The Graduate by Mike Nichols - Movie Review Example

The Graduate Mike Nichols’ film The Graduate (1967) is all about growing up and making choices in life. Dustin Hoffman’s character, Benjamin Braddock, comes home from graduating college to a party thrown by his parents with all his parents’ friends to celebrate. His life becomes complicated as the adults in it start to try to draw him into their various different worlds and he has to choose between the adult world and the world of the new generation. Benjamin’s story is very amusing throughout because of the satirical comments made on society at all levels. Looking at some of the specific elements of the film and relating it to the larger contexts of American life during this era helps to bring out the special qualities of Jewish comedy and increases enjoyment of the film. One scene that highlights the key theme of the dominance of the material culture occurs very early in the film, just as Benjamin returns home and he’s pulled aside from the party by Mr. McQuire. In this scene, Mr. McQuire interrupts Ben’s conversation with a couple of women in order to pull him outside next to the pool. Mr. McQuires makes a big deal out of ensuring Ben is listening to him and then tells him, “I have just one word for you, Ben. Just one word … Plastics.” Surrounded by the glitz and glitter of his parents’ friends and recognizing in all of them the false concern for his welfare, Ben seems taken aback by this seemingly straight-forward self-definition of the society to which Mr. McQuire belongs and asks for clarification. Providing this, Mr. McQuire makes it clear that he is suggesting Ben pursue a career in plastics as the newest money-making opportunity and then leaves with the apparent impression that Ben will do as he’s been told. While much of the party has been filled with the background noise of many voices, this little chat by the poolside is singled out by the absence of ambient sound, forcing the audience to key in to what Mr. McQuire is saying with no distractions. This idea is illustrated in the aesthetic elements of the film as well, which is demonstrated most when Ben is forced to confront Mrs. Robinson in her house on the night of the party. The shot itself features an image of Ben from his waist up as he stands across the room from the camera. The line of Mrs. Robinson’s legs, one stretching horizontally across the bottom of the screen and the other angled at a diagonal up from the right to the center than then down from the center to the left, places Ben in a pyramidal frame highly suggestive of arousal while also functioning to place Mrs. Robinson within the context of an object rather than a person. She is reduced to her more suggestive parts, an idea that is emphasized even more by the lush greenery that surrounds Ben in this shot. While the veritable forest outside the picture windows has been evident throughout the scene, within this shot, the greenery seems to trap Ben in much the same way as Mrs. Robinson’s legs have captured him. The potted plant that stands within the house just to Ben’s left seems false next to the real plants seen through the window, yet the real plants are separated from Ben’s right by the sheen of glass panes. This sheen emphasizes the sheen of the blank television screen standing just behind Ben and reinforces the concept of unreality. Because the shot is darkened only by the shadow of Mrs. Robinson’s legs around the camera, the stark whiteness of the house surrounding Ben serves to place him within the context of the television screen, suggesting he has moved into the world of the plastics, the unreal and the contrived. This idea that the young man is trapped by a sensuous and inviting pair of well-defined female legs begins to point out the type of humor that runs throughout the film. This is a position that most young men would seemingly envy but that is threatening and frightening to Benjamin. The dictionary defines satire as “the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc” (2008). The film shows a very highly developed sense of satire as the above scene illustrates. To feel the humor, one must first understand how Mrs. Robinson’s behavior is considered immoral at the same time that it is generally accepted and tacitly recognized within polite society. In other words, it is generally believed to be immoral and shocking for this older married woman to try to seduce this younger man, but it is behavior that everyone knows about and is not shocked by even though this is never talked about. From this point, it must also be understood that it is the dream of many young men to have a beautiful older woman pursue him with such ardent passion. The humor comes in as it is realized that Benjamin is terrified by her behavior and it is this terror on his part that is shocking to the audience. Thus, we are entertained by the sudden realization that our idea of normal and expected behavior is actually so much different from what we thought it was. The film was created during a time in history when significant changes were taking place between the generations and between the races. No other period of time in the history of societies have so many cultural changes occurred in such a short time. An analogy can be drawn from the state of television during this era. The people of the U.S. and much of the rest of the world entered the 1950’s in black and white, ideologically and artistically speaking. The ‘60’s introduced color to everyone, pun intended. Beginning with the Civil Rights movement in which black people throughout the nation grouped together with whites to bring about social change, the 1960s was also a period in time when music was changing, students began questioning the policies of the government and world events such as the Vietnam War and the Cuban Missile Crisis gave credence to those who would question. People today have a higher level of tolerance for minority rights and alternative forms of lifestyles and artworks than they had during this period in time and The Graduate builds on these differences between the more open-minded and exploratory nature of the younger generation and the more steadfast and conservative older generation. The battles fought and won in the name of human dignity were enjoined by true heroes who were willing to risk their jobs, homes and even lives to win the rewards of equitable civil liberties, which is also satirized in the film as Benjamin stops Elaine’s ‘mature’ marriage decision and the two of them run off together. Artists such as Andy Warhol, Mark Rothko and the Beatles gave society a new way to view the world and contributed greatly to the transformation of western culture’s collective consciousness. They gave progressiveness credibility in a time when most were clinging desperately to maintain the status quo. The ‘60’s accelerated a century of cultural and societal change into a one eccentric, volatile and unforgettable period. For me, the film was very illuminating in understanding that I am not the only person in the world expected to come out of college and immediately take up a high-powered career position and live the ‘prescribed’ life. Benjamin is expected to immediately pursue a career in plastics, a career that emphasizes the emptiness of the adult corporate world, before he’s really even had a chance to realize that he’s finished school. As he becomes involved with Mrs. Robinson, he loses any desire to enter the corporate world in favor of the sensual world that she has introduced to him. However, after some time, even this begins to lose its attractiveness. He begins to realize that even here, where his emotions have been so involved, life is still just finding a means of converting him from a thinking, feeling, living human being into an object to be used for someone else’s gain. This is something I can relate to at some level as I understand what it is like for everyone you know to expect you to follow a set pattern for life. You are expected to go to college, get a good degree that is not maybe what you want to study but will provide you with a variety of career options in high demand positions so that you can land a really good job as soon as you get out of school. Then you are supposed to meet someone with the same goals and drives as you have and get married and start a family. You are supposed to have the right kind of house, the right kind of car and all the right kinds of extra things that make you as important as everyone else. Except, all these things are just things and don’t really contribute to helping you be who you are or discovering who that might be. This movie really helped me think through a lot of these ideas in a more concrete way. Although I’m not thinking of taking off in the back of a bus or anything, this film helped me orient my perspective better and understand that I am not the only person to have my doubts from time to time. Works Cited The Graduate. Mike Nichols (Dir.), Dustin Hoffman, Ann Bancroft, Katharine Ross (Perf.). Embassy Entertainment, 1967. “Satire.” Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). New York: Random House, 2008. April 20, 2008 . Read More