The Graduate (1967)

The Graduate (1967)

In director Mike Nichols' ground-breaking classic 60's generation-gap comedy, its main plot was about an innocent and confused youth who was exploited, mis-directed, seduced (literally and figuratively) and betrayed by a corrupt, decadent, and discredited older generation. Its screenplay by Buck Henry and Calder Willingham was based upon novelist Charles Webb's 1963 novella.

The influential film at the time - a definitive coming-of-age film - was a witty and biting satire/comedy about a recent nebbish, sometimes-creepy East Coast college graduate who found himself alienated and adrift in the shifting, social and sexual mores of the 1960s, and questioning the values of society (with its keyword "plastics"). One of the film's posters proclaimed the difficult coming-of-age for the recent, aimless college graduate:

This is Benjamin. He's a little worried about his future.

The two different generations were also reflected in other dualities: the two rival women (young innocent doe-eyed daughter Elaine and her older seductress mother Mrs. Robinson) vying for Benjamin's attention, the two California settings (Los Angeles and Berkeley) and S. and N. California cultures (materialistic vs. intellectual), and the division in Benjamin's character (morally drifting and indecisive vs. taking risks and becoming committed).

The romantic-comedy drama was complemented by the music of the popular singing duo Simon and Garfunkel from their Grammy-winning The Sounds of Silence album (with songs composed earlier and previously-released except for "Mrs. Robinson"), with meaningful, haunting lyrics amidst koo-koo-kachoo sounds to enhance the film's moods and themes.

On a budget of 3ドル million, it grossed revenues of 104ドル.9 million (domestic). It had a total of seven Academy Awards nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Dustin Hoffman), Best Actress (Anne Bancroft), Best Supporting Actress (Katharine Ross), Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Cinematography, and one a sole Oscar - Best Director.

• in the opening credits, young and adrift recent college graduate Benjamin Braddock (29 year-old Dustin Hoffman playing a 21 year-old) (from Williams College) was seated on a plane 'descending' into the busy LAX airport - and then standing mute by himself on the automated, moving walkway with a monotonous recording:
  • "Please hold the handrail, and stand to the right. If you wish to pass, please do so on the left."
• Benjamin's materialistic, well-meaning parents held a celebratory graduation party in his honor at their suburbanite home in Pasadena, CA; upstairs in his bedroom during the party, Benjamin appeared aloof and alienated, staring into his fish tank's glass; his father (William Daniels) located him upstairs and wondered if anything was wrong with him; Benjamin explained that he felt rudder-less with no plans or direction to his life and was worried about his future; after being coaxed downstairs, Benjamin had been given a shiny red Alfa Romeo as a graduation present
• during the evening by the outdoor swimming pool, Benjamin received words of advice from Mr. McGuire (Walter Brooke), a family friend - it was the film's most famous one-word line:
  • "Plastics...there's a great future in plastics"
• alienated by everything, Benjamin again retired to his bedroom to lie down and stare into his aquarium tank, where he was interrupted by the sudden appearance of black-clad Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft), the wife of his father's close business partner; she burst into his bedroom; eventually, she insisted that he drive her home because her husband had already left with their car; although he agreed to take her ("Let's go!"), she tossed his keys into the fish tank where he fished them out before they left together
• in her home, the lecherous, predatory, neurotic, cynical and alcoholic Mrs. Robinson brazenly seduced the bewildered Benjamin as she perched with her left leg on a bar stool (with the camera shooting under her upraised leg) - and his befuddled reply-question:
  • "Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me! - Aren't you?"

• she lured him up the stairs to her daughter Elaine's (Katharine Ross) bedroom, where she further assaulted and attempted to seduce Benjamin by exposing her breasts to him (seen in split-second, jump-cut flashes but first reflected in a portrait-picture of her daughter Elaine); she cornered him and blocked his exit, and calmly offered herself to him - now or later:
  • "Benjamin. I want you to know that I'm available to you, and if you won't sleep with me this time...if you won't sleep with me this time I want you to know that you can call me up anytime you want and we'll make some kind of an arrangement. Do you understand what I...?...Did you understand what I said?...Because I find you very attractive. Now, anytime you want, you just..."
• Benjamin rushed downstairs - running into Mr. Robinson (Murray Hamilton); he nervously explained his agitated state: "I'm just a little worried about my future. I'm a little upset about my future"; the fatherly Mr. Robinson encouraged Benjamin to sow a few wild oats at his nearly 21 years of age; as Benjamin departed, the unsuspecting Mr. Robinson suggested that Ben give his daughter Elaine a call after she returned from Berkeley the next Saturday
• some time later, at the Braddock house, Benjamin was again the subject of his own 21st Birthday Party; with his recent gift of a new scuba diving outfit, the disillusioned Benjamin submerged himself in his parents' swimming pool to escape from everything and find peace and silence
• shortly afterwards, Benjamin was seen phoning Mrs. Robinson from a glassed-in phone booth at the Taft Hotel, to rendezvous there for a date (and her suggestion of an affair); after she appeared, wearing a predatory leopard-spotted coat, Benjamin volunteered to get a room for them and check-in at the front desk; in the humorous sequence revealing Benjamin's tremendous discomfort, he nervously attempted to be suave as he signed in, calling himself: "Mr. Gladstone" and feigning sleepiness; he assured the room desk clerk (co-script-writer Buck Henry) that he had his toothbrush; it would be the first of their many trysts during the summer
• Benjamin's first fearful, clumsy but lustful hotel bedroom encounter with the calm and almost businesslike Mrs. Robinson was memorable; he prematurely kissed Mrs. Robinson while she was trying to exhale cigarette smoke; then, he spontaneously grabbed her right breast and banged his head against the wall in frustration, babbling moral platitudes ("I think you're the most attractive of all my parents' friends"); he was incredulous that an older married woman, one of his parents' best friends, was seducing him

