Blutige Erdbeeren Film Soundtrack 16
Sibyl Piccuillo
The Strawberry Statement is a 1970 American drama film set in the counterculture and student revolts of the 1960s. The story is loosely based on the non-fiction book of the same name by James Simon Kunen (who has a cameo appearance in the film) about the Columbia University protests of 1968.
The film follows the radicalization of Simon, a student at a fictional university in San Francisco, California. Indifferent to student protests going on around him, Simon learns of plans by students to occupy a university building to protest construction of a gym against the wishes of the local minority community. His curiosity is aroused, and he makes his way to the protest. On the way, he spies a fellow student, Linda. It is love at first sight. He follows her into the protest, where they both join in. Together, they later rob a local grocer when the strikers become hungry. However, over time, as their relationship develops, Simon confesses to Linda his lack of commitment, as he worked so hard to gain college admission in the first place. Linda responds that she cannot date one who is not equally committed to the movement. Thus they part company, for now.
Afterwards, Simon is assaulted by a right-wing athlete, George; Simon uses his injuries to claim police brutality. Gaining attention among students, he is unexpectedly seduced by a young woman protester. Later on, though, Linda returns, announcing her decision to remain with Simon. They spend an afternoon at the park, where they are accosted by a group of African-Americans, one of whom destroys Simon's camera. A furious Simon later expresses disillusionment, telling protesters that those they seek to help seem no different from the violent cops. But Simon revises his thinking during a hospital visit with George, the jock who earlier assaulted him. George now suffers from injuries sustained when attacked by right-wingers as the police stood and watched.
On leaving the hospital, Simon visits the dean's office, warning an administrative assistant to call off construction of the gymnasium or risk violence. Eventually, city police and the National Guard with bayoneted rifles arrive and crush the university building takeover using tear gas. With the strikers choking, police and guardsmen haul the demonstrators from the building, beating them with batons. As Linda is carried away, kicking and screaming, Simon attacks a group of police all by himself and segments of his happier times in college flash before the viewers' eyes.
Winkler had seen The Indian Wants the Bronx and It's the Called the Sugar Plum by Israel Horovitz and asked if he had an idea how to adapt the book. Horovitz pitched the movie to MGM saying it should be shot at Columbia (University). "At the time, there was a student group that had shot a lot of black and white documentary footage of the strikes at Columbia", he said. "I wanted to intercut this documentary footage with the fiction that I planned to write. "[3]
Horovitz says he struggled to write the film after MGM wanted to shift it to the west coast. He talked to Kunen for a few days then asked himself, "Who is this movie for really? What's the point of this? If it's to preach to the learned already--then it will have no worth"."[3]
Horovitz says "I took the approach that Michael Moore must take with his documentaries. Moore doesn't talk to the people who are already in the know--he's talking to those who don't know. So I started to head in that direction with the re-write of the script."[3]
Irwin Winkler later wrote in his memoirs that Hagman's directorial style, which involved "a great deal of camera movement" meant "the actors sometimes suffered from the crew's allocation of production time versus acting time. But they were game and young, though they required a lot of on-set communication."[10]
Some of the film was shot in Stockton, California,[12][13][14] other parts in San Francisco (Gorilla Records[15][16] and Caffe Trieste on Grant Avenue, Alamo Square, High School of Commerce: San Francisco Unified School District Central Offices), and University of California, Berkeley and as indicated in the opening credits.
Thunderclap Newman's "Something in the Air" is featured on the soundtrack, along with "The Circle Game" (written by Joni Mitchell.[18]) performed by Buffy Sainte-Marie. "Give Peace A Chance", performed by the cast; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young contributed "Helpless", "Our House", "The Loner" and "Down By The River". Crosby, Stills and Nash perform "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes".
Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote that the film "only lacks an occasional, superimposed written message ... to look like a giant, 103-minute commercial, not for peace, or student activism, or community responsibility, but for the director himself."[19] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four and called it "a movie with its heart, if not always its intelligence, in the right place ... The major problem with the film is that during the period before Simon James, a 20-year old student at Western Pacific university, is radicalized, neither his life style as a member of the college crew, nor the political movement on campus is very interesting. Director Stuart Hagman [sic], in his first feature effort, substitutes overly enthusiastic camera techniques and popular music played against the San Francisco scenery for a more complete character definition."[20] Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "I found 'The Strawberry Statement' inconsistent and uneven, all too glossy and yet suddenly all too real and populated with children I have no trouble recognizing as my own. And it's the true measure of the film that we are all likely to remember its best moments: The moments when we are made to see the terrible and ironic costs of innocence and idealism."[21] Gary Arnold of The Washington Post stated that the violent climax "would be absurd even if it were well staged, because Hagmann and Horowitz haven't earned their catharsis. There is something howlingly inappropriate about a movie that turns 'angry' after an hour-and-a-half of puppy love, puppy protest and the confectionery audio-visual style pioneered by 'A Man and a Woman' and 'The Graduate.' It's difficult to forget that the script has been fundamentally negligible and incompetent."[22] David Pirie of The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote, "The Strawberry Statement is certain to be attacked for its patchiness and for hollow commercial opportunism; but while students are being killed on university campuses in America, one can't help preferring its highly emotional, if faltering and uneven, tone to the slick reportage of a film like Medium Cool."[23]
Leonard Quart expressed a more measured view in Cineaste, writing that while The Strawberry Statement is basically a "shallow, pop version of the Sixties", it still provides "a taste of the period's dreams and volatility." That's a reasonable take on the film, which is more accurate than it may seem at first glance, depicting an uncertain time when many aspiring rebels were motivated as much by romance and excitement as by principles and ideologies. The Strawberry Statement is a terrific time machine that's also fun to watch.[26]
Okay positives are this movie really captures the brash excited nature of being young and being able to be open to new ideas and opportunities plus some pretty creative camera shots all the while having such a solid cast that are just starting out. The negatives are this movie has a hard time keeping a pace and just jumps around story wise that it's just so discombobulated and if it wasn't for the films main heavy beating message you wouldn't understand what is going on and man was this message just so heavy handed. It tries so hard to be that it just feels forced and annoying. Oh and it also had a great soundtrack.
This is the filmic equivalent of finding buried treasure and serves as another example of why Turner Classic Movies is such a valuable resource as I would have never seen this otherwise. I had never heard of this and basically decided to watch it on a whim, simply because it was being shown on TCM and the description sounded interesting.
Adapted from the non-fiction book of the same name by James Simon Kunen, which was published only a year earlier, the story concerns college student Simon (Bruce Davison) who is radically indifferent but drawn to objections on campus because of the gorgeous women in the audiences.
The Strawberry Statement: or, Being the Adventures of a Sheltered Upper Middle Class Blue-Eyed Blonde-Haired American College Student Enjoying All the Wide Variety of Choices Life Has to Offer and Gets Hit by Cops So then he Becomes Radical. No problem with its politics. I just hate these college students who think the city you live in is their campus, not the city you live and grew up in. It's the first week of September and I am from Boston so I may have a chip on my shoulder right now :)
Nice snapshot of San Francisco in 1969. Refreshing to see something other than the Haight-Ashbury section for a change. I also dig the soundtrack of mostly Neil Young w/ some Buffy Saint-Marie and Thunderclap Newman.
How does this embarrassing, overlong and utterly confusing period piece reflect on their progeny here-and-now? Youth is wasted on the young and rebellion is the indulgence of the privileged classes. Plus a change and all that.
Honestly, I had been meaning to watch this for a long while. Mainly, it's because I see used copies of the soundtrack on LP frequently. Its soundtrack is pretty stacked with Neil Young/CSNY tunes, but it's a film I never heard mention of. Curiosity got the better of me; my expectations weren't terribly high but I do have a big ol' soft spot for hippie bullshit and New Hollywood so here we are.
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