The World of Adults in the - Movie Review Example

The Graduate: Mike Nichols The Graduate is a film about a boy discovering the adult world of sex and hypocrisy. The main character, Benjamin Braddock, has just returned home after graduating from college and is unsure where he wants his life to take him to next. As he attends the graduation/welcome home party that his parents throw him, the main theme of the movie is introduced. This theme is that the world of adults is mostly plastic or artificial. The people Benjamin meets at the party all seem fake and overly made up. They are not there to see him, but are there so that they can be seen. Trying to escape the falseness surrounding him, Benjamin escapes the party to his room where he encounters Mrs. Robinson, who is one of his neighbors. She convinces him to drive her home and then begins what will be a long-term seduction of Benjamin. It is in this relationship that he begins to learn to set aside his ideals and accept a more realistic view of life. As the story continues, it becomes clear that Benjamin is more interested in Mrs. Robinson’s daughter, but he has difficulty trying to get away from the cynical and suspicious mother. Although he hasn’t fully decided what he wants to do by the end of the film, he does manage to talk Elaine into running out of her wedding and the two of them leave on a bus to discover what the future might hold for them free of their parents’ expectations and false sense of the world. This film is all about the seduction of an exciting future that the young person wants to connect with as compared to their disillusionment regarding the falsity of the adult world that they struggle to avoid. From the opening of the film, Ben seems to have lost all sense of connection with his family and his life. Through most of the movie, what he has to say to people is mumbled and almost never heard. When he arrives home, he tries to tell his parents not to make a big deal out of him, but they immediately throw a fancy party and invite all of their friends so that they can show him off. As he becomes bothered by Mrs. Robinson, he never talks with anyone about it but just sits in his room and stares at his fish tank. “Fish are ancient and mysterious creatures with whom we have no means of communication. Aquarium fish are therefore often symbols of isolation and loneliness” (Harper, 2008). Later, as he becomes involved with her, he is seen to float endlessly on his parents’ pool and still later, they buy him a wetsuit and he spends time just sitting at the bottom of the pool. “Swimming pools to most of us represent tranquility, relaxation and escape from the pressures of every day living. In movies, they are often associated with impending doom and gloom. We get out of our depth, even in the midst of our suburban havens. On the surface there is tranquility, in the depths lurks danger” (Harper, 2008). In this film, the water represents the isolation Ben feels in this transition period of his life and the way in which he feels as if he has been set adrift in life. Other ways that he is seen to be disconnected from the rest of the world include his wearing dark sunglasses all the time which hide his eyes and his expressions and the way that he shows no interest in what is happening around him. Nesbit (2006) points out the clown picture hanging in his room “illustrating the shallowness of his suburban life” as well as his parent’s inability to understand the changes that are taking place beneath the surface of his familiar face. Ben’s condition is not intended to be considered unique though, as it is seen to also be affecting Elaine. Although she supposedly has her life together and knows what she wants – she attends college and is planning to get married by the end of the film – she is just as lost as Ben and just as fake as the rest of the world. “She looks air-brushed and lovely … She smiles and laughs through her burger, nodding her understanding as if she’s a brainless airhead with no thoughts of her own” (Nesbit, 2006). These actions demonstrate that she is just as disconnected in her world as Ben is in his. She has no significant conversations with anyone in the film and she seems to be following a blueprint imposed on her from well outside of herself. As a character, she seems little more than a cardboard cutout hanging at the edge of the film as a temptation and object of obsession for Benjamin, a goal that he cannot reach. However shallow she is, though, she is a goal that he has set for himself and therefore he pursues it with no thought for the consequences or the future. Understanding the reasons behind Ben’s behavior helps us to understand why Elaine would abandon her fiancé at the altar to jump on a bus with Ben. They are both in search of more meaning in their lives than the unhappy false worlds they have come to realize as their parent’s existence. They are hoping to find a closer connection to a true, sincere and abiding feeling of life. There are several scenes in the film that demonstrate this empty feeling of life experienced by the younger generation. One of the scenes that reinforce the nature of Ben’s relationship with Mrs. Robinson and its importance to the story occurs early in the film and on the first night