The Graduate: The power of visual storytelling

Entry Number: 9

Film: The Graduate

Year Of Release: 1967

Director: Mike Nichols

Rating: ?

*Warning: Major spoilers*

If you haven't, go watch this movie first, and then come back to this review.

In 1966, highly regarded theatre director Mike Nichols got set to direct a film adaptation of the theatre play Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf. Mike Nichols took a fairly standard route, directing the movie like he directed his plays, but critics noted his eye for good acting, creative editing and unusual camera work. It was a critical and commercial success, and in 1967, Mike Nichols got set to direct a film adaptation of the novel The Graduate. It was at this point that Nichols took one of the greatest left-turns in cinema history, deciding to abandon his theatre style and emphasize visual storytelling alongside a more radical "new wave" style.

For those who don't know, The Graduate follows Benjamin, a rather disillusioned college graduate. He starts an affair with Mrs. Robinson, one of his parents' best friends. Finding no satisfaction in the affair, he starts a romance with Elaine Robinson, Mrs. Robinson's daughter.

The Graduate has remained with me ever since I first saw it, mainly for two reasons, those being the relatability and visual storytelling. The Graduate really connected with me in a way few movies do. I found it unusually relatable. Of course, I didn't really relate to the story literally, as I have never been in a love triangle with an older woman and her daughter, but I found the film relatable in a thematic sense. Benjamin is a very irresponible and creepy person in my opinion, but some of his problems are strangely enough some of my problems too. And the message of the film really hit me. And then we have the visual storytelling, which is in a league of its own. With this review, I'm going to focus on the thematic elements, the storytelling, and the way the two connect to come to the bottom of what makes The Graduate so great.

There is no better place to start than the start, the start in this case being the opening shot. The Graduate starts on a airplane, with Benjamin heading home after graduating from college. It starts as a close-up on him, but eventually zooms out until he is only a small part of the picture. Through the awkward angle he is filmed from and the sudden zoom, we are told several things. He is lonely, even in big crowds. He is disconnected from the rest of the world. He is dissatisfied. But the most important thing this zoom tells us is what he is afraid from. He is looking forward, and he is looking at that thing with fear. He is afraid of the future. And this is confirmed by the following shot, the credits sequence, where we see him moving even though he is standing still.

So, what is so scary about the future for Benjamin? Well, there is this one piece of dialogue I feel explains it perfectly. During his graduation party, Benjamin is hiding in his room. His father comes into the room and asks what it is. Benjamin explains that he is worried about his future, and when asked why, he responds that he wants it to be different.

This leads us to the next question: What is "different"? And to answer that question, we have to ask another question: What is normal? Well, a normal future is basically a normal life. You get a job, you get a wife, you get a home, you get some kids, etc. But a future like that doesn't sound that bad, does it? No, not at all. When we are young, we all want to be something unique, but still, a normal life isn't exactly a bad life. But to understand why Benjamin is so afraid of normal life, we have to understand his cynical outlook on it, something we can understand through Mike Nichols' storytelling.

Benjamin's cynical outlook on modern living is probably a result of his cynical outlook on his parents. Benjamin comes from a rich and highly regarded family, and for Benjamin, rich is just another word for materialistic. Think about it: Those who are rich show that they are rich by buying objects. Their entire personality is made out of objects. And this is something Benjamin clearly wants to avoid, which we see when an adult approaches him to talk about plastics. "There's a great future in plastics."

If there is one scene that explains Benjamin's fear of materialism perfectly, it's the scuba diver scene. Early in the film, there's a shot of Benjamin sitting and contemplating his future, and in the background, we can see a plastic scuba diver figure in a fish tank placed in the bottom left of the screen. Later in the film, Benjamin gets a scuba diver suit, and is forced by parents to demonstrate it in the pool in front of everybody. He shows lots of discomfort and clearly states that he is against this, but his parents won't listen. He marches to the pool and jumps in. He is frightened, tries to come up, but is pushed down by his parents. He eventually gives up and just stands there in the water. Notice where he is in the frame: The bottom left, just like the plastic scuba diver figure. He has become plastic. This scene symbolizes his fear of his parents pushing him down a pool he doesn't want to be pushed down, one that eventually only leads to complete materialism, which leads to isolation, loneliness, and complete emptiness.

