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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