of Benjamin’s return home. It is as the party is winding down at Ben’s house and Mrs. Robinson convinces him to escort her home because she hates returning to an empty house. It is revealed that Mr. Robinson did not care to attend the party with her because he is supposedly out golfing. This is a suspicious excuse because it is quite dark outside throughout the entire party scene and one gets the impression that ‘golfing’ is an accepted excuse between the married couple for any time he wishes to carry on an extra-marital affair. It is as they enter the house that Mrs. Robinson obviously attempts to convince Ben to stay with her in exchange for sexual favors. The specific scene discussed here begins when Ben and Mrs. Robinson enter her house and she begins to make them drinks. It ends when she heads upstairs to change and asks, over her shoulder so as to give herself the sexiest profile she can come up with, Ben to stay until her husband gets back. This scene is particularly revealing to the theme of the film because of its blatant appeals to life and vitality from a distance where life and vitality seem to have stopped. The house they enter is large and white and somewhat echoing, as if it were used to being empty even though it is filled with furniture. The interior has a very designed look to it, as if everything were put in place in order to provide a show of comfort, togetherness and domestic tranquility. However, it doesn’t look as if it is used much with the exception of the barstools. The other item that might see some use is a small TV set that seems somewhat oddly placed, frequently appearing as part of the backdrop behind Ben and reinforcing the idea of a superficial, unreal situation. The plasticity of the room is highlighted even more by the director’s use of harsh white light on this interior space as compared to the softer glow glinting on the live plants seen through the large plate glass windows stretching across the back wall of the room. The presentation of the jungle effect happening outside the windows gives the impression of the wild human sexual nature that Mrs. Robinson is attempting to recapture by seducing a young man her daughter’s age. The plants outdoors are permitted to grow to excess, completely filling the available space with green growth. There is no hint of decay or dead leaves, indicating the season of fresh growth that is the stage of life in which Ben finds himself and Mrs. Robinson hopes to find again. The jungle is full of life and vitality, only kept in check by the fabricated invisible wall of man’s creation – the glass of the window. Inside, only a single plant is visible, looking very stunted and dwarfed next to the trees on the other side of the window. At the same time, the gleam of light on the glass of the window also reminds us again of the TV set and the unreal, staged and plastic nature of Mrs. Robinson’s desires. The indoor plant thus begins to look more and more like a plastic rendition, the image of a plant preserved for all time by the wonders of plastic and science. Mrs. Robinson’s (or more properly Anne Bancroft’s) behavior throughout the scene is intentionally seductive. She moves in a very languid manner, almost forcing Ben to take care of her while still managing to keep him enough off-balance that he is completely within her control. Within this scene is the famous poster shot for the film in which a very frightened-looking Ben is seen within the triangular frame of Bancroft’s bare legs. This unique shot captures the essence of the film as Ben becomes the helpless prey already ensnared by the spider’s web whether he is aware of the fact or not. Ben, standing between the TV and the plants, is caught in a world that no longer makes sense to him. While the seduction scene illustrates Benjamin’s feelings of fear about the future and his future relationships, the poolside montage does an excellent job of capturing Benjamin’s sense of isolation and mindless floating. The scene begins with Ben drifting on his parent’s pool, wearing his dark wrap-around sunglasses and ignoring anything else happening around him. For no apparent reason and in response to nothing, he rolls off his float and gets out of the pool to pull on a shirt. As he walks through the door into the house, the scene has shifted to the interior of a hotel room and he is instead walking out of the bathroom door. He seems to walk in a daze, moving past the place where Mrs. Robinson is getting undressed at the mirror and laying back in the bed. Without really paying any attention to what she is doing, he continues to lie there as she unbuttons his shirt and starts massaging his chest. A close-up of his face as he is lying back against the headboard shows no shift of expression as the scene shifts to a darkened room, yet he gets up in slight irritation with a can of beer in his hand in order to close the door between the room he’s sitting in and the kitchen where his parents are evidently talking. The montage shifts in this continue to shift between Ben’s room, the darkened bar, the hotel room and the pool with him never showing more interest in what’s going on around him than to take the least possible action to shut it out. “This montage utilizes a symbolic editing style, typically