Heads up for all of you who cannot find this movie to purchase. TCM will be showing The Strawberry Statement Thursday morning Jan 14th at 2:30 am CST. Set up you recording devices, this rarely is shown. Now if TCM could only get their hands on the ABC movie of the week archive...!
shareYes, I agree ! TV movies ! I have been searching for the movie of Thomas Wolfe's "Look Homeward Angel" with Geraaldine Page playing the mother.
It's a one-legged race to the liquor store
It's just a hop, skip and jump into the tomb
I'm watching it right now on TCM and I have a question. All of the hard profanities are being muted out. Is this how the film actually is or has TCM sold out? 'Cause that would break my heart.
shareIt must have been that way, because as far as I know they never edit anything out of movies shown on TCM.
shareWhat a time capsule. Almost a docudrama about the period. Never even heard of this one before?!?
Must have mos def been indie. Too "fresh" for main stream cinema.
TCM is getting awfully "new" by getting into 1970! Of course, I'm getting very very old by getting into 2010.
Yes, I watched it on TCM this morning. Thank God that I had recorded it on DVR,
as I had NEVER heard of it, and I am a HUGE fan of 60's couterculture films. The reason that it caught my eye was noticing Bud Cort's name in the credits.
Harold & Maude is one of my favorite films, but that movie is really the only one that I had seen Bud Cort in and I had always wanted the chance to see him in a movie made the same year as Harold & Maude (1970).
I assumed that it would end up being one of those Hollywood 60's sterotypes.
I cannot believe I hadn't heard of it, even if it was just for the soundtrack.
This film is unlike any I had seen before. I loved the creative editing and camera work! Once I realized how good the film was I became dissapointed that
it was not in letterbox. This is VERY rare for TCM and the few times I've seen
a movie in pan&scan was because it was unavailable on DVD and probably a VHS
tape. Well, this film was not only on video, but for some reason the swear words were EDITED OUT!! I am absolutely convinced that TCM had no knowledge of the editing! They pride themselves on showing uncut films! The most annoying part of it was that there wasn't much swearing at all!* This was tame compared to, say "Blue Velvet" which they premiered early this month.
I checked to see if "The Strawberry Statement" was available on DVD, and was not surprised to see only VHS Tapes! This needs to be put out on DVD! Oh,
and to top it off the film was recorded in MONO, and the sound was very poor.
Can't they remix mono films into 2.0 stereo, or a close reproduction?
LETS NOT BLAME TCM FOR THIS, GUYS! The thing that confuses me is why would there even be a version edited for language, unless it was meant to be played on TV years back? It doesn't strike me as the type of film that would be shown on commercial television. Does anyone know if it ever was??
--GARY (fluffhead34)
*Correction:
I was slightly mistaken when I said that the editing of "swear words" was even
more annoying because there wasn't much swearing at all. I just watched this movie for the second time, this time without distractions and I noticed that there are many more curse words than I had picked up on my first viewing. I blame, in part, the poor sound quality. The fact that the words had been censored or changed didn't help either! Even so, the "language" used still seems pretty tame.
It's obvious that the editing was done quite awhile ago, when they were much stricter with language. Someone here on IMBd said that it was all set to be shown on t.v., many years ago, which explained why there is an edited version. I don't remember exactly what the problem was, I believe some legal loophole,
that prevented it from ever airing on commercial television. At least we are left with this beautiful print.
"ASA NISI MASA"
You're right this was on tv before. The last time I saw it on tv was about 1994, TNT aired it when their format was different, and this was just before the creation of TCM. I have been waiting for this movie to air, since it was one of my favorites from childhood. It was aired once a year on my local tv station in the afternoons when they played older films years ago, now of course they play infomercials. I was curious to see if TCM would show the uncut version, as I have never seen this film in its original format. TCM must have played the same edited version they used when they last aired it on TNT. What a shame. But I recorded it and edited version is better than nothing.
shareI believe there was about 3 mins. cut out of the film, the internet movie data base listed the film run time at 1 hr. 49min. I recorded the film last night and the run time was approx. 1 hr. and 46min.
shareIf you liked Bud Cort in this movie you should definitely get a copy of "Brewster McCloud" and watch it! While Bud stars in both movies "Brewster McCloud" was a Robert Altman A-movie while "Harold & Maude" was a Hal Ashby B-movie. Not that I'm putting "Harold & Maude" (or Hal Ashby) down, "H&M" will always be one of my favorite movies. But the humor and social comment in "McCloud" is just that much more edgy and outrageous. It also benefits from a bigger budget, more music and many more big-name actors, too. Altman even throws in one of filmdom's all-time best car chases as icing on the cake, so to speak. This movie is a must-see for any Bud Cort fanatic (as I consider myself). It's an absolute crime that this excellent movie, like so many other Altman films, hasn't yet made it to DVD!
shareTCM is getting awfully "new" by getting into 1970!They showed L.A. Confidential the other night (1997). Not sure where the cut-off for "classic" is anymore....
TCM's pretty good for showin the new generation of classics. I know not so long ago AMC ..american movie classics ... played CATWOMAN starring Hally Berry and Sharon Stone. I really really hope that TCM doesns't fall THAT far down.
