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A must-see for law students
by CarlosC (movies profile)
Jul 11, 2005
6
of
6 people found this review helpful
No first year student embarking on her law school career will be prepared for the near future of her life without this oft-recommended "1L" companion (1L is law school lingo for "first year/law"). The movie "Chases" a cadre of male Harvard Law students who form a study group and try to navigate their way through their first year classes -- especially, Contracts with Prof. Kingsfield. The late John Houseman (1902-1988) won an Oscar playing the stodgy curmudgeon -- the ultimate celluloid professor, who makes the freshmen shake in their boots at the start of the film, but ends up becoming a distant father figure to at least one of them.
"You come in here with a head full of mush and you'll leave thinking like a lawyer," Kingsfield promises, or threatens, his star-struck young subjects before torturing them with Socratic technique.
Part of the reason to recommend this film is its knowing insights into the experience of first year law: even the cases and topics discussed in class ring in truth. On that note, the movie might be even better suited for those of us who have been there, done that (NOTE: this review was written for a law school publication); so that we can look at ourselves in the mirror of recent memory and forgive ourselves all our foibles and missteps. There are plenty of errors for our hero, Mr. Hart (Timothy Bottoms), who loses his way early in the film, but discovers his voice in Kingsfield's class by defying the academic.
One day, Bottoms blows his top in Houseman's class. Pressed by the prof on the facts of some case, Bottoms calls the old man an S.O.B. "Mr. Hart!," Houseman retorts, adding in his deadpan tone, "That is the most intelligent thing you've said all day." Sub-plots include the increasingly ferocious competition amongst the members of Hart's study group, which includes a ridiculously young Edward Herrmann. (His Blueblood speaking style served him well later, playing FDR in "Eleanor and Franklin," 1979, for which he won an Emmy nomination -- he took home the award in 1997 for his guest appearances on "The Practice.")
A more tragic subplot, of a student who cannot salvage his plummeting grades, illustrates the pressure at the heart of the story. Lindsay Wagner makes a pre-"Bionic" turn, playing the love interest to Mr. Hart, and potential conflict-of interest vis-a-vis Prof. Kingsfield. The relationship also illustrates how difficult it is to balance law school with anything resembling a personal life.
The movie is dated and, sometimes, a bit chatty. Its contemplative pacing gives it a made-for-TV feel. In other words, don't expect any car chases. It inspired a television series by the same name, which followed the students through their third year. Houseman reprised the Kingsfield character. Holding: affirmed.
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