The Graduate

Of all the films we have watched, I have definitely enjoyed The Graduate the most. For a 1967 film, Mike Nichols pushes the limits of the characters and storyline, and grabs the viewer's intention. This was intriguing because movies before The Graduate, had set boundaries. The idea of the main character, Benjamin Braddock, engaging in a sexual relationship with a much older woman certainly breaks those norms. This relationship made the movie such a success by targeting the rebellious youth culture of the 1960's. In their relationship, Mrs. Robinson has a lot of authority and power over Benjamin, partly because of her older age. The changing role of women is also reflected in Elaine's ability to make her own decisions, apart from those of her parent's. Elaine flat out rejects Benjamin at first, however they do end up getting married, which still represents the need for women to live up their role as females. Elaine was confident and interested in her self-fulfillment to step down from the alter and run away and marry Benjamin. The scene of them on the city bus can be interpreted in a few ways, but I like to think of it as a happy ending. They have both done what their parents expected to never happen, and they seem joyful and giddy as they stare out the window. Their facial expressions fluctuate over the next minute and seem to be saying, 'What happens now?'.  I believe the faces aren't expressing any regret but rather shock, and they are truly happy. This is a powerful scene as it is left to the viewer's interpretation.

Music in The Graduate (1967)

Matthew Collins

Music in The Graduate (1967)

In the film The Graduate directed by Mike Nichols, used various songs written by the folk rock legends Simon & Garfunkel. In the film the director had selected specific songs to illuminate certain emotions that the main character Benjamin feels. In the scene where Ben in riding the automatic walkway in the airport, the song The Sounds of Silence opens the movie and helps introduce Ben as someone who is alone and isolated. Repetition is seen throughout the film; the director uses the same music to convey a similar message. An example of this is Ben’s first sexual encounter with Mrs. Robinson in the hotel room; the Sounds of Silence begins to play again. This reminds the audience that even in a moment of intense emotion Ben still remains just as detached and lonely as he always was. Another song the director chose to repeat throughout the movie is Scarborough Fair, because the song emits a dreamy and light feeling. Nichols uses this song in the scene where Ben is seen stalking the Robinson house; it shows that he is still in a dream, but he needs to face reality. The music in the film was innovative for its popularity at the time and the fact that director was able to accurately use it to help develop Ben as a character.

The Graduate

First off let me say that it took me a while to realize that the song Mrs.Robinson was based off this song. Now with that out of the way, on to the movie.

I wont argue with anyone who says that my mom, dad and now myself all loved the movie, "The Graduate". Even though we are not finished with college, I sympathize with Ben. Even at the end of High School there is a feeling of being lost, and not knowing what will come, or what to do next. Looking back on The Graduate, there are many instances where we can see director Mike Nichols highlighting Ben's feelings through his directing techniques. The pool in Ben's yard always caught my attention. Whenever Ben was in the pool it almost seemed like he was escaping in his own way. During the long and almost aggravating scene where Ben is forced into a scuba suit, he jumps in, only to sit at the bottom of the pool; drowning out the outside world, including his neurotic parents. For all the times we've seen Ben in his pool, he is more content in the water than anywhere else; even when his parents and the Robinson's are there towering over him. Most people tend to be somewhat happy when in a pool, it's fun, relaxing and cooling on a hot summer day. But for our dear Graduate Ben, it is his escape. His escape from his parents, their 200 friends and yes of course, Mrs. Robinson.

Long Cut Long Length Pans of Love

One thing unique in the cinematography of The Graduate is the choice to have three long cut shots panning close up on Benjamin running, which not only are examples of impressive camerawork but also effectively isolate Benjamin from the rest of the world and show his love for Elaine. These shots occur when he first arrives at Berkeley, when he runs down the apartment building stairs after being evicted, and when he runs to the church after his car runs out of gas.

Two shots with the same framing but different focal lengths and subject distances vary in perspective. A shot with a larger focal length and subject distance will show less of the background and more of the foreground. This change in perspective becomes clear with dolly zooms, which continuously change the two, as seen below with a dolly zoom with focal length ranging from 24mm to 840mm.