Of course, it's around here Benjamin starts his romance with Mrs. Robinson. During the graduation party scene, Mike Nichols uses handheld cinematography to demonstrate Benjamin's discomfort around his parents' friends. The focus is also constantly on Benjamin, making the world around Benjamin seem out-of-focus. But suddenly, the camera holds still and everything is in focus. This is the moment when we first see Mrs. Robinson. This is an incredibly important moment, as we immediately understand that there's a connection between Mrs. Robinson and Benjamin. Mrs. Robinson sees something in Benjamin that she also sees in herself.

Mrs. Robinson is a very fascinating character. She's a really strange and charismatic figure, but she's also very manipulative and secretive. We aren't told much about what makes her the strange character she is, but there's one scene where she tells about her marriage to Benjamin. She tells him that she accidentally got pregnant, and therefore had to marry Mr. Robinson, even though they didn't love each other. If there is one shot that tells us everything we need to know about Mrs. Robinson, it's the shot that comes after Elaine finally gets to known about Benjamin's affair with Mrs. Robinson. Benjamin is thrown out of Elaine's bedroom, and we get a close-up of Mrs. Robinson standing in the corner of the room. We then get a zoom out that is quite similar to the opening shot. This tells us that Mrs. Robinson is just as afraid, disillusioned and empty as Benjamin, and that's why there was a connection.

As both Benjamin and Mrs. Robinson feel empty, we could probably say that the purpose of their affair is to get rid of that emptiness. And we all know that the only cure for something like that is love and compassion, but Benjamin and Mrs. Robinson clearly don't know that. Let's look at the first seduction. In my opinion, it's quite animalistic. The way Mrs. Robinson slowly lures Benjamin into the bedroom is quite reminiscent of an animal luring their pray to their inevitable death. Actually, that was the exact inspiration for the scene. Throughout the whole film, Mrs. Robinson is always dressed in animal prints, and the incredible amount of plants in her house makes it reminiscent of a jungle. 

After Benjamin and Mrs. Robinson start their affair, we get a montage which shows us how the affair is doing in removing their emptiness. The entire montage is set to Simon And Garfunkel's "The Sound Of Silence", one of the most famously depressing songs ever made, which should already tell how it's going. There are also two elements that are seen numerous times during the montage: Darkness and water. Their entire affair takes place in the darkness, and darkness is a pretty obvious metaphor for emptiness. We also see Benjamin laying around in the pool a lot, and water is also a clear metaphor for emptiness, as proved by the scuba diver suit scene. Through this montage, we are told that the affair is really just a hopeless attempt by Benjamin and Mrs. Robinson try to remove their emptiness through animalistic sex, only creating even more emptiness in the process.

The relationship between Benjamin and Elaine however is the polar opposite of the relationship between Benjamin and Mrs. Robinson. While Benjamin's relationship with Mrs. Robinson is an affair, Benjamin's relationship with Elaine is a romance. They relate to each other not in their own pettiness and emptiness, but rather in their fears. Instead of immediately start having sex, they talk about their own fears and issues, and together find the solution: Love. And it's quite beautiful to see. It seems that Benjamin has finally found happiness. But the past catches up with him and ruins everything that could be.

And then we arrive at The Graduate's infamous ending. After their romance is broken up by Mrs. Robinson, Benjamin and Elaine finally meet again, and once again find love. But there's an issue: Elaine is getting married. She doesn't love the person she's getting married to, and doesn't even want to get married, but Mrs. Robinson is pushing her down the same road she was pushed down. Benjamin refuses to accept this however and intrudes the wedding. He screams her name, she screams back, and at that moment, they decide to fight against the future. They fight the adults and escape on a bus. They sit down and laugh together, but are met with judging looks from the passengers. Their smiles suddenly fade away, and they realize that they have gone too far. One could say that it's even suggested that they are going to end up going down the road they wanted to escape, one which results in emptiness and unhappiness.

I think we can all connect to Benjamin in one way or another. As Roger Ebert so elegantly wrote: "Benjamin's acute honesty and embarrassment are so accurately drawn that we hardly know whether to laugh or to look inside ourselves." We all fear the future because we never know what is coming next. If we could stop time, we all probably would. But we can't stop time from moving. No matter how hard we try, it will always continue moving. And we have to remember not to try to reject the future like Benjamin does, because we simply can't. No matter what, the bus will continue moving, and the road forward will remain uncertain.

Rating: 10/10

Next Review: Rear Window