In Defense of Pure Intentions

Rating: 8/10 (15 September 2006)

The interesting thing about this title to me is how often the plot is misunderstood and how very relevant it still is today. Of course the story is about becoming "a man", and an adult, etc. That is the basics, The Graduate 101. What I'm often struck by is how many people watch this movie and think the script is about breaking with conventions, whereas in the end what Benjamin really wants is to do the conventional thing -- except that he wants to do that conventional thing with pure intentions.
At the beginning of the movie he spends much of his time realizing that the 'approved' life for a middle class boy like him (graduate school,expensive toys, and 'sowing oats')is anything but satisfying. The purposeless pursuit of distinction and pleasure is not something which can satisfy this overachiever for too long. He feels boredom and sets out to satisfy that boredom by doing the 'off-limits', only to discover that it too is conventional and boring in its own way. The adults around him are deep in their own cynicism(drinking, affairs, keeping up with the Joneses!). On the other hand, Benjamin desperately wants to talk with someone who is not cynical or jaded, with someone who can still feel pleasure at the small things and pain as well. What he most wants is to share ideals and he eventually figures out how to do that.
It would have been easy for him to walk away when he finds his ideal but he doesn't. (He is still innocent enough himself to appreciate innocence.) The growing moment and the moment of heroics comes for him when he has to own up. He has to become responsible for his past and future in order to fight for his ideals. (He is after all is the only one insisting on good intentions and truth, not just show and tell, no matter whom it inconveniences.) Some final symbolism is pretty heavy. But I suppose that its those same people who think this movie is about breaking away from convention, who think its ironic that Benjamin makes use of it.