First, he finds out where Carl lives and then he goes to the fraternity house asking the boys about the wedding place. Then on his way driving to the place, he makes a phone call to Carl’s father’s office, saying he’s supposed to be at the wedding but gets lost. Thus, he gets the exact location of the wedding church.
When he finds a way to get into the church, the ceremony is already taking place and he can just watch everything going on through a glass window of a corridor on the second floor. Then, to stop the ceremony he starts to punch the window and yell for Elaine’s attention. Soon, everyone sees him and the ceremony is interrupted. 23. How do Ben and Elaine manage to flee from the church?
Elaine is startled at her first sight of Ben, but soon she is overwhelmed by his persistence and love for her and starts yelling back at him. Ben is encouraged and starts going downstairs and moving close to Elaine. Mr. Robinson, Mrs. Robinson and Carl all come to stop him. However, Ben fights them bravely and finally manages to grab Elaine’s hand and lead her toward the door. After getting out of the door, they jam the cross through the door handle and run away from the church. Later, they take a bus and go away.
24. What do you think of Mrs. Robinson? Why does she seduce a boy who
is almost 20 years younger than herself? And why does she try to stop Ben from seeing her daughter?
Answers to these questions may vary.
25. What do you think of Ben? Why does he start an affair with his father’
s partner’s wife who is almost twice his age?
Answers to these questions may vary. V. Research Activities
Four basic aspects of the movie Background: historical background, social background, the novel on
which the movie is based, the author of the novel, production of the movie, etc. Themes: the main ideas that the movie intends to convey to the
audience. Conflicts: conflicts within oneself, conflicts with others,
conflicts with the society, conflicts between events, conflicts of ideas, etc. Performances: actor, actress, director, playwright, song, music,
Academy Awards, etc. These four aspects, however, can never be clear-cut; they are often interrelated. The information provided below serves as some supplementary material only. The students are free to present any material relevant to the four aspects. Their presentations should include both factual
information and their own opinions or comments. Background:
a. The Graduate is adapted from a novel by Charles Webb, made into a 1967 film of the same name by director Mike Nichols. “Just one word: plastics.” “Are you here for an affair?” These lines and others became cultural touchstones, as 1960s youth rebellion began to influence the California upper-middle-class in Mike Nichols’ The Graduate. In the mid to late 1960s, youth across North America and Europe began to “turn on, tune in and drop out.” Fed up with the establishment—parents, schools, police—they went looking for a new way of life. The rebellious youth came, preaching peace, love and non-conformity. During the late 1960s many young people turned against the lifestyle of their parents. Some turned to radical politics. b. Parents found it difficult to understand their children, some of whom wore hippy clothes, long hair, followed eastern religions, used drugs (LSD/acid and cannabis) and had liberal sexual attitudes. Most of them were white middle-class college students who “were angry over the war in Vietnam/rejected the idea of getting a well-paid job.” Some lived in hippy communes, inspired by San Francisco where the “flower power” idea had started. True hippies were non-violent; some came into confrontation with the police especially when anti-Vietnam demonstrations turned into physical conflict. Many students went on strike or took over their own universities demanding a say in how they were run. c. The Graduate stands as one of the most influential films of the late 1960s, as its truthful description of the generation gap helped lead the way to the youth-oriented Hollywood artistic “renaissance” of the early 1970s. The decade from 1960 to 1970 is definitely one of those eras and it became known as the Counter Culture Era (the Hippie Generation). It was known as the Counter Culture Era because the young people involved in it rejected the old-fashioned American values and lifestyles. The youth was no longer satisfied with being replicas of the generation that preceded them. Instead, young people longed for change. The changes affected lifestyles, values, laws, education, and entertainment. The dream of love, peace, happiness, and freedom was what many young Americans longed for. The most striking change is that during the 1960s a radical crowd called the hippies stunned America with their unusual lifestyle and radical beliefs. They were young people who enjoyed life and lived it to its fullest. They used illegal drugs and listened to rock and roll music. With their different beliefs and practices they bewildered America’s traditional middle class. Concerned primarily in protesting the Vietnam War and advocating civil rights they made a huge impact on America and the world. Even today the
