Legally Blonde (2001)

Elle Woods, a fashionable sorority queen is dumped by her boyfriend. She decides to follow him to law school, while she is there she figures out that there is more to her than just looks.

Director:

Robert Luketic

Writers:

Amanda Brown (novel), Karen McCullah (screenplay)

Stars:

Reese Witherspoon, Luke Wilson, Selma Blair

Nominated for 2 Golden Globes. Another 6 wins & 10 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Reese Witherspoon	...	Elle Woods
Luke Wilson	...	Emmett
Selma Blair	...	Vivian Kensington
Matthew Davis	...	Warner
Victor Garber	...	Professor Callahan
Jennifer Coolidge	...	Paulette
Holland Taylor	...	Professor Stromwell
Ali Larter	...	Brooke Taylor Windham
Jessica Cauffiel	...	Margot
Alanna Ubach	...	Serena
Oz Perkins	...	Dorky David Kidney
Linda Cardellini	...	Chutney
Bruce Thomas	...	UPS Guy
Meredith Scott Lynn	...	Enid
Raquel Welch	...	Mrs. Windham Vandermark

Storyline

Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon) has it all. She's the president of her sorority, a Hawaiian Tropic girl, Miss June in her campus calendar, and, above all, a natural blonde. She dates the cutest fraternity boy on campus and wants nothing more than to be Mrs. Warner Huntington III. But, there's just one thing stopping Warner (Matthew Davis) from popping the question: Elle is too blonde. Growing up across the street from Aaron Spelling might mean something in LA, but nothing to Warner's East-Coast blue blood family. So, when Warner packs up for Harvard Law and reunites with an old sweetheart from prep school, Elle rallies all her resources and gets into Harvard, determined to win him back. But law school is a far cry from the comforts of her poolside and the mall. Elle must wage the battle of her life, for her guy, for herself and for all the blondes who suffer endless indignities everyday.

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Plot Keywords:

blonde | law | sorority | harvard | law school | 

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Taglines:

This summer go blonde!

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Genres:

Comedy | Romance

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Certificate:

PG-13

Details

Official Sites:

MGM

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

13 July 2001 (USA)

Also Known As:

Legally Blonde

Filming Locations:

Villa del Sol d'Oro, 675 W Highland Ave, Sierra Madre California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$18,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$20,377,426, 15 July 2001, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$96,520,674

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$141,774,679

Company Credits

Production Co:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Marc Platt Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

96 min

Sound Mix:

DTS-Stereo DTS SDDS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Emmett jokingly asks Elle "how do you think I would look as a blonde?" This is a reference to his real life brother Owen Wilson who looks very similar just with blonde hair.

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Goofs

Characters make casual references to numerical class ranks at both Harvard and Yale Law Schools. Neither law school ranks students in this manner (Harvard has not done so since the late 1960s), and Yale Law School does not even assign grades (classes are pass/fail).

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Quotes

Professor Callahan: Let the blood bath begin.

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Alternate Versions

There are eight deleted scenes which are:

• "After the Break-Up" - after the break up of Elle and Warner, Elle stumbles down the corridor. Her two friends are shocked, expecting to find a ring on her finger. (Keep)
• "Rollerblading" - a short scene that was part of Elle's admissions video sequence.
• "The Betting Pool" - Vivian and others place a betting pool at the party to see how long Elle would last at Harvard. This comes in the film after Elle storms out of the party after talking to Warner. (Keep)
• "Elle's Revenge" - Extended sequence where she exacts her revenge on Aaron, one of the people betting against her. He would eventually go on to lose all his money, though. Even Elle's bullies get a chuckle out of it. (Keep)
• "Depositions" - sequence where they interview the witnesses, one at a time with all lawyers present. They make Chutney sound so dumb in this scene (but she's always dumb), Enrique is exaggerating the story of after incident, sounding like some character off a soap opera.
• "Delta Nu Sister" - this makes sense when you watch it, a quick scene of Elle going to see Brooke in jail, hoping to get her alibi. She identifies herself to the police officer as Brooke's sister, Delta Nu. (Keep)
• "Professor Callahan & Emmett" - little quick scene where Emmett confronts Professor Callahan after he comes on to her. (Keep)
• "Mrs. Windham Vandermark" - quick cameo scene near the end of the film where Mrs. Windham tells Elle she was once a blonde, and that her daughter needs a good lawyer.

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Connections

Featured in The Graham Norton Show: Harrison Ford/Ryan Gosling/Reese Witherspoon/Margot Robbie/Bananarama (2017)

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Soundtracks

Sex Machine
Written by James Brown, Bobby Byrd and Ronald R. Lenhoff
Performed by Mya
Produced by Rockwilder and E. Dawk
Under license from A&M Records
Contains sample of "Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine"
Performed by James Brown
Courtesy of Polydor Records
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

User Reviews

Clueless Goes to Harvard

In `Legally Blonde,' – which could well be re-titled `Clueless Goes to Harvard' - the delightful Reese Witherspoon stars as a ditzy, fashion-obsessed airhead who winds up (through plot complications too elaborate to go through) taking that Ivy League law school by storm. Needless to say, there is not a single believable moment in the film, but that is generally the case with most fish-out-of-water scenarios anyway. What `Legally Blonde' does have is a warm spirit, a bubbly demeanor and a breezy charm that reflect to a tee the personality of its main character.

Although the film does not exhibit the same level of comic genius we found in `Clueless,' Witherspoon's letter-perfect rendition of the bubblehead stereotype earns the film a great deal of audience goodwill, a factor that helps us to get over some of the movie's flatter moments. For indeed, throughout the course of this tale, we do hit a number of arid stretches where we feel that we should be laughing an awful lot more than we are. In fact, `Legally Blonde' occasionally feels more like a concept in search of a movie than a full-fledged work in its own right. But, just as you are about to give up on it, the filmmakers hit upon a hilarious concept, sight gag or line of dialogue, which help to set the movie back on track.

Clearly, Witherspoon is the big selling point of this film. As an actress, she exudes such an air of intelligence, confidence and compassionate goodwill that she invests even her dumb blonde character with those seemingly paradoxical traits. `Legally Blonde' isn't always at the top of its form, but Witherspoon wins the case for the film hands down anyway.