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FLUBBED LINES!!!! Why were these not fixed???

posted 9 years ago by jamesjpauly
3 replies | jump to latest

I saw The Paper Chase in a movie theater as a pre-law student in 1973. I've enjoyed it several times since, but the flubbed lines just drive me up a wall:

First, when Moss is stating his hypothetical for Brooks he ends by saying, "So you're sued on two accounts: the one relying on the statute, and the other simple negligence." WRONG! Moss should have said, "So you're sued on two counts. In civil pleading, a count is a group of numbered paragraphs in a complaint that lay the foundation for recovery on a particular legal theory. Someone -- like maybe the movie technical adviser should have known this.
Second, later in the movie when Brooks is lamenting to Hart that his demise as a law student is all but certain, he says "you should have been there . . . you should have seen the mess I made out of Moss's hypothesis." WRONG!! As any 1L will tell you after only a few weeks of class, what Brooks mangled was Moss's hypothetical. Again, mistake-wise this is really low-hanging fruit. Why earth would such a goof not have been fixed by re-shooting the scene??

And, could someone please explain The Screamer?? Tombs tells Hart that he screams every Friday and Sunday at the stroke of 12. Tombs tell this to Hart on the first day of class while conducting a 1L orientation in Hart's dorm room. So, does this mean that Hart's first semester started on a Friday?? Or a Sunday?? And what about the time? I assume it's 12:00 midnight because the windows in the scene show darkness outside, but then why on earth is Tombs making his way from 1L room to 1L room, clip board in hand, reviewing life at Harvard Law at midnight?

I've been practicing real estate law for some 35 years now, and I fear that I've been a curmudgeonly old lawyer. Still, I think I raise valid points.

Thoughts???

[–] Ed in MO 9 years ago

Those are exactly the kind of mistakes a first-year law student would make. I went to law school about thirty years ago and I remember that I didn't know what the hell a "plaintiff" was until well into our second semester. A lot of us mangled the distinctions between civil procedure and criminal procedure, or between in rem jurisdiction or in personum jurisdiction....and some never could figure out the difference.

Learning the law is sort of like learning a new language. You can learn the basics in an hour, but it takes a lifetime to sort out the details and the underlying culture of it. I'm an old lawyer now and I still learn something new every day.

[–] arthurab 8 years ago

Lol...I've seen the movie 100 times (tho not in the theater as I was only 4 in 1973) and never caught those. Still one of my favorites tho.

But you may be a curmudgeonly, old lawyer too ; D

[–] johnston.scot 8 years ago

The "accounts" one is pretty minor. Moss could easily have been thinking "counts" and had it come out of his mouth as "accounts." Or he could have heard people talk about "counts" dozens of times and kept thinking they were saying "accounts." I don't have any problem believing about any law student might say that, even Moss, who's supposed to be a sharp guy.

"Hypothetical" certainly makes more sense than "hypothesis" as something that Brooks would make a mess out of. That probably was a flubbed line by the actor. Then again, Brooks, as a law student, is a pretty sad case. I don't have any problem believing he would get this wrong, photographic memory and all. If I were the director and noticed it in the dailies I can't imagine reshooting the scene over it.

On the screamer, I suppose that's a bit questionable if you really get super detail oriented. Classes apparently started on a Friday, for some weird reason.* And the RA-type guy is still walking around at midnight because he hasn't gotten to everybody yet. I actually don't find the hour that hard to believe.
____
*Or else class started on a Thursday, and he refers to the 12:00 midnight that occurs in between Thursday and Friday as "Friday," which may not be common parlance, but is kind of more logically consistent with the custom of referring to midnight as 12:00 AM.