effects of the hippie movement are still felt. Themes:
a. Innocent and Confused Youth: The movie shows that an innocent and confused youth is exploited, misdirected, seduced and betrayed by a corrupt, decadent, and discredited older generation. This idea is well understood by film audiences and captures the spirit of the times. Ben is at a loss as to how to plan for his future. His confusion, emptiness and desire for adulthood are well reflected in the movie. It reveals the grossness of the upper-middle-class adult world. It is a study of coming-of-age, of alienation, of frustration, and of empty values. One of the film’s posters proclaims the difficult transition from innocence into experience for the recent, aimless college graduate: “This is Benjamin. He’s a little worried about his future.” b. Identity Crisis: In a word, the hero Ben is suffering from “identity crisis.” He looks so cheerless and depressed. His future is being arranged by his dominating father. To show his repulsion for it, Ben takes an attitude of cynicism, idling around and indulging himself in the affair with Mrs. Robinson. Being dominated all the time, he feels powerless and finds his life meaningless to himself. He has no idea what path he wishes to take. The question of future weighs on him heavily, but all he knows is that he doesn’t want to become someone like his parents—upper-middle-class professional suburbanites with swimming pools. Not that he knows what he actually does want. All of us, young and old, can hear the ironical sting when a family friend advises Benjamin about his future with that one darkly predictive word: plastics.
Conflicts:
a. New Graduate vs. Alien World: Ben returns home after graduation only to find a world painfully alien to him, as his ideal and value go far against the sophisticate and fundamentally hypocritical society at that time. Ben’s trouble begins right at the party welcoming him home. As an innocent young man just out of college, he wants to search out an honest and sincere way to live his future life, but he is confused and worried as people around him seem to be from a different world—they are all his parents’ friends and there is a huge generation gap in between. Instead of caring about what he feels and thinks, they just keep on acting the smiling faces and saying complimentary words. Even the one who does give him advice on his future is considering no further than financial success. b. Youth vs. Adult: The transition from youth to adult is a burden that many have yet to experience and others yet to forget. The catalyst of
his sexual liberation is Mrs. Robinson. As a friend of his parents she should be no more than a boring distraction to him. She sees in him a boundless youthful passion that she can draw upon to make up for her husband’s inadequacies. She seduces him and he tries to resist. As it turns out, his resistance is to prove futile and once broken, he is all too keen to continue their fling.
c. Affair vs. Love: Ben falls in love with Mrs. Robinson’s daughter Elaine. She is his age and as innocent and sincere as him. They belong to the same world. The affair between him and Mrs. Robinson blows them apart. However, Ben determines to get Elaine back because he decides that she is “the one” for him. After Elaine goes back to Berkeley, Ben leaves everything and goes there too to marry her though the road ahead is tough. d. Confinement vs. Rebellion: The society itself never compromises and it may be easier for one to adopt its customs and values. However, Ben is different. He acts as a countercultural hero, living by his own standard of truth, thinking for himself and doing what he needs to do for love and happiness. He distinguishes himself by rebelling against the confining lifestyle of his parents.
Performances
Mike Nichols won the Oscar for Best Director for The Graduate. Director Mike Nichols was, as a result of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, already established as one of the most promising young directors of the “New Hollywood.” But The Graduate made him (for a while, at least) the most powerful and influential of those people who were reshaping the American motion picture product. First, Nichols decided to make a major motion picture with no big-name stars, and in so doing, introduced Dustin Hoffman, who would quickly become, ironically enough, the new big name to be reckoned with. Second, Nichols employed a series of camera techniques that had been extensively used in television commercials and avant-garde pictures, but were new to the Hollywood product. Third, there was the equally important decision to change the notion of the musical score, and instead of just featuring music composed expressly for the picture, Nichols included currently popular songs by folksingers Simon and Garfunkel (The Sound of Silence, Scarborough Fair) without necessarily correlating them directly to a scene. The soundtrack sold spectacularly well, and it made Simon and Garfunkel one of America’s most popular recording groups.
Scarborough Fair
By Simon & Garfunkel