...Worse Reporting

"EVERY so often there is a movie that people relate to in a special kind of way," say ads for The Paper Chase. But for Albert Sacks, Dean of the Law School, the special kind of way is negative.

"I think it's a poor movie," says Sacks. "I think it tends to caricature people rather than present them in a full-bodied way."

Sacks, like many students and administrators in the Harvard community, takes a dim view of John Jay Osborn's picture of life at Harvard Law. Sacks, for one, objects to the movie's handling of a student's attempted suicide. "I think it was very unreal to present it as they did," says Sacks. Severe academic problems, Sacks suggests, are frequently more complicated than they seem.

But James Bridges, director and author of the screen play, adamantly defends the movie's view of the law school.

"I don't feel it's a terribly anti-Harvard picture," Bridges insists. "Originally when I read the materials I said great, it's Harvard. Then I said, this could be any law school and this could be anywhere else."

But, some Harvard administrators are sorry the movie was filmed here. An article in the October 13 issue of the Boston Globe suggested that Harvard disowned the movie after its first sneak preview. According to Assistant Dean Stephen Bernardi, Harvard had made no promise to sponsor the movie at its premiere.

"When the producers asked permission to film here," Bernardi explained, "they raised the possibility that the University might be paid. But we told them. 'We don't want to profit from this venture of yours. We don't want to be seen as the sponsors of it.' Hence our present attitude [of noninvolvement] is quite consistent with the position we took when first offered compensation or screen credits."

But Bernardi is not the only one unwilling to get involved. One first year law student said, "My first reaction was to go to the Crimson Travel Bureau and to get the heck out of here."