In two of the three shots, the camera is very far away and has an enormous focal length. This means only the tiniest bit of background is shown. In the staircase shot, being very zoomed in was not possible due to the space in which the shot was filmed, but very little background is shown nonetheless. During the long-cut pan when Benjamin first comes to Berkeley, Benjamin seems isolated not only because of the large focal length but also because it is a high angle shot, meaning the little background showing is mostly the ground. The viewer only realizes Benjamin is at Berkeley at the end of the shot when the camera zooms out to wide and students dissolve in. The shot where Benjamin is running to the church isolates him not only by having a large focal length but also a low enough shutter speed  and large enough aperture and parallax such that the background behind him is very blurred.

In all three shots, Benjamin is isolated and in his own word. The only person or thing he cares about is Elaine and his love for her. Just like the viewer is unable to see his surrounding, the cinematography shows the viewer that Benjamin ignores his own surrounds because he is preoccupied with the thought of Elaine.

Part of Your World: Water Symbolism in The Graduate

 Tova Byrne

Part of Your World: Water Symbolism in The Graduate

Benjamin Braddock is established immediately as a fish out of water. When the opening credits of Mike Nichols’ The Graduate subside, the first shot is a centered, almost uncomfortably tight close up of Ben’s head in front of a fish tank. The fish swim aimlessly in their confined space and a figurine of a scuba diver (foreshadowing!!) amongst artificial seaweed as Ben sits for a moment. Ben is dragged from the solitude of his bedroom and submerged fully in the party, and as the proximity of this long take to Ben’s face and the bombardment of the well-intended questions about the future from his parents’ friends create a sense of suffocation. Ben is in a fish tank; this is the world he has been put in by his parents, and, although he may have other fish to interact with, he will always be confined within its glass walls.

In fact, the whole film seems to be hopping from fish tank to fish tank in a desperate clamor to escape. Ben fishes the keys out of the tank in his room at the very beginning of his spiral into his affair with Mrs. Robinson. For a moment, perhaps he has found a way out of his parents’ world. Ben spends an entire montage floating, purposeless, in his parents’ pool. “Well - I would say that I'm just drifting,” he says from the raft in response to his father’s aggravated questions about what he thinks he’s doing. But the presence of water in this film is beyond just fish tanks and water rafts, it also presents itself in one of the most classic moments of the film. As a 21st birthday gift, Ben’s parents buy him a full set of scuba gear. This succeeds in not only figuratively but almost literally alienating him (for there is no denying how unbelievably strange he looks in the complete getup.) In addition, it is but another instance in which Ben is suffocating in the world of his parents. The scene is uncomfortable to watch due to it being shot from Ben’s point of view (sound as well) along with the fact that as he tries to surface, his father pushes him back under for the sake of demonstrating this party trick for the sake of the guests. The camera zooms out and Ben looks small, almost doll-like in the pool, and we remember the figurine in the shot that we started with.

“In this case it was drowning in things,” director Mike Nichols explained, talking about how he portrayed Ben’s isolation in the film. “And the danger of becoming a thing, the danger of treating yourself or other people as things. So that preoccupation led to the choices of the compositions of shots, and where the camera was and how isolated he was.”

The Graduate

It was pretty hard to concentrate on the movie itself of The Graduate directed by Mike Nichols since I really did not like the main male character. I strongly disrespected him because he did everything the mother told him to do and he couldn't make his own choices. He was a grown man but acted like a lost child which for some reason really frustrated me. Finally at the very ending of the story he disobeys the mothers wishes and shows up at the daughters wedding and him and the daughter run away. This scene expresses the happiness they have while running away and a powerful chase for not listening to what is told to do. As soon as they sit in the back of the bus, the smiles fade and reality hits wondering what will happen next. This is the one scene I enjoyed the presence of the main character as he did what felt right to do for him and after he made the first step or that leap of faith to take the daughter away, everything else will come naturally if its all meant to be but the awkwardness as the end is extreme as the viewer can tell both the daughter and the boy wondering what will come next.