A banal choice for a graduation-oriented film, perhaps, but Mike Nichols' famous 1967 comedy-drama The Graduate still retains a timeless appeal as a darkly comic evocation of the despair uncertain college graduates feel after they get out of college and realize they are not sure where they want to go or what they want to do in life.
That uncertainty is the classic dilemma faced by Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman), a recent college grad who isn't helped out all that much by oblivious, too-proud parents as well as a neighbor's sexy wife, Mrs. Robinson (the late Anne Bancroft), who, experiencing boredom in her marriage, decides to seduce the ever-nervous, tentative Ben into sleeping with her.
Most people, of course, remember Mrs. Robinson and her exploits (memorialized through Simon & Garfunkle's hit tune), and Bancroft certainly creates a memorably confident, sexually self-aware characterization that has become one of the most famous performances in film history. Surprisingly, though, it sometimes seems that people don't really remember Benjamin, the protagonist of The Graduate, so well-perhaps because he is, if you think about it, kind of a creep.
Consider: he basically allows himself to be intimidated by Mrs. Robinson into having an affair, I guess because he doesn't seem to have anything better to do at home. (Sunbathing seems to be what he does most of the time at home in this film.) When Ben starts to have feelings for the Robinsons' daughter, Elaine (Katharine Ross), he of course is too afraid to divulge the truth about what he's been doing with her mother-understandable. But when Elaine does find out about the affair and then goes off to Berkeley, Ben decides to essentially stalk her in order to win back her affections-he rents an apartment off-campus and follows her around, whether in secret or with her knowledge.
This is where the movie has admittedly dated a bit since the 1960s. For a while, Benjamin Braddock was considered a counterculture hero: he stood up against the out-of-touch parent figures in his life and tried to strike out his own path. That final defiant gesture of him and Elaine escaping her (parent-influenced) marriage and riding away on the back of the bus was actually meant to be heroic. Now, though, the final scene seems less genuinely heroic than merely impulsive: Benjamin is such a bland, passive fellow that there is no indication that he'll really amount to anything anyway, with or without Elaine by his side. Throughout The Graduate, he seems paralyzed with insecurity and fear of what his future may hold, and by the end, he's still not sure. (There's a reason "The Sound of Silence" plays again at the end of the film instead of something more upbeat.)
But, of course, is that not a sentiment many college grads feel today, to a greater or lesser extent? I certainly know of seniors who, after spending four years here at Rutgers, tell me that they still basically have no idea what they want to do afterwards. Going out into the real world isn't easy, and it can be scary enough to give anybody pause. That is something The Graduate understands, and, if nothing else, that understanding is arguably what has allowed this film to endure. Benjamin Braddock may not have the same hero status he once held, but he expresses a very real need: a yearning for direction in a world that seems dauntingly overloaded with possibilities.
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