R.P.M. (1970)

It's the 1960s and radical students have occupied the university's administration building with a list of twelve demands to be met by the school before they will vacate. The university's newly appointed President (Anthony Quinn) meets with the students to negotiate but they refuse to negotiate, instead demanding all of the demands be met. Directed by Stanley Kramer, this was just one of a spate of several similar films (STRAWBERRY STATEMENT, GETTING STRAIGHT) about the student revolutions of the era. Most of them weren't very good and this one is downright phony. The screenplay is by Erich Segal who wrote LOVE STORY which gives you some idea of the quality of writing. I was a college student in San Francisco during this time and part of that student movement and nothing about this film remotely resembles the realities. Kramer (who was about 56 when he directed this) is out of touch with the youth movement and this is a Hollywood version of it. Quinn is given a sexy graduate student in the form of Ann-Margret to bed and the film doesn't go into the ethics of sleeping with students and even suggests he has a history of it. Compare the film's finale with that of THE STRAWBERRY STATEMENT, both dealing with police gassing students. STRAWBERRY's is done with skill and it's terrifying while R.P.M.'s is clumsy and awkward. With Gary Lockwood, Paul Winfield, Ramon Bieri, Donald Moffat and Gail Bonney.