After seeing an array of serious and emotionally exhausting films, I decided that I wanted a pick-me-up to lift me out of my “end of winter break” misery. “The Graduate” was in the comedy section on Netflix, and it lands at #189 on the IMDb Top 250, so it seemed a logical choice.
I knew that “The Graduate” was a classic. There are countless references in today’s culture to the plot line of a confused young man sleeping with an older married woman, all of which know they are simply paying homage to this 1967 film. Not to mention that I knew the line “Mrs. Robinson, you’re trying to seduce me” without even having seen the film (my friend will vouch for me). But what I was unprepared for was a fun night of awkwardness, sexual tension, and corny romantic comedy tropes that just don’t get old.
So there’s a saying I’ve seen around the Internet about the cartoon “Tom and Jerry.” It says that being a kid means rooting for Jerry (the mouse) and being an adult means rooting for Tom (the cat).
I’m at that point where I realize that Jerry is a bully. But because the protagonist of “The Graduate” was just one year older than me at the start of the movie, I found him insanely relatable. Dustin Hoffman’s character, Benjamin Braddock, has just graduated from college, and is very conflicted about what to do with his life. The film opens on his graduation party, where Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft) asks him to take her back to her house. She starts undressing, and Benjamin immediately freaks out.
So the film presents the audience with the awkward, uncomfortable, strange Dustin Hoffman, who one, has know idea what he is doing with his life, and two, has no control over anything that goes on around him. So naturally I found him painfully relatable. His parents go on and on about grad school, while all of his parents’ friends talk about how proud they are of him, all while excitedly questioning him on what he wants to do with his life. That “lost” mentality leads him to finally taking control and doing something crazy, which is sleeping with a married woman.
Turns out that woman is the deranged Mrs. Robinson. Well, maybe I’m being a little harsh, because she’s actually a really fun and interesting character. She manipulates him into an affair because her marriage is basically nonexistent. She’s the most entertaining character, and possibly the most complex. At one point in the story she even divulges what she wanted to do with her life when she was Benjamin’s age. Between the coming-of-age trauma, the sexual maturation, and the comedic love affair, I can certainly understand why this movie was so popular in its time.
For starters, it explores the disconnect between the past generation of babyboomers and up and coming generation that feels kind of lost in a very post-modern world (look at me throwing around terms like babyboomers and post-modern). The film even uses University of Berkeley, practically the epitome of liberal philosophy for the younger generation at the time, as a setting. The reason I found it relatable is because these inter-generational relations tend to repeat themselves. Today’s parents don’t understand what it’s like growing up in a world where your world is divided between social networks, where our future employers can stalk us on Facebook, or where the media interacts with us in ways never dreamed possible. There are so many complexities in the relationship between Benjamin and Mrs. Robinson, and as a viewer I can understand why Benjamin is so often conflicted and flighty in the film. He’s stressing about his future most of the time, as us college students often do, and then the story ties in these complicated relationships with both Mrs. Robinson and her daughter, Elaine. It’s a psychological labyrinth of the complexities of our transition into the adult world!
Anyway, I enjoyed the movie immensely (do I ever not enjoy a movie?), but I also plan to re-watch it when I’m older to see if I side with Mrs. Robinson next time. In addition, I highly recommend this movie for any teenager. In fact, the movie came out the same year as “Bonnie and Clyde,” the peak of teenage movie attendance. That’s when studios realized that there are huge audiences of teenagers waiting to see movies that they can relate to, so you can thank this time period for “Twilight.”
Well… that might be a bit of a stretch…
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