• for most of the summer, Benjamin alternated between drifting around on a raft-float in his swimming pool, and meeting up with Mrs. Robinson in the hotel room; a jump-cut transitioned from Benjamin hoisting himself up onto an inflatable rubber pool raft, but then landing on top of Mrs. Robinson in bed (and another jump cut to his backyard pool with his father asking his lounging son: "Ben, what are you doing?") - with his response that he was "drifting"

• during one of their interactions in the hotel room, Benjamin began to ask questions about the Robinsons' marriage and their daughter Elaine; she had married because she unexpectedly became pregnant after having sex in a car; Mrs. Robinson was uncomfortable talking about herself, her interests, and especially about Elaine - "a big taboo subject all of a sudden"; she was adamantly opposed to Benjamin's dating Elaine
• Benjamin was ready to end the affair and have a more age-appropriate relationship with Elaine, rather than with her "broken-down, alcoholic" aging mother; although Mrs. Robinson forced him to promise to never date Elaine, Benjamin's parents began to pressure him to take out Elaine who had returned home from college; after being railroaded into a date, Benjamin deliberately tried to put Elaine off by being offensive; without communicating with her (wearing his sunglasses at night), he drove recklessly in his sports car and then marched ahead of her into a tawdry strip joint to humiliate her; a stripper (Lainie Miller) twirled the dangling tassels on her bare, rotating breasts directly behind Elaine's head, while Ben asked:
  • "You're missing a great effect here. How'd you like that? Could you do it?"

• by the end of their date, after sitting in his convertible at a drive-in and having an honest conversation, Benjamin realized that she was actually the only person he could talk to - he confessed his love for her - a love that was almost impossible given the circumstances; after an awkward visit to the Taft Hotel for a drink (where Benjamin was greeted as Mr. Gladstone), he also admitted to her he had just ended an affair with an older, married woman, but explained how it was very unsatisfactory
• later, Mrs. Robinson tried to coerce Benjamin to stop seeing Elaine by threatening to tell her daughter about their affair; to pre-empt Mrs. Robinson and believing that confessing his affair to Elaine would solve everything, one night in his girlfriend's upstairs bedroom, Benjamin shockingly revealed to her that he was sleeping with her mother (with Mrs. Robinson standing outside the open door listening):
  • "That older woman that I told you about?...The married woman. That wasn't just some woman..."
• the revelation scene was artfully shot; Elaine glanced at her mother and then looked back at Benjamin; Elaine's out-of-focus face slowly came into focus as she realized the woman having an affair with Benjamin was her mother; totally offended and hysterical, Elaine first reacted: "Oh, no. Oh, my God," and then refused to speak to Benjamin; she screamed as she ordered him out

• at the end of the summer, Benjamin watched as Elaine's father packed the car for her departure to college at Berkeley in the Bay Area of Northern California; Benjamin drove there in his sports car to try to make amends with Elaine and regain her affection; he rented a temporary room and tracked her around, and ultimately found out that she was dating a preppy medical student named Carl Smith (Brian Avery), a friend of the Robinson family
• Benjamin and Elaine reconciled after he explained to her that he hadn't raped her mother, and that her mother was lying to her; he also impulsively asked her hand in marriage, and she agreed - but remained uncertain; she thought that it wasn't realistic and that she couldn't commit to him: "I don't see how we can"; frustrated by his persistence, she suggested: "Why don't you drag me off if you want to marry me so much?"
• further complications arose when an angered Mr. Robinson arrived on campus, to inform Benjamin that he was getting a divorce (mostly due to her promiscuity), and that he would have Benjamin jailed if he kept trying to see Elaine; to prevent any further interference, Mr. Robinson removed Elaine from Berkeley and made plans for her to marry Carl; an explanatory "Dear John" note was left for Benjamin: "I love you but it would never work out"
• to rescue Elaine, after driving frantically up and down the length of California three times, the frantic Benjamin arrived in Santa Barbara (he had telephoned the office of Carl's father to find out the exact church where the marriage was to be held) - but his car ran out of gas a few blocks away; he was forced to go on foot - at an extreme depth of focus camera, making him appear to be running in place - to stop Elaine's in-progress wedding
• Benjamin was viewed behind the church's choir loft window in the balcony and raising his hand up and repeatedly banging on the pane of plate-glass while crying out: "Elaine!" (desperate that the ceremony had already concluded); Mr. and Mrs. Robinson turned to view Benjamin

• he descended to the ground floor, knocked Mr. Robinson to the floor, pushed the bridegroom back, and grabbed newly-wed Elaine, as Mrs. Robinson confronted her daughter and shouted: "Elaine, it's too late!" - she responded with the film's last line: "Not for me!"; Mrs. Robinson slapped Elaine twice across the face to bring her back to reality, but it was in vain
• Benjamin wielded a large golden church cross like a weapon, and then secured the church door with the cross as he and Elaine ran from the church

• in the film's final lingering shot, the couple boarded a yellow Santa Barbara municipal bus, sat in the back seat, and rode off into an unknown future