Echo the sounds of Brilliance

Rating: 10/10 (26 January 2006)

My lasting memory of The Graduate is of the many images of entrapment used throughout the film. Benjamin Braddock is trapped into his life as a college graduate and most of the movie deals with ways in which he escapes this entrapment. Whether it's a torrid affair with his father's law firm partner's wife, or it's the subsequent "engagement" with said wife and partner's daughter, Ben slowly breaks free from his square family's strict rules of conduct and sets off on his own life's trail.
Director Mike Nichols and editor Sam O'Steen (who also edited films like Cool Hand Luke and Chinatown) really tell more of Ben Braddock's story than even Dustin Hoffman does. Let's look at the party scene at the beginning of the film to see some of these images of entrapment created solely by the camera-work. The party begins with Ben alone in his room, and the sounds of the party downstairs can be heard. His room is dark and plainly decorated, and a dartboard hangs quietly on the wall. Ben's father, played by William Daniels, bangs on the door and eventually enters Ben's room to confront his son. He's wondering why a party in honor of the new graduate does not have the graduate in attendance. Ben responds simply that he needs to be alone for a while. The only thing Mr. Braddock can say to convince Ben to come downstairs is that these people at the party have know Ben for most of his life, like Ben owes it to all of them to make an appearance and thank them for always being there, when in reality these people are here more because of their relationships with Ben's parents than they are to support the graduate. Ben's being physically forced by his father to go down to the party, to continue the charade of a life that his parents want him to. All Ben wants, though, is to be alone.
The most memorable scene of entrapment though, is Ben's scuba gear incident at his 21st birthday party. His father has forced Ben to put on this ridiculous diving suit and to stand at the bottom of their pool to show his father's guests how the suit works. Ben is trapped into the suit on his birthday, completely against his wishes, and eventually decides to humor his parents by stepping into the pool. Ben then jumps in and looks back at his father. The frame of the camera is now showing the view from the mask of Ben's father, who proceeds to take his hand, cover the mask, and push Ben down under water. It's as if William Daniels is pushing the camera underwater. Brilliant.
Later in the movie, after Ben is entrenched in the affair with Mrs. Robinson, Ben's spending his days lounging in the pool when his father confronts him, and we see the following exchange, Mr. Braddock: Ben, what are you doing? Benjamin: Well, I would say that I'm just drifting. Here in the pool. Mr. Braddock: Why? Benjamin: Well, it's very comfortable just to drift here. Mr. Braddock: Have you thought about graduate school? Benjamin: No. Mr. Braddock: Would you mind telling me then what those four years of college were for? What was the point of all that hard work? Benjamin: You got me.
Ben's beginning to break away from his parent's traps. He's meeting Mrs. Robinson at the Taft Hotel every night and not explaining to his parents where it is that he leaves to each night. He's literally doing nothing except having his affair and lounging by the pool, and it's been going on for weeks. Where Ben was trapped in the darkness during the beginning of the film he is now soaking in the sunshine, but still he's trapped. Now it's in a torrid affair with a family friend and in his backyard. He's still within his parent's world, and that conflict of trying to be free in that world, free to sleep with the partner's wife and eventually to court the partner's daughter, his freedom is in a world where he's still just a kid. This will be troublesome as the film progresses.
I've not said enough of the editing of Sam O'Steen. Briefly I'll say the montage of Ben moving from his bed to lounging in the pool to laying on top of Mrs. Robinson and back and forth and so on, all set to Simon and Garfunkel's bittersweet symphonies is one of the most well done sequences I've ever seen. The editing tells the story, and that in itself is exciting.
The last scene of the film shows Dustin Hoffman ripping a giant gold cross from a church wall, jamming it into the door to stop Elaine and Carl's wedding party from chasing Ben and Elaine on their escape from their parent's world, and then getting onto a community bus, setting off on a lifetime together. Simple, elegant, brilliant.
...Hello darkness, my old friend ...I've come to talk with you again ...Because a vision softly creeping ...Left its seeds while I was sleeping ...And the vision that was planted in my brain ...Still remains ...Within the sound of silence