The Strawberry Statement (1970) on Netflix
At a fictional San Francisco university, apathetic student Simon follows Linda into a protest against an allegedly segregated gym. He joins to be near her but ends up committed to the movement.
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- Netflix3.3/5
- IMDb6.6/101,962 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Trailer
Plot summary
Simon is an indifferent student at a fictional San Francisco university. When he learns of a planned occupation of a campus building to oppose construction of an allegedly segregated gym, his curiosity leads him to the protest. On the way he sees Linda and falls for her instantly, so he follows her inside and joins the demonstration. As the protest continues, the students grow hungry and rob a local grocer together. Simon admits to Linda that he is not fully committed; he worked hard to gain college admission. Linda tells him she cannot date someone who does not share her devotion to the movement, and they separate.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Strawberry Statement (1970)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Screenwriter Israel Horovitz said the scenario was cut by director Stuart Hagmann rather than by MGM, and that the cuts diluted it; he believed the stronger version would have lost most of its audience right away.
- When MGM suggested moving the setting of the film to the West Coast, Israel Horovitz consulted Kunen for several days and then questioned the project's purpose, asking who the movie was really for and whether it was just preaching to the already informed.
- Israel Horovitz pitched the film to MGM with the idea of shooting at Columbia University and intercutting black-and-white documentary footage that a student group had shot of the strikes there with the fiction he planned to write.
- Producer Irwin Winkler wrote in his memoirs that Stuart Hagmann's directorial style, with extensive camera movement, meant the actors sometimes suffered from the crew's allocation of production time versus acting time, though they were game and young and needed a lot of on-set communication.
- The Strawberry Statement won the Jury Prize at the 1970 Cannes Film Festival, tying with Magasiskola for the prize rather than taking it outright.