used to communicate thematic ideas, combined with the nicely chosen piece of music to convey the aimless nature of Ben’s existence up to this point. He goes through life in a lackadaisical, detached manner; not really taking note of what others are saying or doing or even what he himself is doing or saying” (Rickey, 2003). He has stopped caring even about what happens in his own life, simply desiring to allow it to whittle away without him doing anything more than sitting by the pool. The film perfectly captures the emotions and struggles of the young adult in today’s society as have been identified by experts in the field. The developmental tasks of this phase of life as defined by Robert Havighurst take on the form of determining and obtaining an occupation, marriage, having children, managing a home and achieving social success through civic and other roles (Craig & Baucum 2001). The importance placed on the attainment of these goals as well as the degree of attainment required varies greatly based on gender, culture, education and economic level. As can be seen by the types of tasks involved, there is a great deal of personality adjustment, definition and realization that must take place in order for the individual to learn to live with another, raise children together and take an active role in the greater community. For many, this translates into fear and confusion as they feel they can’t possibly live up to those expectations. According to Erikson, this stage is characterized by the question of intimacy or isolation as the individual determines whether they prefer the opposite sex or the same sex, how they react to this realization, whether they will be able to give and receive love and make long-term commitments to relationships (Craig & Baucum 2001). A failure to successfully navigate this crucial issue, according to Erikson, will leave an unhappy, very lonely adult who is unable to connect with others in any meaningful, significant way. They are either promiscuous in their relationships due to their inability to commit or they are exclusionary in that they completely reject relationships and others who have them (Niolon, 2006). Cognitively, Kegan’s Subject-Object Theory illustrates how the mind develops increasing ability to cope with new situations and make meaning out of old ones. “Growth in our order of mind allows us to manage complexity without reactivity to forces that previously exerted powerful pulls on us” (Willis 2005). In other words, our ability to deal with significant changes or life-events changes with our experience level. As Benjamin attempts to cope with his more open-eyed view of his parent’s world and floats mindlessly through life, his brain begins to develop new ways of coping with these ideas and he finds Elaine, another lost soul, with whom he can attempt to build a better life. Although the film remains dated to the 1960s with its obvious themes, musical selection and pop culture references, the essential story remains timeless because of the way in which the main character is portrayed. Although it may seem somewhat cheesy and over-dramatized by today’s standards, the psychological principles involved in the story are still sound and still in effect for today’s youth. It may even be more so as today’s youth also have to deal with the reality of the unreality of the virtual space that still manages to retain real-world significance. Throughout the film, this meaning is conveyed more through cinematic artistry rather than dialogue as shifts in camera location, lighting and voiceless action serve to accentuate Ben’s emptiness, loneliness, disillusionment and fear for the future as well as his unwillingness to face it. All of these ideas are soundly founded on psychological theory and real-life translation. By the end of the film, when Ben runs off with Elaine, there is a sense that perhaps they are running into life, but there is also a sense that this is simply one more distraction from really facing what lies before them. As they sit on the back seat of the bus, the large skirts of Elaine’s dress insist that the couple remain isolated from other riders and the two characters remain completely wrapped up in each other despite not really knowing anything about the other. The only hope here is that they are now going to be forced into taking some action in their own interests which will itself finally propel them forward into the life they’ve thus far been avoiding. Works Cited Craig, G & Baucum, D. Human Development (9th Ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc, 2001. The Graduate. Dir. Mike Nichols. Perf. Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, Katharine Ross, William Daniels. Embassy Pictures, 1967. Harper, Lucy. Cinematic and Dream Symbols. (September 2008). December 9, 2009 Nesbit, John. “The Graduate.” Old School Reviews. (2006). December 9, 2009 Niolon, R. “Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages of Development.” Resources for Students and Professionals. PsychPages. (2006). December 9, 2009 Rickey, Joe. “The Graduate.” Movie Gurus. (2003). December 9, 2009 Willis, S. “Academic Preview: Spotlight on LIOS Faculty Research Project.” Leadership Institute of Seattle. Seattle, WA: Bastyr University, 2005. Read More