50s ethos, 60s pathos

Rating: 5/10 (19 July 2007)

I had a lot of difficulty relating to the main character, Ben Braddock. At first, he rejects Mrs. Robinson's attempts at seducing him. Then, with a very clear head, he decides to call her up and have sex with her. It's difficult to have sympathy for a character who made such a decision with a clear head-- what does he expect but to get caught? The protagonist of this movie is both too good and too bad at the same time. He is a prude with a giant unignorable super-ego on one hand, and a guy who makes stupid, morally questionable decisions on the other. In other words, a coward.
This movie was significant for its place in film history, no doubt. It created a bridge between the ethos of the 50s-- marry the girl you love, be respectful at all times, be prude when you're in the public sphere-- and the pathos of the 60s-- running away from society without any coherent plan, breaking sexual boundaries, and rebelling against ones parents. Think about it-- Ben, despite all of the disaproval he meets from his elders along the way, is actually pursuing the girl they originally begged him to pursue! If this movie were really about breaking away from the 50's as its apologists claim it is, he would have gone off with a black woman from the other side of town, not the timid girl next door (Elaine Robinson).
It does have a lot of interesting symbolism, and its an undeniable fact that it was a milestone for American cinema. (Could a movie like Garden State emerge without this having been released decades earlier?) For all of its latent symbolism and historical significance, though, one must ask some very basic questions of this movie-- was its plot good? Was it entertaining? For me, the answer is that the plot was very interesting but limited by its unexciting dramaturgy. I feel like only the first and last 10 minutes of the film are really exciting.
It's the film equivalent of listening to a song by The Beatles-- it's well arranged, has an interesting theme, but is nonetheless not as good as people think it is-- under the pretense of being loud and rebellious, it's a harmless, cooing reaffirmation of boring middle-class values.