Willis shot '' The Paper Chase '' in anamorphic format due to the " schoolroom and the graphics in the film . " He also commented on the cinematography , noting that the composition of the scenes with Houseman and Bottoms " related to who had command of the situation . We used huge close-ups of John , and demeaning shots of Timothy . Then as the movie goes along and Timothy begins to get on top of it , you 'll notice the shot sizes begin to diminish on John and begin to get a little bit bigger on Timothy &mdash; until finally they are equal partners shooting back and forth . " Vincent Canby wrote the film " goes slowly soft like a waxwork on a hot day , losing the shape and substance that at the beginning have rightfully engaged our attention ; " he concludes " it takes a long while for '' The Paper Chase '' to disintegrate , and there are some funny , intelligent sequences along the way , but by the end it has melted into a blob of clichés . " Jay Cocks called it a movie of " some incidental pleasures and insights and a great deal of silliness : " What writer/director Bridges catches best is the peculiar tension of the classroom , the cool terror that can be instilled by an academic skilled in psychological warfare . His Ivy League Olympian is Kingsfield , a professor of contract law who passes along scholarship with finely tempered disdain . In an original bit of casting , Kingsfield is played by veteran theater and film producer John Houseman . It is a forbidding , superb performance , catching not only the coldness of such a man but the patrician crustiness that conceals deep and raging contempt . The University of Chicago Law School called Houseman 's rendition of the Socratic method " over-the-top " , telling prospective students : John Houseman may have won an Oscar for his impressive performance , but if anyone ever did teach a law school class like his Professor Kingsfield , no one at Chicago does today . Instead , our students discover quickly that the Socratic Method is a tool and a good one that is used to engage a large group of students in a discussion , while using probing questions to get at the heart of the subject matter . The Socratic Method is not used at Chicago to intimidate , nor to " break down " new law students , but instead for the very reason Socrates developed it : to develop critical thinking skills in students and enable them to approach the law as intellectuals . Others disagreed ; another reviewer found it accurate : This is really the only serious flick about law school life . It 's brooding and intense , perfectly capturing the dynamic between law professor and student . The movie is worth watching just for actor John Houseman 's academy award-winning performance as Professor Kingsfield . Every school still has a professor that knows how to absolutely terrify the 1Ls — for us at UChicago , that was Richard " The Hammer " Helmholz . '' The Paper Chase '' s Professor Kingsfield is like a distillation every one of these scary Arch-villain type professors . Houseman was awarded Best Supporting Actor at the 46th Academy Awards and the same award from the National Board of Review . Bridges was nominated for a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar , losing to William Peter Blatty , who won for adapting his novel into the screenplay for '' The Exorcist '' . Donald O. Mitchell and Larry Jost received an Academy Award nomination for Best Sound
46th Academy Awards
46th Academy Awards
The Paper Chase (film)