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Getting Straight

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Genre
  
Comedy, Drama, Romance

Music director
  
Ronald Stein

Country
  
United States

6.3/10
IMDb

Director
  
Richard Rush

Initial DVD release
  
February 3, 2009

Duration
  

Language
  
English

Getting Straight movie poster

Release date
  
May 13, 1970 (1970-05-13) (U.S.) July 31, 1970 (1970-07-31) (Finland) September 10, 1977 (1977-09-10) (Spain)

Writer
  
Robert Kaufman, Ken Kolb (novel)

Cast
  
Elliott Gould
(Harry Bailey),
Candice Bergen
(Jan),
Robert F. Lyons
(Nick),
Cecil Kellaway
(Dr. Kasper),
Harrison Ford
(Jake),
Jeff Corey
(Dr. Edward Willhunt)

Similar movies
  
21
,
Good Will Hunting
,
The Boy Next Door
,
Toy Story 3
,
The Voyeur
,
Straight Outta Compton

Tagline
  
America's children lay it on the line.

Getting Straight is a 1970 American comedy-drama motion picture directed by Richard Rush, released by Columbia Pictures.

Contents

Getting Straight movie scenes

The story centered upon student politics at a university in the early 1970s, seen through the eyes of non-conformist graduate student Harry Bailey (Elliott Gould). Also featured in the cast were Candice Bergen as Bailey's girlfriend, Jeff Corey as Bailey's professor and Harrison Ford as his anti social friend.

Getting Straight wwwgstaticcomtvthumbdvdboxart992p992dv8a

Getting Straight was released in an era of change and unrest in the United States in the early 1970s, and was in a long line of films that dealt with these themes. Other films of this period with similar themes were Medium Cool (1969), R. P. M. (1970), and The Strawberry Statement (1970).

Getting Straight Getting Straight 1970

Synopsis

Getting Straight Ronald Stein Getting Straight An Original Soundtrack Recording

Harry Bailey, a former student activist and post-graduate, comes back to university to complete an education course to become a teacher. He tries to avoid the increasing student unrest that has surfaced, but finds this difficult as his girlfriend, Jan, is a leader in these protests.

Getting Straight Getting Straight 1970 Review

Over time, student demonstrations bring police to the campus to quell the unrest, and the ensuing clashes lead to martial law. Harry is forced to question his values in relation to this. At the height of the rioting he concurs with Jan that "getting straight" is more important than unprotesting acceptance of the educational establishment.

Box office performance

Getting Straight Original Soundtrack Getting Straight UK Vinyl LP Record SF8137

The film grossed $13.3 million at the domestic box office, earning $5.1 million in US theatrical rentals. It was the 21st highest-grossing film of 1970.

Critical reaction

Leonard Maltin noted that the film essentially was a "period piece" but that its "central issue of graduate student (Elliott) Gould choosing between academic double-talk and his beliefs remains relevant." On the other hand, Steven Scheuer wrote that the film was reflective of "hippiedom alienation at its shallowest."

Other reviewers, such as Roger Greenspun from The New York Times, were a little more complimentary in tone about the film. While he says that overall the film is "misguided" he lauded Gould for "a brilliant, mercurial performance" and that he "fires" the film "with a fervor and wonderful comic sense of reality."

The film's protagonist shares a name with a character from It's a Wonderful Life, George Bailey's brother Harry, whose war service was a prominent subplot in the latter film.

References

Getting Straight Wikipedia
Getting Straight IMDbGetting Straight Rotten TomatoesGetting Straight themoviedb.org