| |
|||
 |
|||
|
|||
|
|
The Graduate
The Graduate is a manipulative film completely devoid of morals and direction. I realize that such a statement is lost in the wind, because it is also a film that won the Oscar for best director, was nominated for best picture, and made the top ten list of A.F.I.'s best American films ever made. In addition, it more or less jumpstarted the careers of both director Mike Nichols and star Dustin Hoffman. All of these facts piling on top of each other signify that my review is probably wrong and off-kilter. Thus, read no farther if you don't want to hear an opinion that stands completely alone. But I think that I can point out why I feel The Graduate does not live up to its legacy, if you will permit me the next few paragraphs. If you're still reading, good for you. The Graduate can more or less be summed up with its most famous words: "Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me!" This is the statement that carries the weight and point of the entire film. Ben (Dustin Hoffman) has just graduated from college, but instead of searching for a job and trying to begin a career, he finds himself bored with life, his parents, and their luxurious, gossipy lifestyle. He therefore attempts to isolate himself in his own world of thought and desperation. He almost succeeds, except for the keen eye of Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft), Ben's middle-aged next door neighbor who seems to live an equally boring life with her husband. Mrs. Robinson successfully seduces Ben, and they begin a secret life of sex, lies, and all the other wonderful conflicts that you see in your regularly scheduled soap operas. This would all be okay if it wasn't so perfectly predictable. Of course, in the first scene in which Mrs. Robinson seduces Ben, he admires a picture of her daughter Elaine (Katharine Ross). Of course, once Elaine shows up, they're going to fall in love, against Ben's better judgment and Mrs. Robinson's better wishes. Of course, Elaine will find out about the affair and refuse to have anything to do with Ben, spiraling him into a selfish, greedy attempt to win her back from a gentleman who her parents try to marry her off to. I suppose that all of this wouldn't be all that predictable if the characters didn't spend so much time talking about what they were going to do before they do it, but this is a film driven by its dialogue. Pity that the writers aren't sure how to develop it so that it actually sounds like real people instead of obvious plot devices. One could argue (and indeed, many have) that it doesn't matter that all of this is unbelievably predictable, because the point is not what happens but how it happens, and the growth and self-journeys that the characters all take along the way. Alright, I'll buy it. But when we have a look at the journeys that the characters take, we realize that it adds up to basically nothing. Their motivations are all unclear, and the film's themes therefore become muddled. Before we talk about the film's shortcomings, let's first talk about what does work. For starters, The Graduate is one of the best looking films I've ever seen, and if a film was judged simply on its technical achievements, it would be flawless. Its mise en scene alone becomes an incredible storytelling device, and should be studied by all film students. Nichols knows how to tell a good story with a camera. Consider the long, drawn-out shots, particularly at the beginning. The camera positions itself and never moves, even when a character has moved away or blocks the screen. This effect creates the sensation that we are onlookers into the troubled life of Ben: The poor graduate doesn't want to move from his spot in front of the camera, even if he is missing, ignoring, or being blocked by the qualities to be found in life because he is only interested in satisfying his own, unmoving brood. The editing is also an inventive storytelling device: When Mrs. Robinson finally appears nude before Ben in order to seduce him, we are given rapid, suggestive cuts of her body, which finally break away from the long, quiet shots that have been the norm. These quick edits make the viewer perfectly aware of Ben's frantic state of mind, in what is the most brilliant use of nudity that I have ever seen. Period. I also like the soundtrack, which is composed primarily of Simon and Garfunkle. The now famous songs effectively communicate Ben's lazy demeanor, and as "The Sound of Silence" plays over the long, unending shots of Ben as he stands quietly, or floats along the water, or drives in his car, we understand exactly what he is thinking. Rarely, I must confess, has a soundtrack been integrated so well into a film. Where The Graduate fumbles is in its characters and narrative. Ben and the others stumble along mindlessly and with little motivation except to be manipulated or used by each other all the way to a very unsatisfactory, depressing conclusion. The main problem, I think, is that Nichols has no idea what do with Ben. If the film is encouraging the graduate to step out of the comfort zone of his bored existence and grow up, why, when it comes time for him to make such crucial decisions, is he painted as such a creep? Some might argue that Ben's static nature is the point, but I see no social commentary behind his actions. He is merely a jerk for no rhyme or reason. Quite simply, he is depressing to watch, and his actions have no payoff. Mrs. Robinson's motivation for seducing a dead-head like Ben is also never explained. Before their relationship is even firmly established, she's taking off her clothes. Why did she choose Ben, when she is clearly a beautiful, charming woman who could have had any man that she wanted? Is it to set him free, in a sense, from himself? Then why does the film not go anywhere with this idea, and quickly jump to Ben's relationship with Mrs. Robinson's daughter? For that matter, Ben's relationship with Elaine is also contrived and underdeveloped. She seems far too intelligent to buy into Ben's apathetic and self-driven frame of mind, yet fall for his she does, even though they never have one tender moment in the film with any real emotion besides Ben's confused frustration. The rest of the characters are unwritten and only exist as devices to move these three characters along, and that would have been fine if these three characters' action were a little more plausible. The one character who I ended up sympathizing with was the young man who Elaine's parents set her up to marry. Here is a dry but evidently honest fellow who truly seems to care for the young woman, and when some jerk interrupts their wedding ceremony and cries out her name, Elaine leaves the poor bloke standing at the alter. The viewer never really feels this guy's pain because we never really meet him, and we are supposed to be rooting for Ben. Perhaps if the man had been a better developed character, we would have realized how illogical and selfish Elaine's escape with Ben actually was. This leads me to believe that not developing this character was a deliberate choice on Nichol's part, which makes the film's ending either one of cinema's most brilliant storytelling choices or one of the greatest con-jobs ever pulled on an audience. The only character who is ever developed well is Ben, and to be fair, Hoffman does a commendable job. It is easy to see why this film made him the star he is today. His performance actually mirrors that of Raymond in Rain Man, the 1988 film for which Hoffman finally won his Oscar. Ben is a nervous, shy, and soft-spoken loser who eventually loses his innocence and descends into dishonesty and social rebellion. His performance holds the film together; it's just a pity that Nichols can't figure out what to do with the character. Ben is constantly juggled between hero and villain, and his antics keep the film interesting as it demonstrates Ben's misadventures in an unpredictable manner. Unfortunately, his antics are also uneven, to the point that I could never figure out what the moral of the film was. Is it condemning or supporting Ben's lifestyle and Elaine's final decision to be with him? As a viewer, I was never clear. The Graduate has been heralded as an insightful social commentary, but it never seems to make a clear comment about anything. As a result, I wasn't so concerned about what Ben and Elaine were going to do now that they were together so much as I was simply wishing that Ben wouldn't have made it to the wedding in the first place, or that Mrs. Robinson had ever seduced him in the first place, and that this film would have been about something completely different. Perhaps Ben taking up the offer to become part of the plastic business would have been a more interesting movie: Who knows? Taking a character as fascinating as Ben with filmmaking techniques as good as what's presented here and placing them into the business world could have given us a far better premise to suit this serpent-like character. Instead, we are given a mindless trek into sex and deceit, from which The Graduate is never able to graduate out of. Cast: Do you agree wtih my review, or did I totally miss the point? Let me know! E-mail me: danel_the_tinman@hotmail.com |
||
