Existential Quandary

Rating: 10/10 (3 November 2005)

Back before existentialism was cool, we had The Graduate.
Dustin Hoffman's breakout role is perfectly backed up by the story of a young, 21 year old man who falls in love with a young girl after having an affair with her mother. It sounds typical soap but really goes in directions still unexpected after all these years.
The performances are powerful and affecting, even Mike Nichols'. As the actors brace their characters against one uncomfortable scene after another, Nichols keeps the camera usually very close to Benjamin, which causes an almost subjective and first person narrative while also making the screen very claustrophobic. And when the camera is far away from Benjamin (and he's looking at himself), he's usually blocked in by something, be it water or Anne Bancroft's (Mrs. Robinson's) legs.
Very existential, it's a film that presents a hero who finds himself constantly alone in the world, and even his convictions seem unable to pull him together. It's not a happy movie, as the final shot of his face shows when he's riding off into the sunset that is definitely not of his dreams.
Okay.
Now that I'm done with the review proper, I thought I'd point out something interesting I discovered during my recent reviewing of this film.
Modern day "Indie" music is like this throwback to the acoustic folksy rock of the 60s, so of course sounds a lot like our friends Mssrs Simon and Garfunkel, who of course play the music for this wonderful movie. Also, Hoffman's hair and dress, along with his painful awkwardness and his conflict with the people who surround him ("people of society", so to speak), means that if this film was made today, it would be the Ultimate Indie Hipster Film. Hell, it's practically a Garden State, only without the cheesy happy ending and even better performances.
I don't know exactly what that means, or even if it means anything at all. It's just something really interesting about how this film looks considering contemporary culture. It's not dated, per se, it's just that a lot of its motifs are weirdly similar to a cheesier and cheaper social subculture, even if it was made almost 40 years earlier.
Crazy how things like that work out, huh? --PolarisDiB