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." 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." Horovitz says when he saw the film "I was really upset with it. I thought it was too cute and Californian and too pretty." Brian De Palma said "big studio revolutionary movies" like Strawberry were "such a joke. You can't stage that stuff. We've seen it all on television." "Bad timing", said Davison. "Everyone had enough of the country tearing apart." Horovitz now says he came to accept the film "for what it is, what it was, and what it represented in the time in which it was made. I'm glad I got to write it." As a snapshot of its time, the film has collected many present-day fans, as David Sterritt writes for Turner Classic Movies: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. Awards The film won the Jury Prize at the 1970 Cannes Film Festival, tying with Magasiskola. In 1971, Bruce Davison was nominated for his performance for the Laurel Awards "Male Star of Tomorrow". See also Port Huron Statement List of American films of 1970 Columbia University protests of 1968 Hippie Beatnik Counterculture of the 1960s Vietnam War Civil rights movement List of historic rock festivals Pacifism References External