Because the script sucked. Are we supposed to believe at the end that Hart chucked the entire Harvard Law experience ... for what? To make a paper airplane out of the envelope containing his grades? Great symbolism if you're watching this and you're 20 years old (as I was in 1973), but nowhere up to that point do I have any reason to think he's going to become anything but a hotshot lawyer who's screwing his evil professor's daughter for good measure. The rest of the characters were so underdeveloped as to make the movie seem amateurish. Beyond John Houseman's acting, I don't understand the acclaim it got.
Review of The Paper Chase
