The Graduate

Rating: Null/10 (29 January 2006)

Mike Nichol's The Graduate was a movie that everyone could relate to. The feeling of being thrown out into the world and life just passing you by is overwhelming which is how we find out main character Benjamin feeling. When we first meet him he stares straight ahead with a look that could mean so many things and in fact I felt that through out the movie I could never really tell how he felt except by the change if music and its tempo. I found Hoffman's character hard to grasp except that he is just going through the motions in his monkey suit to make his parents happy.
When Benjamin is on the plane there is a head shot of him staring straight ahead and his head seems to be enveloped by the brilliantly white head rest. I found that shot to be amusing because it showed the innocence that he possessed even after completing four years of college. Benjamin was the prodigal son who did everything to make his parents happy, even when he voiced complaints to his father about the party or the diving suit; he was never heard, throughout the movie his character is ignored until he meets Elaine.
One of the many great scenes that drive the point across that he is lost in his own world where he can only hear himself is when he comes out for his 21st birthday party and his father will not listen to his objections. The audience is taken into the back yard through Benjamin's perspective (his own world) looking through the goggles. All we can hear is his breath and all he can hear is himself which is what he is used to. His breath blocks every body out and he is pushed repeatedly back into the pool by his father. Benjamin decides to stay submerged and avoid reality. This theme of submersion is present in the beginning of the movie when he is looking through the fish tank and watches the fish swim around, they seem so free yet they can only swim so far before they are back where they started.
Benjamin feels alone in the beginning until Mrs. Robinson begins to show an interest in him and pretty soon that white 'halo' from the plane turns to black. As far as the viewer can tell there is no emotional connection between Ben and Mrs. Robinson, he still walks around aimlessly and his manner turns from that of a paranoid youth, like many of us, to an almost cocky young man. An interesting aspect between the relationship of Ben and Mrs. Robinson is the way the gender roles are switched. Ben is interested in involving conversation to their meetings and feels like he is being used while Mrs. Robison just wants to be purely physical. Ben has a more feminine personality then Mrs. Robison because she has so many secrets kept inside.
The romance between Ben and Elaine is somewhat rushed because one second they are in a adult club where Elaine feels insulted and wants nothing to do with Ben, and then the next thing we know they are laughing and getting along and going on another date. The next instance Elaine is being married off yet she does not object. When Ben shows up to the wedding it is hard to say whether she is happy because she loves him or if she is happy because he offers and escape for her. All she can hear is Ben screaming her name, everyone else is blocked out.
They escape from the wedding and the end scene I found leaving me hanging. I would have expected that they would have kissed and lived happily ever after but instead their smiles fade away as they realize they have no idea what will happen next and they are back to the beginning again. The film leaves you wondering what will happen? Will the characters end up happy together? Or are they looking to each other as an escape from the domination of their parents?