Summary Of The Film 'The Graduate'

The Graduate is a 1967 film directed by Mike Nichols. Which tells the story of a young college graduate, who finds himself seeming lost in the real world and in addition, he finds himself torn between a mother and her daughter. The Graduate shows us how difficult the transition from childhood to adulthood could be for college graduates and how aimless it actually is. Mike Nichols uses selective choose in the songs used in this movie, camera angles and the characters to help illustrate this theme.

In the opening scene the song “The Sounds of Silence” plays in the background while we see our main character, Ben Braddock, make a decent into Los Angeles. This song has a very low pitched eerie sound to it and the lyrics help illuminate the theme of this movie. The song starts by saying “Hello darkness, my old friend...in restless dreams I walked alone…” the song is giving a sense of loneliness and misdirection. As though you are alone

and don’t know where to turn or go. The song continues by talking about how “Ten thousand people, maybe more…”, expressing the thought of many people being in a similar situation. Ben Braddock, as the film goes on portrays exactly this. He gets to his parents house and his parents have a party with people that “have known…you since you were born”. He starts off by having a conversation with his father, Mr. Braddock, about how he is unsure about his future.
In the next part of this scene is bombarded by all these friends and family about how great he is and how he is going to do great things. It appears to get him very uncomfortable. He is specifically asked what he plans on doing, in which his reply is “I was going to go upstairs for a minute”; unaware of what was actually being said here and in clear discomfit of all this attention. After this scene, Mike Nichols uses a great camera technique to give a feeling of alienation to Ben by showing Ben looking through his glass window in his room, adding to this sense of uncertainty and discomfit to Ben’s character.
Ben Braddock throughout the film continues this sense of uncertainly when he again admits to Mrs. Robinson that he has been “disturbed about things”. In which, he then restates to Mr. Robinson by stating "I'm just a little worried about my future. I'm a little upset about my future.” This all being after an altercation between him and Mrs. Robinson in which, Mrs. Robinson being much older than Ben, tries seducing him. This could be because of this transition that Ben is going through. It doesn’t appear as though she is going for Ben because of lust but because of his current state of uncertainty, making him seem vulnerable to the wedlock mischievous Mrs. Robinson.
A crucial moment from childhood to adulthood is your 21st birthday; Ben’s parents celebrate his 21st birthday by throwing together another birthday party.

In this scene there is again the use of a glass window to give off this field of alienation, as though he has yet to make this connection to adulthood that his father, mother and their friends have. This alienation becomes emphasized by the very next scene in which he is in his birthday present, a scuba suit and he is in his pool underwater, all alone and isolated.

The song “The Sounds of Silence” replays itself and continues to play after a scene where Ben and Mrs. Robinson are having an affair in a hotel and this scene repeats itself to show the numerous times this occurs. The songs is again reiterating the fact that Ben is uncertain in what exactly he is doing as he seemed nervous and discomfit leading up to the scene of them in bed. Continuing forward, he has a conversation with his father in which he specifically states that he isn’t sure what those 4 years of college were

for.
We then fast forward to another similar scene in which Ben is with Mrs. Robinson in the Taft hotel. He tries to strike up a conversation with Mrs. Robinson possible to give this fling that have been having some sort of meaning instead of just sex. He does this so that he can feel more comfortable and reassured of what his actually doing, hence not aimlessly doing things and actually having some sort of grasp idea of what he is doing in his life; as it appears his self-esteem is falling apart and this is a push to give this act and himself some sort of meaning.
Ben goes on to eventually take Elaine out on a date to a drive through, where he admits to her that ever since he graduated from school, he feels as though he is in a game. He goes on to say that there are rules to this game that are being made up by themselves. This game is life, the rules that apply to life are made up by society, get a job, start a family, get a house etc… He then goes on to ask the people around him if they can lower the very loud rock and roll music playing. These people are from Ben’s generation of the 60s but they ignore him and the music continues to play. This gives off the sense of alienation; Ben went to college and graduate, yet in the 1960’s, not many people went to college and this helps forward the idea that Ben is very disconnected as he is detached from his own age group.
The movie continues on as it appears that Ben has a direction in life by meeting Elaine and having this relationship with her. Unfortunately for Ben, things quickly go downhill as his past comes to haunt him and he confesses to Elaine that the affair he has had has been with her mother. In which leads to them breaking up and losing communication. Desperate to get this feeling back and ultimately Elaine he stalks her at school.
Ben is ultimately lead on a very tedious search driving from Berkeley to Los Angles and back (then to Santa Barbara) to get the Elaine back into his life, it shows the effort he has put in to get this girl that has given his life some sort of meaning.
In the final scene of the movie Ben does prevent Elaine from getting married by stopping the marriage ceremonial and runaway with her to everyone’s disapproval. They get on a bus and there mood of victory and happiness begin to fade as there grins turn to into expressionless still faces. This is because even though Ben has got what he wanted, he still has this uncertainty about life. Getting Elaine did not resolve this feeling of wandering aimlessly like he had anticipated. Ben realizes that this is not a ‘video game’ and that he can’t escape this path that has been put in front of him. Both of their futures are still a mystery and they will continue to walk aimlessly. Perfectly, the ending scene goes on to play the song “The Sounds of Silence” to re-emphasize the point that he is still back where he was in the beginning of the movie, a directionless graduate.
The Graduate is a great movie that provides many possible themes. This theme of uncertainty is what stood out to me and seemed to be perfectly imaged by Mike Nichols. With his use of camera angles, camera shots, character personality and sound track choice. College is a very difficult aspect of life and the transition from childhood to adulthood is a very tortuous path that has no set direction. It brings about many