A very good movie

Rating: Null/10 (23 November 2000)

I read Roger Ebert's comments on this movie recently and I can say that although I was dissapointed by his lack of enthusiasm, I was not surprised. It figures that someone who is "older" would identify with a disenchanted character such as Mrs. Robinson instead of Benjamin. What I think he was missing was that they are both the same person. I have no doubt that at one time, Mrs. Robinson also complained that she felt like she was playing by a game with the rules made up by the wrong people. I thought that was the point of the movie; that we all become discouraged by the system we're in, that we all want to break out of the rut we've put ourselves into.
I can't say how this movie has touched me. Sometimes I think about different scenes and find myself holding my own heart, touched that the film is able to say so succinctly what I feel inside. One quick example: When Benjamin opens the door to the hotel, and first finds himself holding the door for the elderly people on the way out, and then stuck holding it for the young people coming in. Who hasn't felt like that at one time or another?
The Graduate is one of those movies that will evoke nostalgia forever in the hearts of people who were young when the movie was first released. There are the songs and the famous lines ("I'm not trying to seduce you") that people that are now 30 years older will remember with fondness. I think a lot of them have forgotten some of the most important things this film has to say, though. That we all feel lost when we're young. That for all our parents love and good intentions, we can't help but dislike what they stand for. That it feels sometimes like the only thing you can do so that you feel alive is to do something crazy and irresponsible, like crash a wedding. Mike Nichols said later on that Benjamin probably would grow up to be a lot like his father. So did Roger Ebert and some of the other people that saw this movie 30 years ago.