The greatest cinematic heritage of the 60's ...

Rating: 10/10 (4 June 2011)

Hello darkness, my old friend ... the melancholic melodies of Simon and Garfunkel transport "The Graduate" to a dimension, no movie has ever reached
I can't describe how Mike Nichols' masterpiece affected me on that night I watched it for the first time. It was a unique experience inviting me to laugh, to contemplate, to meditate, while mirroring my own condition and carrying it, smoothly, quietly, unconsciously to a mysterious place that only I, could approach  and no one else. "The Graduate" became for me, the epitome of cinematic escapism forever graved in my memory ... hell, I even dreamed of it that very night!
I know an academic analysis of "The Graduate" would cover many paragraphs relating the cultural impact of the film, its iconic status from the red Alfa Romeo to Mrs. Robinson 'seducing' legs, its politically incorrect tone that unsettled America's puritan morality on the breakthrough year of 1967, through the love affair between an awkward graduate and an alcoholic middle-aged cougar. So let's not spoil the extraordinary feeling with ordinary material. I was already aware about the film's status before, "Wayne's World 2" and many episodes of "The Simpsons" 'spoiled' it for me  but it didn't ruin my experience nonetheless, because the enjoyment was elsewhere.
The film is a timeless coming of age comedy with a dramatic approach denouncing in a light-hearted tone the emptiness of the bourgeois way of life, from the point of view of a young educated man, questioning his future, conscious of this superficiality. Ben was my hero. The contrast between the cheers and the congratulations of his parent's friends at his graduation's party and his uneasiness highlights this condition of a social pawn, only meant to reproduce his parent's shallow social model. Ben inspired me as the bourgeois version of the 'rebel without a cause'. At the time I watched the film, I was freshly graduated, I wanted something different too, and when my parents asked me 'why', I couldn't answer. This is Ben's trap and his affection for the fishes in his tanks underlines a sense of empathy, like when he's pushed to test his skin-diving outfit. Water would play a very symbolical role as the incarnation of this environment he can't escape from. 'Water' as the source of Ben's awkwardness and Mrs. Robinson his safety belt. Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft create the perfect contrast between two attitudes, lucidity and inexperience, providing an excellent mix of visual and verbal humor in the first act.
The prologue breaks with the 'act' illustrated by the vision of Ben floating on his rubber raft, in the swimming pool. He's floating this time, dominating the allegoric water with Simon and Garfunkel's mesmerizing sound. His love affair became a routine as both help each other to fill the meaningless of their lives and during this long musical sequence, Ben aimlessly contemplates his life, unaware that he's still going nowhere ... like contaminated by the contemptuous idleness typical of the upper class. Finally, pushed by his parents, Ben is forced to date Mrs. Robinson's daughter Elaine, he slides off the raft and goes underwater again, trapped again. But the trap hides a revelation; Ben falls in love with Elaine making Mrs. Robinson an enemy on a symbolically rainy day and ultimately loses Elaine.
But Ben found the true meaning of his life and will follow her till Berkley. A romantic stalking poetically conducted by the beautiful "Scarborough Fair" song and providing the second wave of jokes in the film after a dramatic part. In the beginning, the contrasts were between Ben's popularity and the perversity of his actions while in the last act, the comic of opposition, is driven by Ben getting more and more disrespected and hated only to fulfill a romantic dream ... but being loved by Elaine is worth being hated by the whole world, and he understands that even Elaine lives the same dilemma. She's not indifferent, she's almost convinced, she kisses Ben ... and even the mood of the songs changes. I still whistle the iconic rhythm of "Mrs. Robinson" whenever I'm in an enthusiastic mood and this song is the one I immediately associate with audacity, youth, and this mix of craziness that drive our lives like we drive an Alfa Romeo till the last drop of gas.
One must wonder why it worked though, why she accepted to be 'kidnapped' from the church in the iconic climax ... in real life, if you screamed "Elaaaaaaine" while hitting a big glass, would you hear a strident "Beeeeeen!" crying for your help ? I don't know, but without this climax, the movie would have been guilty of seriousness. "The Graduate" is an escapism pushed to the extreme limit of a fantasy. This is probably why it gained more criticism by mature critics ... I even suspect Ebert of having been too influenced by Kael who disliked the manipulative aspect of the film as soon as Ben became a hero, and Mrs. Robinson a villain. I think this is precisely the dimension I was mentioning in the beginning. It's an escapist movie for people who identify with this youth who don't know what life is about, it's a hymn for immaturity, for this excitement that makes life enjoyable, freedom to make our own mistakes, believing that it's never 'too late'... that's the inspiring spirit of "The Graduate"!
And this enigmatic smile at the end while they're together in the bus, says as much as "Mona Lisa" for the painting Art: what are they thinking, are they happy, are they regretting ... I think they're just floating but not in a raft trapped in a swimming pool, in a bus that follows a direction ... which one? Who cares? At least it's going somewhere, so just let yourself transported ... within ... the sound ... of ... Simon ...