"The Graduate"

"The Graduate" is a film about an East Coast college graduate, Benjamin, who is trying to find out what his future has in store for him. However in the search for his destiny, he finds himself wrapped up in an affair with his parents' friend. This only occurs because the woman he's having an affair with, Mrs. Robinson, doesn't want Benjamin to date her daughter Elaine.

The theme of this film revolves around the idea of alienation and separation from the world. This theme is made clear through multiple symbols throughout the movie. The first symbol of alienation is the appearence of glass. Whenever the viewer sees glass in the movie, it's always separating Benjamin from the rest of the world. A few examples of this include the scene in Benjamin's room, where he looks down at the people at his party through his bedroom window, the multiple scenes of Benjamin in a phone booth, and the scene at Elaine's wedding where Benjamin is in the balcony pounding on the glass wall. Another symbolic reference to the theme of isolation is the use of the scubadiver throughout the movie. When Benjamin goes to his room to get away from the party, he sits and stares at the scuba man in the fish tank, almost like he yearns to be like him, away from the world. This symbol is also present through Benjamin's birthday present, the scuba suit. When Benjamin dives in the water, he remains under there for a period of time because he realizes that no one can talk to him. He has become the plastic scubadiver in his fish tank. The Broddock's pool is also a symbol of the theme. When Benjamin lays on the pool raft, it symbolizes the fact that he is merely just drifting through life without any goals or future. These are all symbols that reinforce the idea of isolation.

The textbook relates to the film in many different ways. An expressionistic use of color is presented to the viewer through Benjamin's clothes in order to give us a sense of what he is like as a character. All his clothes in the film are very dark or neutral colors. This could represent the fact that Benjamin is boring, he has no real personality and no sense of direction. The only thing that makes this character not boring is the affair between he and Mrs. Robbinson.

The use of sound is done very well in the film. In the pool scene where Benjamin displays his scuba suit for everyone to see, the viewer experiences both visible and invisible sounds. The visible sound comes from Benjamin's heavy breathing. We are pushed to experience this scene through Benjamin's and although we can see the people taking, we can only here Benjamin's breathing. Invisible sound is used when Benjamin is at the bottom of the pool, again, we can here his breathing, but we also hear other people's voices. We automatically draw a conclusion that the voices are coming from outside of the pool because the voices are muffles and we cannot really clearly understand them.

The use of a dead screen is used multiple times in "The Graduate." A dead screen is that of which there is nothing really interesting happening. This is used sometimes to emphasize sound or to just simply make a point. The scene when Benjamin insists on hearing the story of Mrs. Robinson and her husband while they are laying in the hotel room is a good example of the use of a dead screen to emphasize sound. The director purposly gives the viewer a dark screen where you can barely make out anything because he wants us to focus on the sounds rather than sights. The ending scene where Benjamin and Elaine are on the back of the school bus after running away from her wedding, a dead screen is used to emphasize sight, not sound. The two don't take to eachother nor even look at eachother. I think that this may have something to do with the fact that their lives are still uncertain and they are starting to ask themselves if they really do love the other person. Based on the blank expression on both of their faces, I'm guessing not.

Music is used frequently in this film to act as an inner monologue. The most significant song used in this film was "The Sounds of Silence." "The Sounds of Silence" is used the most in the film and is used to reinforce the theme of emptiness and isolation. This song is especially prominent at the very beginning of the movie when Benjamin is wandering the airport. This song acts as an introduction into what Benjamin's life is like. The song continues to play spiratically in the movie and is play at meaningful times, like when Benjamin goes into the hotel room bathroom and shuts off the light, the song comes in at "hello darkness my old friend, I've come to talk with you again."

On a more personal note, I thought the movie was, different. It's the one movie that I have watched so far for this class where I actually had to force myself to watch it. I found it very boring and stale; I often had to pause the movie just to get a break. I understand why the director chose to certain songs to be played in the film, however, I thought they were extremely overplayed. By the end of the movie, the only thing that was kept in my memory was "parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme." Some of the scenes were very strange to me and somewhat pointless. Scenes like this include the scubadiver suit scene- why would he get a scuba suit for his birthday?- and the closing scene with Benjamin and Elaine staring blankly off, not even looking or speaking to eachother after they had just done something so rebelious. I did however like how the director incorporated the different symbols to enhance his theme of isolation. Other than that, I really didn't enjoy anything else.