I offer 10 random observations about this watchable film. (Writing random observations is MUCH easier than writing a coherent review.)
1. Early in the film, Lindsay Wagner playfully bites her new boyfriend. This was quite a charged moment in 1973. Audiences gasped. Boys went home from seeing this picture and dreamed of being bitten by Wagner and/or a substitute. Girls tried this idea out. Is this perhaps the first time when a woman bites a man in an erotic way in a mainstream Hollywood film (i.e, other than in a vampire movie)? Has some student majoring in Film Studies possibly written a paper about bites in the movies? Today, Lindsays's bite is a "meh" moment with zero punch. Times change, eh.
2. Every good college in America has a Kingsfield or two or three on the faculty - i.e., a legendary prof who is the object of student obsession (i.e., a mixture of awe, love, fear, lust, lust for knowledge, etc). At Brown University in the 1970s and '80s it was Edward Beiser of the Poli Sci Department. Beiser was at his peak in 1973, and more than one person on the Brown campus speculated about whether or not he had influenced the Kingsfield portrayal. (Highly doubtful that he did, but the possibility was a major topic of conversation in Hegeman Dormitory over pizza from Domino's and Michelob beer.)
3. Check out the hair in this film! OMG! Lots of hair! This is exactly how people wore their hair circa the early '70s. Ford's hair is epic. Hart's hair is long throughout, but seems to change subtly in appearance several times, possibly reflecting some of his internal struggle to come to grips with his conflicts about life, love, ambition, being human.
4. There's a light seasoning of things nautical in the film: Kingsfield's ship model. His ship painting. The captain's chairs used by the study group. I have no idea if this has any meaning; probably not. I mainly mention it because I love captain's chairs and these examples are first-rate (to use a nautical term). BTW, I believe Hart should have knocked over Kingsfield's ship model during his intimate encounter in the study. This would have given him the opportunity to try, desperately, to piece the thing together in 30 seconds after Kingsfield arrives home - a nice parallel to the impossibility of his weekend research assignment. Alternatively, I think Hart and Susan should have done the deed in the study and been caught in the middle of it. Or how about this: they do the deed in the study and knock over the ship's model. Kingsfield hears this as he walks in, glances toward the study, sighs mightily, and walks wearily up the stairs. He's heard that very sound before, he knows what's going on in there - Susan, dear Susan, is banging another of his students and knocking over his ship model.
5. The actress Regina Baff is perfect as Asheley Brooks, wife of the gifted-but-out-of-his-depth Brooks. Baff seems not to have had much of a career in film after this performance. Odd, that.
6. Which leads me to my next question, what the heck ever happened to Timothy Bottoms? I know he's made a lot of pictures over the years but his career never again remotely approached the fabulous heights of 1971 to '73 ("Last Picture Show" and this film). He perhaps entertained the thought that he could become the next James Stewart. (Tom Hanks got that gig.) Timothy! Timothy! Where on earth did you go? (And if you recognize THAT pop culture reference, you get major points from me.)
7. We learn that Kingsfield sat with the president of the United States at a Yale-Harvard football game. This moment is described by Susan while she and Hart romp through the mostly-empty stadium. The president is not named. Judging from various clues, it must have been John F. Kennedy. We are curious, as we watch, which president it was; we are left to our own devices to figure it out. I don't see why the script doesn't just say it. The script mentions Adlai Stevenson and shows a picture of Ike; why is it so shy about Kennedy?
8. At least two major films of the early '70s showed Ivy League-educated young folks rebelling against, but eventually joining, the Establishment - this one and "Love Story." (Admittedly there's some ambiguity about Hart's final decision but I think we know the path he'll choose.) Thus America reassured itself that its institutions would be perpetuated.
9. To follow-up on item (1) - 1972-73 was a peak for the sexual revolution. It was during the '70s that the ferment of the '60s reached down into the general population and affected the behavior of not merely a few elite people like the Beatles and the Grateful Dead but millions of people. This fact contributes to the quickness with which Susan beds Hart. The Susan role can really be seen as a pivotal one in the sexual liberation of women in the movies.
10. One of the central challenges of the script is, how much case law should we include? How much recitation of the law will the audience tolerate? I can well imagine long discussions among the filmmakers about this. I think they present exactly the right amount of law and exactly the right kind - i.e., a modest amount of juicy, interesting, and basic stuff.
