As they take up the chant, “give peace a chance”, police and National Guardsmen storm the building, spraying tear-gas and swinging batons. After getting arrested, Simon calls his parents from jail, informing them that he has “solved my identity crisis!” He’s crossed the Rubicon and become a full-fledged revolutionary - and as Linda informs him, “once you’re in, you’re IN”.Īn ominous encounter with a street gang sours Simon further, setting the tone for the film’s memorable climax - the occupation of a campus auditorium by hundreds of students. Though the mood is playful, there’s more than a hint of genuine danger - especially when a Franciscan priest begins whacking cops with his protest sign. After knocking down the fence, exuberant protesters send one policeman headfirst down the slide, give another a vertigo-inducing ride on the teeter-totter, and suspend a third upside down on the jungle gym. Things darken considerably during a demonstration at the playground, now surrounded by chain-link. Assigned by protest organizers to collect food, he and Linda visit a corner store operated by a friendly grocer (James Coco), who encourages them to take whatever they want as long as they pretend to rob him - thus allowing him to make an insurance claim.
When Simon finds out she’s participating in a President’s office sit-in protesting the conversion of a playground to an ROTC center, he suddenly develops a social conscience and comes along for the ride. That all changes when his camera alights upon Linda (Kim Darby), a cute co-ed deeply engaged in left-wing politics (Linda: “I’m involved in women’s liberation.” Simon: “I’m in favor of that!”). Simon would rather film a demonstration than pick up a picket sign and join in. Though not a total square - his apartment is decorated with Che and Bobby posters, and he owns a copy of the 2001: A Space Odyssey soundtrack - he regards activist students with detached bemusement.
Though it would go on to win the Jury Prize at Cannes that year, The Strawberry Statement was not received well by critics or audiences and has languished in obscurity ever since.Ĭlean-cut Simon (Bruce Davison, later Senator Kelly in the X-Men franchise) is a San Francisco college student more interested in rowing crew and maintaining a decent GPA at fictional Western University than in getting involved with his school’s chapter of Students for a Democratic Society. Though loosely based on a book about a 1968 sit-in at Columbia University, the similarities between the events depicted in the film and the horrors of Kent State were unmistakable. On June 15, 1970, The Strawberry Statement opened in New York City cinemas. On May 4, 1970, National Guardsmen shot dead four students demonstrating against the Vietnam War at Ohio’s Kent State University.
Bruce Davidson and Bud Cort in The Strawberry Statement
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