Nostalgia


Do any of you older grads enjoy the trip back into time that this movie sparks? I'm an older fellow and was in college (not HLS) when this movie was produced. I enjoy the movie for it's entertainment qualities and also for the good memories it tickles. It was a stressful time, always wanted that A, but it was an exciting time, pinching pennies but knowing that you were sacrificing now for a better future. The dress, hair styles and general 70's atmosphere of the movie are so familiar. No PC's or cellphones. I remember standing in lines winding all around the building hoping like heck that none of the classes I wanted were closed by the time I got to the registrar. I handwrote my term papers and then looked for a phone number posted around the campus for a typist, usually also a student. The golden beverage flowed freely at the Student Center and the forbidden smoke wafted almost as freely. I pop the movie in my VCR occasionally and still enjoy it.

~~~~

reply

I watched the movie last night for the first time since I saw it in the theater back in the day. Wow. Long hair, but no ripped jeans, t-shirts, tattoos, piercings, etc. I was in the Navy when that movie was made, and therefore stuck out like a sore thumb with my short hair.

reply

LOL, yep, I was attending Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA which, as you probably know, is a Navy mecca. Quite a contrast in the appearance of the students and military personnel. At first I used to wonder who these "old" guys were in some of my classes; finally realized they were enlisted men, active and retired, working on that degree that their officers had. Good days, that's why I pop in "The Paper Chase" every once in a while.

~~~~

reply

As many times as I have seen this film I still enjoy the memories that this film brings back. I was a senior in college when The Paper Chase came out and could readily identify with what was happening (the pressure for grades, intimidating professors and scheming how to get into their favor, desire to make intelligent comments without falling on my face, the amount of work, fear of being unprepared, etc.). I still get a thrill when Hart gives his analysis of the Carbolic Smoke Ball case and the looks he gets from Ford who sees that Hart is making an intelligent remark and Kingsfield’s stare. Of course in the next classroom scene Hart is unprepared and muffs his chance to continue his success, but that was the way it was, each day was a new battle. I saw the film in ’73 and found the clothes, dialog and relationships quite true to life.

reply

I was 16 when this film was made and I lived one mile outside Harvard Square.
This film bring me back to the Harvard Square of then. The Out of Town Newspaper Stand, the old Harvard Square Station and all the book stores and small shops.
Today, Harvard Square is not much different than a shopping mall with its large national chain stores replacing the independent shops.

reply

Your comment from six years ago really caught my eye! Harvard Square was my second home back in the day. Now I can't stand to go back there because there are more banks than bookstores. They gutted the Tasty for Abercrombie and Fitch. You're right. If they put a giant roof over the whole thing, it would be just another mall!

reply

I was a college junior in 1973. Yes, the technology, dress, lack of fitness and casual sex was right on. Except the big east football school I went to was nothing like Harvard.

I finally saw the film last night and didn't care for it. I'll try watching it again.

reply

I went to college in the '80s and '90s but it was pretty much the same. My last year of undergrad they did make us register completely by computer but my first few years I had to wait in humongous lines and pray to get the class I needed. My papers were mostly handwritten and I didn't know how to type. I used to beg my sister in law to type for me or my fiancé. There were beepers, some ginormous cell phones that some goofballs carried. Most of us still relied on pay phones. Smoking was rarer but still a thing. I remember smoking right outside the classrooms in the hall and some professors smoking in class. One thing I wonder about today is the socialization of college. Part of making friends had to do with lack of electronic gadgets. I'm sure they're fine, they bond over their computers now. Kids seem pretty sophisticated to me today. They have access to so much more information. I guess it's a good thing. I think I was in the last age group that still experienced college as it was portrayed in the movie.

reply