By Ethan Gough
WKTV Community Contributor
Editor’s Note: The second installment in The Movies that Got Me Through High School. To check out the first installment, click here.
No movie captures what it’s like to feel lost in the world like the timeless coming-of-age classic “The Graduate.” We become a part of these characters’ lives for just a little less than two hours, and not a moment of that time passes by without us feeling their confusion, anger, emptiness, and above all regret. That being said, the film doesn’t come off as “angsty” or — though I don’t like to use this word — pretentious. Director Mike Nichols knew exactly what he wanted to do with this story, and he executes that vision in a way that’s never condescending or preachy. There are no big speeches, no major revelations, or even internal discoveries. When the end credits roll our main character Benjamin Braddock is still in the exact same mental state he was in at the film’s beginning. He has no idea what his future holds and he feels completely unprepared to face whatever it may be.
Dustin Hoffman stars as Benjamin, a college graduate who’s just a little worried about his future. Every adult in his life — not just his parents, but his parents’ friends as well — have high expectations for him. In a brilliant long take, we follow Benjamin as he walks around his crowded graduation party and awkwardly interacts with the guest. They ask him questions about his time in school, his love life, what his future plans are, and one even tries to offer him a career in “plastics.” There is one older person in Benjamin’s life who isn’t very concerned with those matters. That person is Mrs. Robinson; a miserable and seductive married woman with whom Benjamin begins having an affair. Things seem complicated enough, but the plot thickens when Benjamin falls in love with Mrs. Robinson’s daughter, Elain. The drama that unfolds is accompanied by a now iconic (and often parodied) soundtrack by Simon and Garfunkle and elevated by career-best performances by Hoffman, Ann Bancroft (as Mrs. Robinson), and Murray Hamilton (as Mr. Robinson).
The element of the story that I find most relatable is that the middle-aged, out-of-touch, adults (many of whom don’t seem to have their own lives together) constantly act as if they know more about what Benjamin’s life should be than he does. He’s spent his entire life trying to conform to the cultural image of a productive young adult, and as a result, he doesn’t really know himself. It is this internal conflict that causes him to act out and jump into a relationship with the wife of his father’s business partner. He’s so desperate to find something different in his boring and empty life that Mrs. Robinson doesn’t have to try very hard to seduce him (side note: Ann Bancroft likely never had to try hard to seduce anyone).
Like in life, most of the film’s conflict can be found in the characters inability to communicate with each other as well as their powerlessness to improve their situation. Benjamin feels lost and disconnected, Mrs. Robinson is stuck in a loveless marriage, and Mr. Robinson is too busy grappling with the passing of his youth to act on his wife’s dissatisfaction. The dialogue between the characters is layered with innuendo and indirectness as if speaking their minds is a violation of correct human interactions. The only moment in the movie in which Benjamin expresses himself freely is when he’s talking to Elain at a drive thru. It is a quote that I think perfectly captures the feelings and ideas that generations of young people have been having for as long as humans have lived in a civilized and structured society. “It’s like I was playing some kind of game, but the rules don’t make any sense to me. They’re being made up by all the wrong people. I mean no one makes them up. They seem to make themselves up.”
Here lies the major theme of the whole film. We people, with all our institutions, job titles, and class division have turned life into a game; and in this game, the people who play by the rules manage to barely get by, and those who don’t become lost in a state of disconnect and uncertainty.
Ethan Gough is an Independent filmmaker and film critic pursuing his passion for cinema at Motion Picture Institute in Troy, Michigan this fall. He received the award for Best Live Action Short at the 2020 Kent County Teen Film Festival for his film Summer Days. He had two films in the 2022 Kent County Teen Film Festival, Bros Night and Alone. Ethan also written from Reel Rundown and Hub Pages.
