Graduate

Year: 1967

Grade: A+

Country: USA

Director: Nichols

Review

i don’t know where to start with this review, so i guess i’ll just ramble.

i’ve seen this film no more than 10 times in my life, but i know without a doubt that it’s my favorite. it’s not a perfect film, but it’s as close to perfection as i’ve seen a film ever get. it begs to be written and thought about and it also is hilarious and touching and cathartic. it’s emotional yet technical. for me, it does everything a film should do.

the first 45 minutes basically fly by for me. we get to know benjamin and all the preening adults around him (none of whom have first names) who push and prod and influence him as if it were going to improve their lives. that’s what the film is for me – a battle between the old guard and the new. we all know the mid-late 60s culture that produced this film and what they were fighting against so i needn’t do more than mention it. but the film is much more timeless than a bygone era of hippies fighting against the vietnam war and patriarchy. the film is timeless because it’s a coming of age story about a guy (and then a girl) who buck the old ways and strike out on their own; as each generation should, i believe.

if i ever find myself not liking, nay, loving this film then i need to take a hard look at who i am and where i am in life. films like this and cool hand luke and paths of glory provide a moral and philosophical compass for me that is as strong as the bible is for real christians. and i don’t think the fact that i haven’t seen the graduate in six years diminishes that either (though it was too long to go without having seen it). the graduate reminds me that we have to make our lives ours. elaine’s mom, mrs. robinson, famously says “it’s too late,” to which elaine responds (quite perfectly and succinctly) “not for me.” it takes elaine a while to get to the same place that benjamin is at, but she gets there and if not for her who knows what would have happened with him.

the courting of elaine act is the least amazing of the three acts. the time where ben is in berkeley following elaine and trying to convince her to marry him is the slowest part of the film and the only imperfection the film presents, in my opinion. it’s a necessary element, though, and i think they play it quite well. it’s not overly long, but it’s long enough to make you feel what ben is feeling. it also gives some insight into elaine’s character. she’s lost, as many college-aged kids are. she’s not sure what she’s doing. she waffles, a lot. there’s another man in the picture. there’s a landlord to deal with. ben is tested. it can be argued that this is when ben actually grows up. he grows in a very superficial way during the first musical montage after popping his cherry. but this is much more, and more subtle, than that. then comes the final act when ben chases after elaine. it’s perfectly punctuated by simon & garfunkel’s “mrs. robinson.” and then there’s the ending.

it’s a perfect ending, by the way. some will point out that elaine is already married or that they’re not smiling at the very end. correct on both points, and all the more perfect as a result. benjamin is in the alfa romeo (is it a coincidence that our film’s romeo is driving a romeo?) when he runs out of gas. his father bought the car for him so it’s perfect that he should have to make the last leg of his journey powered by his own two feet. he is locked out of the front door of the church. i love the literal symbolism throughout the film. i’m a literal guy, it’s just my style i guess. of course a guy like benjamin wouldn’t be able to come in through the front door of a church, especially to do what he has to do. he interrupts the end of the wedding. the film audience, and the adults in the film all think he’s too late of course because they’re trapped by their own conceptions of what the world is and can be. benjamin rattles the cage, elaine comes to. she’s drawn towards him and she wakes up, figuratively of course. she makes a run for it as does benjamin. he has to fight off the father and then the rest of the wedding ceremony, this time with a cross (need i comment on that?). they exit, he locks them inside using the cross (again, no comment necessary). they run for a bus. it’s a yellow bus, like a school bus, but it’s been converted to a municipal bus. again, a perfect choice. you think of them as kids getting on a school bus, but you soon (if you hadn’t already read the side of the bus) find out that it’s a public bus with a bunch of older people as passengers. the two run to the back of the bus. the bus takes off going forward, naturally. everyone is looking back at them though. they are moving forward, but looking back. this image of moving forward but being positioned to look backwards may have been stolen/borrowed from flannery o’connor’s “wise blood.” the meaning, either way, is the same – they are literally moving forward in life, but looking to their past. just like all the adults in the film do. they look at the younger generation and try to live vicariously through them. ben’s father with the scuba diving suit that cost over $200. the guy who talks to ben about plastics. the women who preen over him at the beginning of the film. mr. robinson who tells ben to sow his wild oats (because he couldn’t because he got caught in a loveless marriage with mrs. robinson whom he had knocked up). mrs. robinson who is finally able to sow her wild oats, though in the most rote possible fashion. so, you have the older generation looking back while ben and elaine look forward to their lives with the past that they left behind still visible through the back window. they are giddy at first, like children. but they know. they know what they’ve done and that life isn’t a fairy tale. this is what tom (from 500 days of summer) didn’t know. he thought that love would conquer all and that after that it’s happily ever after. they know it’s not happily ever after, necessarily. what it is, though, is up to them now. they’re not a fairy tale nor are they part of a life that doesn’t make any sense and whose rules were written by someone who is long gone, as ben (more or less) puts it while eating in the car on their first date.

the editing is also perfection. some great cuts, a few great montages, the sound bridges really make the first part of the film fly and lend a fluidity to the film. this is probably what bogs down the berkeley scenes somewhat.

starts with a plane landing in los angeles, same as die hard, another top 3-5 film.