Just the Robinsons' Affair

Benjamin, bring me my purse - Courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
Last Sunday, I was bored with Netflix’s suggested movies ... think they’ve misread my cinematic tastes – I don’t want to sit through Shakespeare in Love ever again. I decided to explore their different categories and was delighted to see 1967’s The Graduate was available to view. Have seen this movie 3 or 4 times and it seems I never grow tired of it. I actually watched it with my Mom when it came out; I was about 10 years old, pretending to understand nuances that were a little beyond me.

The Graduate is rated 7th on AFI’s list of greatest comedies and it’s easy to see why. Comedy writer Buck Henry (who has a bit part as a hotel clerk), poured all his 60’s-inspired, acidic and laser-accurate humor into the screenplay. The graduate is about a recent Ivy League graduate, Benjamin Braddock, coming back to live with his well-cushioned parents in LA. The handsome young man was editor of the college paper and something of a “phenom” – he must now grapple with the future. Will it be grad school or maybe a career in plastics?

Instead, he stumbles into the web of Mrs. Robinson, the wife of his father’s law partner. Played by the beautiful Anne Bancroft, Mrs. Robinson snares Benjamin in one of the most hilariously acted seductions ever on film. Serious complications arise when he later becomes enchanted with the Robinsons’ daughter, Elaine. I won’t do a detailed account of the movie but would like to discuss it in general. We have 1927’s Jazz Singer as the first movie with sound; we have 1934’s Becky Sharp as the first movie in color. And we have 1967’s The Graduate as the first no-bullshit movie that lays us over the head with people and sexual situations as they actually are.

I think that up until the late 60’s, Hollywood didn’t just avoid reality, it was actually a coconspirator in our stifling, comfortable numbness. In 1950’s movies like Summer Place or Tea and Sympathy, sex is treated as a dark malevolence – keep it contained and speak of it obliquely. Such movies couldn't deal with sexual topics frankly. Neither could they really take on society-at-large. In 1957, the idea that a lot of “successful men” were in fact waspy, materialistic brown nosers would’ve been heretical (albeit true even then). By 1967, it was pretty well established, but not so much on the movie screen. Not until The Graduate came out. The Graduate blew holes through much of our phony-baloney world of trophy wives and cardboard platitudes.

There are many things to love about The Graduate. The songs of Simon and Garfunkel are absolutely spell-binding and now enduring classics. The camera angles are inventive and artful. There are many wry, clever “easter eggs” to borrow from software lingo. As Ben and his father walk downstairs, the camera lingers on a clown picture, inviting you to wonder if that hints at anything or anyone to come. Mrs. Robinson tosses the car keys into Ben’s aquarium, thus starting their dalliance in murky, fishy water. Mr. Braddock gives Ben a scuba outfit which serves as a perfect metaphor – a hot, suffocating enclosure that leaves Ben with labored breathing. The parents are mostly booze-addled careerists who have blinders on – Mr. Robinson keeps identifying Ben as a scotch drinker when Ben has told him at every turn he prefers bourbon. It may not have been any deliberate statement, but Ben and Elaine use a cross (the ultimate symbol of WASP allegiance) to jam the church doors closed. Lastly, and best of all, Ben keeps calling Mrs. Robinson “Mrs. Robinson” despite the fact that they’ve had a summer of intimate trysts.

The Graduate gave us Alice Ghostly and Norman Fell in small but hilarious doses – the casting of this movie was excellent. Interesting side note – Doris Day was initially sought to play Mrs. Robinson. She turned it down, but it would’ve been fascinating to see America’s favorite, blonde sweetheart play against type. The movie gave us phrases like “plastics” and “something.. different” to work into our own conversations when apropos. Roger Ebert praised The Graduate when it came out in 1967 and then dissed it as dated, 60’s tripe when he re-reviewed it 1997. Sorry Ebert, thumbs down to that. The Graduate is a timeless classic, and Buck Henry’s acerbic truths stand as tall now as they did in 1967. See this wonderful, landmark film the next time you get a chance.

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