I wish TCM would start playing more and more cult films from the seventies. They played "Hospital" the other night.
This is 2010... old people are dyin off. I know I am, and I 'd like to see some of my generation's stuff be considered for TCM before I die or the world gets blown up.
It's a one-legged race to the liquor store
It's just a hop, skip and jump into the tomb
I wish TCM would start playing more and more cult films from the seventies.They show cult movies on Friday nights after midnight. I think it's called TCM Underground. Also, you can go to their website and suggest movies you'd like to see them play. Here's the link: http://www.tcm.com/processors/suggestamovie.do
Thanks for the link. It really doens't do any good to ask them to play something. ( my opinion ) I can't even get my posts to show up on their message board. Interesting films tonite. I enjjoyed both. I had never seen "The Shout" before.
It's a one-legged race to the liquor store
It's just a hop, skip and jump into the tomb
Don't worry, TCM has not sold out. This movie went out of print during the '80s because of copyright issues over the (excellent) music, so I'd guess that TCM used whatever was available, which was probably just some edited-for-TV version that played on TNT years ago.
That's why you and I don't see eye-to-eye sometimes, Jack; because you're a man of science.
I had trouble with my cable and missed recording this film as I wanted to see how TCM was going to present it. Sorry to know the version they showed was sensored somewhat.
However, and fortunately, because I am such a huge Bud Cort fan, I was able to get an uncensored VHS copy of it and there are swear words in the film. I recall the "F" and "S" words spoken a few times.
"We can't all do good, but at least do no harm."
The word "sh!t" was edited out numerous times from the TCM telecast, but somehow "dick" was not, which sure seems strange.
The other thing I wondered about being cut was the scene in the office where the large-breasted girl is intent on "rewarding" Bruce Davison, after he shows up with an injury and tells everyone the cops hurt him. The cutting was extremely elliptical and no actual nudity was shown, leaving the impression that it had been censored out for TV.
Can somebody here who's seen the uncut version (perhaps on an old factory-recorded tape) please confirm this?
In the scene in the Zerox copier room, the busty blond gets topless and when Simon looks at her, the camera cuts to the sight of her naked breasts for a couple of quick flashes.
"We can't all do good, but at least do no harm."
Thanks for confirming, as much as it was so clear from the edited version (with the abrupt and unnatural cuts) that the busty blonde must have surely been shown in her glory. The original, uncensored version of this film appears to have become a true rarity, as I checked with a fairly comprehensive celebrity nudity site, and there was no hint of the busty blonde. There were, however, shots of actress Kristina Holland (playing "Irma") who apparently performed a "streaking" scene in the film, which was totally obliterated from the version shown on TCM. (I can't even place at what point in the film such a scene could have been positioned.)
Aside from the swear words being overdubbed with silence, another indication that made my radar go up was the shower scene with Bruce Davison's character getting punched by the "jock." Davison's lower torso, fallen on the ground, was digitally blurred in the form of a circle, indicating that the censorship must have been performed probably in the last generation, given the relative newness of the technology.
These clues took me aback, because TCM, much to its credit, normally takes pains to broadcast films in their purest form. As already mentioned, TCM chose the lesser of two evils, broadcasting a compromised print versus not broadcasting the film at all. Still, how troublesome that the original must be so hard to dig up, despite the copyright issues another commentator on this thread mentioned as a possible reason as to why this film has become unavailable.
Yeah but it's edited. Why?
shareI just heard from someone who complained on the TCM forum at their website about the editing of "The Strawberry Statement." Apparently, TCM was sent the wrong film from the distributer, which was mistaken as the edited print. For about the last 10 years or more, TCM has a policy to show their films completely uncut and commercial free.
TCM went with the decision to show the edited print because that was all they had. They plan to get the proper uncut version and will plan to show it than.
Joe
Hey, thanks very much for clearing up the mystery of the edited version being shown on TCM! :)
A friend of a friend of mine recently overheard me complaining about that, and he proceeded to show me a gorgeous =UNCUT= version of the movie -- with Greek subitles (!) -- that actually had a "TCM" logo in the upper right corner of the screen throughout the entire print. I was flabbergasted. Here was PROOF that TCM had a complete version available at some point.
BTW, even with the weird Greek subtitles, it was a joy to watch. The scene with the girl in the copier room continued on for a bit longer. (She takes Bruce Davison into an alcove, slides a stack of file drawers open to block the view and give them some privacy, and then goes down on him.)
If an edited movie is shown on TCM, it is not because they have edited it, which is against their policy, but because they have been given an edited print of a hard-to-find film which in most cases is not otherwise available. This appears to be the case with THE STRAWBERRY STATEMENT.
I saw the film when I was very young on a double-bill with ZABRISKIE POINT. I had looked forward to catching up with both films again for many years. Both had been critically maligned box-office duds back in 1970. I liked them both then and still think ZABRISKIE POINT packs quite a punch. THE STRAWBERRY STATEMENT seemed like a weak and disjointed film when I watched it on TCM, and I don't think it was the fault of the edits. It just didn't have any impact at all.