The film was a commercial and critical flop . " The critics attacked the style instead of the substance , " said Winkler . " Most disappointing was the dismissal by audiences . " 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 . " 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 . " 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 . " Gary Arnold of '' The Washington Post '' stated that the violent climax " would be absurd even if it were well staged , because Hagmann and Horowitz have n'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 confectionary 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 ca n'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 ca n'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 . The film won the Jury Prize at the 1970 Cannes Film Festival , tying with '' Magasiskola ''
1970 Cannes Film Festival
1970 Cannes Film Festival
The Strawberry Statement (film)