The Hairy Bird[1] (also released as Strike! and All I Wanna Do[2]) is a 1998 film written and directed by Sarah Kernochan and starring Kirsten Dunst, Gaby Hoffmann, Lynn Redgrave, and Rachael Leigh Cook. The movie was filmed in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and Wallingford, Connecticut, United States.

The film is set during the early 1960s, at the fictional "Miss Godard's Preparatory School for Girls"; the setting is based loosely on Kernochan's experiences at Rosemary Hall during those years. Redgrave plays the headmistress of the school, students of the school are played by Dunst, Hoffman, and Cook, among others.

The first part of the film provides a glimpse into life at an elite New England boarding school during the period between the Bay of Pigs Invasion and the first appearance of The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show; as the story progresses, the comedy becomes broader when the school's precarious financial situation forces it to consider a less-than-equals merger into a coeducational institute.

The song "The Hairy Bird" plays during the film's end credits; the song was written by Kernochan and sung by a group which includes Kernochan and five of her Rosemary Hall classmates, including Glenn Close.

note: Hayden Christensen had a small appearance in the movie as one of the students from the all male school.


# Lynn Redgrave as Miss McVane
# Gaby Hoffmann as Odette "Odie" Sinclair
# Kirsten Dunst as Verena von Stefan
# Monica Keena as Tinka Parker
# Merritt Wever as Maureen 'Momo' Haines
# Heather Matarazzo as Theresa 'Tweety' Goldberg
# Rachael Leigh Cook as Abigail 'Abby' Sawyer
# Vincent Kartheiser as Snake - Flat Critter


Language: English
Subtitles: Chinese