At last I found this DVD in Germany, where it is called Bloody Strawberries. Silly enough the film turned out to be dubbed in German, but this was surmountable since it is not quite a piece of poetry and the songs are still in American. Strawberry Statement tells the story of the student revolt at an American University during the roaring sixties. The students organize sit-ins and occupy the living quarters of the university board. The rooms are decorated with antiwar banners and pictures of Che Guevara. It is clear that eventually the board will have the students removed by the police and the national guard. But for the moment the students have a great time and organize their resistance by means of bottom-up activities. Including proletarian shopping, which assumes the implicit support of the proletariat embodied in the shop owner. The main character is a freshman, who is drawn into the actions due to his feelings of attraction to a participating female student. Incidentally this does not prevent him from being orally satisfied by a female admirer of Lenin. She even carols: "Lenin loved large tits". This is adulteration of history, since Lenin was a puritan, and rejected the experiments with free sex just after the Octobre Revolution. He compared free sex to collectively drinking from the same well-thumbed bowl. This minor scene highlights my objection to the film. The story is told form the perspective of a fellow-traveler, who hardly understands the reasons and objectives of the protests. To be sure, the phenomenon of massive fellow-traveling is interesting in itself and deserves a careful reflection. It is startling how even mass movements are usually carried by only a few hard core activists. But hang-ons clearly are not the best source of information concerning the motives. They are usually attracted by the excitement (like here: the freshman's' girlfriend, who by the way highly values her virginity), the unanimity and lack of personal responsibility. I would have preferred a reflection on the actual aims of the resistance, for instance by making one of the organizers into a main film character. The real motives for the student protests were interesting enough: the civil rights movement, the trenching on taboos and unjustified authority, and the demand for co-management. The film barely touches these problems, and leaves the viewer wondering why on earth these kids have gone mad. Lacking an understanding means not being able to feel any empathy, except for the personality of the roaming freshman and his blossoming relation. The viewer even feels relieved, when finally order is restored. I would not call this a happy ending. Because I don't believe in a low-brow self-centered attitude.
Review of The Strawberry Statement