1. Early in the film, Lindsay Wagner playfully bites her new boyfriend. This was quite a charged moment in 1973. Audiences gasped. Boys went home from seeing this picture and dreamed of being bitten by Wagner and/or a substitute. Girls tried this idea out. Is this perhaps the first time when a woman bites a man in an erotic way in a mainstream Hollywood film (i.e, other than in a vampire movie)? Has some student majoring in Film Studies possibly written a paper about bites in the movies? Today, Lindsays's bite is a "meh" moment with zero punch. Times change, eh.
2. Every good college in America has a Kingsfield or two or three on the faculty - i.e., a legendary prof who is the object of student obsession (i.e., a mixture of awe, love, fear, lust, lust for knowledge, etc). At Brown University in the 1970s and '80s it was Edward Beiser of the Poli Sci Department. Beiser was at his peak in 1973, and more than one person on the Brown campus speculated about whether or not he had influenced the Kingsfield portrayal. (Highly doubtful that he did, but the possibility was a major topic of conversation in Hegeman Dormitory over pizza from Domino's and Michelob beer.)
3. Check out the hair in this film! OMG! Lots of hair! This is exactly how people wore their hair circa the early '70s. Ford's hair is epic. Hart's hair is long throughout, but seems to change subtly in appearance several times, possibly reflecting some of his internal struggle to come to grips with his conflicts about life, love, ambition, being human.
4. There's a light seasoning of things nautical in the film: Kingsfield's ship model. His ship painting. The captain's chairs used by the study group. I have no idea if this has any meaning; probably not. I mainly mention it because I love captain's chairs and these examples are first-rate (to use a nautical term). BTW, I believe Hart should have knocked over Kingsfield's ship model during his intimate encounter in the study. This would have given him the opportunity to try, desperately, to piece the thing together in 30 seconds after Kingsfield arrives home - a nice parallel to the impossibility of his weekend research assignment. Alternatively, I think Hart and Susan should have done the deed in the study and been caught in the middle of it. Or how about this: they do the deed in the study and knock over the ship's model. Kingsfield hears this as he walks in, glances toward the study, sighs mightily, and walks wearily up the stairs. He's heard that very sound before, he knows what's going on in there - Susan, dear Susan, is banging another of his students and knocking over his ship model.
5. The actress Regina Baff is perfect as Asheley Brooks, wife of the gifted-but-out-of-his-depth Brooks. Baff seems not to have had much of a career in film after this performance. Odd, that.
6. Which leads me to my next question, what the heck ever happened to Timothy Bottoms? I know he's made a lot of pictures over the years but his career never again remotely approached the fabulous heights of 1971 to '73 ("Last Picture Show" and this film). He perhaps entertained the thought that he could become the next James Stewart. (Tom Hanks got that gig.) Timothy! Timothy! Where on earth did you go? (And if you recognize THAT pop culture reference, you get major points from me.)
7. We learn that Kingsfield sat with the president of the United States at a Yale-Harvard football game. This moment is described by Susan while she and Hart romp through the mostly-empty stadium. The president is not named. Judging from various clues, it must have been John F. Kennedy. We are curious, as we watch, which president it was; we are left to our own devices to figure it out. I don't see why the script doesn't just say it. The script mentions Adlai Stevenson and shows a picture of Ike; why is it so shy about Kennedy?
8. At least two major films of the early '70s showed Ivy League-educated young folks rebelling against, but eventually joining, the Establishment - this one and "Love Story." (Admittedly there's some ambiguity about Hart's final decision but I think we know the path he'll choose.) Thus America reassured itself that its institutions would be perpetuated.
9. To follow-up on item (1) - 1972-73 was a peak for the sexual revolution. It was during the '70s that the ferment of the '60s reached down into the general population and affected the behavior of not merely a few elite people like the Beatles and the Grateful Dead but millions of people. This fact contributes to the quickness with which Susan beds Hart. The Susan role can really be seen as a pivotal one in the sexual liberation of women in the movies.
10. One of the central challenges of the script is, how much case law should we include? How much recitation of the law will the audience tolerate? I can well imagine long discussions among the filmmakers about this. I think they present exactly the right amount of law and exactly the right kind - i.e., a modest amount of juicy, interesting, and basic stuff.