Can we say borderline?

Rating: Null/10 (2 October 2001)

Most of the comments have already pointed out what a great film
this was for its time. Maybe it's a little dated but hey even Pulp
Fiction (which I loved when it came out, when I was in high school)
seems dated already. Although I do have to agree that the
repetition of Scarborough Fair in the middle does seem excessive.
Just something to think about as you watch the movie:
Dustin Hoffman's feelings of alienation are really brought out by
Nichols's direction. See how many scenes he's in where you can't
really hear what he's saying, because the background sound is so
much louder (gurgling water in the pool, passing trains etc.) There
are also a lot of shots of Hoffman looking at someone (and vice
versa) past or around an obstruction (the scuba mask, the desk at
the hotel, a statue at Berkeley).
The dialogue is also excellent - you can't understand why he does
the things he does - suddenly calling up Mrs. Robinson after
refusing her, walking out on her after an encounter, deciding he's
going to marry Elaine after one date, traveling up to Berkeley - and
it's not clear that he has any idea either. There are the sudden
outbursts of anger and impulsive behavior - you might not really
want to go on a date with a girl, but that doesn't mean you drive like
an idiot and then take her to a strip show. And then decide that you
love her! You might not want someone to get married, but that
doesn't mean you drive the length of California three times and
then show at the chapel screaming her name.
Ben's always asking people "can we just talk?" but when he does
get to talk (as with Mrs. Robinson in the hotel room) it's incredibly
inane and superficial. He's very childlike in the way he continues to
ask pressing inappropriate questions, and he's always emitting
those high-pitched yelps when he gets stressed. I see people
calling Mrs. Robinson the villain of the movie, but she isn't the one
making Ben travel up to Berkeley to pursue Elaine for the last half
of the movie. And she isn't making Elaine entertain the slightest
notion of actually marrying him, rather than calling the cops as
soon as she saw him in Berkeley. She isn't forcing Ben to travel
from Berkeley to LA, to Berkeley, back south to Santa Barbara,
which has gotta be like 1200 miles or so, in a couple of days.

Ben's just a scary guy - in fact there's a strong case to be made for
borderline personality disorder. This guy fits almost the entire
profile - frantic efforts to avoid abandonment, intense unstable
emotional relationships, poor insight and sense of self,
impulsivity, unstable mood, chronic feelings of emptiness, sudden
bursts of intense uncontrollable anger. The only thing he's
missing is self-mutilation but that might show more often in
females anyway. He could actually be a patient or two that we've
seen here. What's scarier is that Elaine responds to him - she
may be a borderline herself, which only doubles the fun.

The famous ending of the movie is very powerful, probably
because the viewer understands that the two of them really don't
know what the hell they're doing, or what they plan to do, as the
bus of life carries them on to points unknown. One doesn't have to
know anything about psychiatry to see this, thanks to Nichols' work
throughout the movie and some terrific acting. What's also
interesting is that the criteria for borderline were only first
established in the early 1960s (I think), so this movie was really an
accurate portrayal of many psych patients that would be seen in
the years ahead. It's as if a movie involving post-traumatic stress
disorder had been filmed before Vietnam. A must-see movie for
any med student, and very funny (and scary) as well.