April 10, 2020April 10, 2020 admin

Movie Review: The Graduate (1967)

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Movie Review:

The Graduate (1967)

Ahhh…isolation due to the Covid-19 pandemic…good times.  All I see on television is people giving suggestions about what to do when they are staying at home and avoiding contact with other people.  It amazes me that the general public can’t come up with ideas on their own…it also frightens me a little.  Lucky for me I’m a happy little hermit during normal times, so I have tons to do…not the least of which is watching films, especially ones I haven’t seen before.  So, while I’m on my way to gaining my “Covid-19” pounds, let’s start the “Pandemic Film Fest”!

I was having a hard time deciding which movie to watch, but I knew that I wanted a flick with great dialog, so I googled, “films with great dialog” and chose a few from my collection.  I gave Tommy his choices, and we ended up with “The Graduate”…Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, a true classic!  Let’s pop this baby in the blu ray player and snuggle up for a great film.

Okay, so it wasn’t a “great” film after all, but it was a good film with great moments.  The story is about Ben (Dustin Hoffman) who just graduated from college-track star, brilliant, well liked, good looking-and he has no idea where to go from there.  His parents are pushing him to go to grad school, and, of course, to get with Elaine, the daughter of some friends of theirs.  He doesn’t want to go out with her at all, he just wants to float in the pool all day long.  Water is a symbol throughout the movie…over and over and over.  We see Ben, again and again, staring at his fish in the aquarium (he’s underwater, get it?), then we see him in full on scuba gear (a gift from his parents…not sure why) jumping into his pool (he’s underwater again), or he’s just swimming (again, underwater).  He’s drowning in a sea of confusion again and again and again.  The metaphor has the subtlety of a machine gun.  

The opening scene is his graduation party, filled with all of his parents wealthy Stepford-friends.  Ben doesn’t want to attend, and his parents can’t figure out why, he doesn’t seem to know either (psst…it’s because he’s boring as shit), but he relents and gets doted on and kissed by everyone, until he runs into Mrs. Robinson, played by Anne Bancroft.  She needs him to give her a ride home, and he’s quite the jerk about it, eventually relenting and taking her home.  Then we get to the seduction scene.  There is absolutely no question about the fact that Anne Bancroft’s performance is one of the greatest I have ever seen.  I’m gay, and I would have GLADLY hopped into bed with her.  Her character is acerbic, brilliant, sexy, multi-faceted and nuanced.  Anyone studying acting needs to watch this film for her work alone.  The first half of the film shows what great dialog and great acting, when put together, creates something timeless.  The second half of the film turns her into a shrieking mad woman and the change is jarring and unnecessary.  

One of my biggest problems with the film, besides the fact that it is dated (although I can see why it was popular when it was released, it just hasn’t weathered the test of time too well), is why everyone likes Ben so much.  He’s, at best, rude, dull, self-absorbed, and whiney.  What’s the attraction?  At one point, he tells Mrs. Robinson (and, yes, he only calls her Mrs. Robinson, even after they have been screwing on the sly for some time…it’s not an affectation, every adult in the film is only referred to as Mr or Mrs, and the younger cast is only called by their first name, it’s a great idea and really displays the generation gap) that he is being pushed to go out on a date with her daughter, Elaine.  Mrs. Robinson, angered by this, makes him promise to never date her.  He agrees, but ultimately takes her out on a date anyway.  On purpose, he is nasty and rude to Elaine and takes her to a strip club, where she bursts into tears and runs out.  He tells her he was being mean on purpose, and they get burgers at a drive-thru.  After this, Ben is obsessed and in love.  

This is where the film takes a turn.  After their “Imma gonna be a jerk so she’ll hate me” date turns out ok, Ben is smitten.  Mrs. Robinson, however, will have nothing to do with it.  Then the truth comes out about Mrs. Her and Ben’s affair and the shit hits the fan.  Elaine is carted back off to school to get away from the horrible Ben.  Ben, again, horrible, races off to Berkeley where he begins to stalk her from afar, even renting a room from Mr. Roper from Three’s Company.  I kept expecting Norman Fell to accuse Ben of being gay, but that wouldn’t happen for over a decade, when he was still renting rooms to people, after he upgraded the apartment complex and met Jack, Chrissy, and Janet.  It’s too bad Mrs. Roper  wasn’t in the film, that would have been fun.  But I digress…Ben starts following her around in such a creepy way it made us both uncomfortable to watch it.  When he finally does confront her, she has a new Stepford-boyfriend (his name doesn’t matter) and they kind of part ways.  But then, Elaine shows up at his room (it’s never explained how she found him without Google) and they have a big fight.  Elaine tells Ben that she knows he raped his mother because she told her he did.  They fight, she screams, and Mr. Roper appears at his door with the other boys renting rooms.  Should they call the cops?  Nope, she’s fine now, sitting quietly on the bed of the man who raped her mom.  

Clearly this film was written by a man.  Two men, actually, Buck Henry and Calder Willingham, and while they might understand how men work, they clearly don’t have a clue about women.  Mrs. Robinson starts out as a three dimensional human being, then turns into a shrieking shrew.  What happened to her intelligence?  Her wit?  It’s out of character for her to make up a lie about being raped, and, even worse, how come no one called the cops?  I would have.  And who goes to confront a crazed, obsessed stalker about his raping her mother…alone…in his boarding house room…again, alone, and then just stays and considers marrying him.  Huh?  Did I miss a chapter? 

The movie climaxes with Ben breaking into Elaine and the Stepford-boyfriends wedding, screaming for her.  She, of course, screams back…and then leaves with him, running down the street in her wedding dress.  How did they get a dress and a venue so quickly?  I guess things were different in the late sixties:  wedding dresses and churches are available 24/7, women run off with their mother’s rapist, Mr. Roper hadn’t met Mrs. Roper yet,  no google.  The cars were nice, though.

The very last scene has the escaped couple making their getaway and getting on a bus, where, thankfully, the wedding dress had pockets sewn into it for correct change for bus fare.  They make their way to the very back row, Ben a mess, Elaine in her full on wedding gown, and just sit and stare.  It’s supposed to be romantic.  Elaine turns and looks at Ben, who does not look back.  I liked this scene, however I think I may have read it a little differently.  My take on it was that Ben did not want to do what was expected of him.  After college, he had a strong urge to not conform, but he didn’t know how.  Chasing (sorry, stalking) after Elaine (after banging her mom for months) made him different, probably made him feel alive for the first time.  Sitting in the bus, I think he realised he enjoyed the chase and had just set himself up to get married, get a job, and conform.  He was staring into his own abyss.

Aside from the datedness and the stalkerdom of the film, I really liked it.  I liked that it made me think and that the ending was a bit ambiguous.  The acting was good (Anne Bancroft, just, wow.  Seriously, she is reason enough to watch it), strong directing, and some really good dialog (mostly from Mrs. Robinson).  

The one big issue was the DVD itself.  I am used to, and prefer, letter boxed movies.  This one, however, had black bands on the top and bottom, AND left and right, leaving a tiny little rectangle in the center of my TV.  At first I thought it was just for the opening credits, but, nope, it’s how it was transferred.  We ended up streaming it (thank you Amazon Prime), but be careful if you end up buying the film.  I assume blu ray would be better.

Here’s to you, Mrs. Robinson!