Can I Graduate?

Rating: 9/10 (27 January 2006)

This 1967 film directed by Mike Nichols portrays the story of a young man who has just graduated from college and is that awkward stage, a state of limbo, between his education and the real world. Right away we get the impression that Benjamin Braddock, played by a young Dustin Hoffman in the film, is being pulled inexorably toward an unwanted future, and he feels trapped in his current situation of confusion. We get a great sense of this through the camera work and the odd ways in which some of the scenes are shot.
The opening scene of the movie, when the title, cast, and some credits flash by on the screen, we get a shot of Ben on a conveyor belt at the airport, after he has gotten off his flight to return home from the east coast. The camera moves with him as he is drawn forward on the moving walkway. Because of this shot, coupled with the empty, lost look on Ben's face, the viewer gets a very clear sense that Ben is being dragged toward a future and a place that he does not wish to face.
In the next scene, Ben is forced by his parents to leave his room and go downstairs to his welcome home/congratulations party. Once he gets downstairs he instantly wants to get out, and tries to avoid conversations and the people in his house. However, whenever he turns somewhere to leave he is encountered by one of his parents' friends. This shows that he feels trapped in his parents' life, a life that he is doomed to lead if he does not figure out his future.
Later, after Ben drives Mrs. Robinson back to her house and she asks him to come inside, we get more images of entrapment. Mrs. Robinson continues to corner him in her daughter Elaine's room, eventually, coming into the room naked and closing and locking the door behind her. This is an image of actual entrapment, but it still further exemplifies the theme that runs throughout the movie of Ben being trapped in an unwanted part of his life.
A few scenes later, when Ben goes into the pool with the gift his father gave him (a full body scuba suit) we see a different scene of entrapment. As Ben enters the water, with all these people around him clapping and cheering (many of whom Ben hardly knows or cares about) he stays in the deep end of the pool, his back against the wall. The camera pans out a bit and we can see that Ben is staying there to keep away from this life that he wants no part of. In this case, he is choosing to be literally trapped under the water to stay away from this other life (the life above the water) that he has been trapped in.
When Ben goes to Berkeley to find Elaine and marry her, the viewer sees another scene of entrapment, in this case because of some brilliant camera work by the director. After Ben follows Elaine to the zoo and sees Carl go off with the woman he wishes to marry, the camera shows a shot of Ben looking very defeated. However, it is shot from the other side of a cage in the zoo, giving the viewers that Ben is the animal trapped in a cage, his life consisting of this tight place that he can't escape from.
In general, The Graduate is a film about entrapment, about a part of ones life where they are no longer young but aren't ready to be thrust into the real world. Nichols and the cast of this film brilliantly show how trapped a young man can feel during this time in his life, and how his world can fall apart and then be regained.