Benjamin Braddock in “The Graduate” was almost played by Robert Redford. While working on the script, Mike Nichols had envisioned the tall, bronzed blonde coming home to California to start an affair with a suburban wife. But as the script began to take form, Nichols realized that Redford was too suave for Braddock; he needed a loser in love, someone awkward, funny, and noticeably out-of-place.

Nichols happened to catch Dustin Hoffman playing (I kid you not) a transvestite German fishwife in a play, and found him funny, endearing, and perfect for Braddock. Hoffman at the time had gained a small amount of success after 10 years of stage acting, including an Opie award. Still, he came to California with hesitation that quickly turned to embarrassment during his screen test.

He showed up in his New York garb, pale skin and a black turtleneck, immediately sticking out among the Californian crowd. The makeup crew spent two hours trying to give his face color, make his nose smaller, and his muscular neck look thinner. When Hoffman saw his co-star, Katherine Ross, he immediately felt inadequate next to her beauty. He tried to dissipate some of the nervous tension by pinching her butt before they began the audition, but she immediately turned to him and said, “Don’t you ever do that again.” Hoffman felt the audition was a disaster, and when it was finally over, he reached into his pocket and accidentally sent a fistful of subway tokens flying, adding to his embarrassment.

A few days later, Nichols called Hoffman’s agent, offering him the part.

It’s interesting to note a lot of the parallels between Hoffman’s life and Braddock’s. Both grew up in California and hated it, escaping to New York City (or in Braddock’s case, the ambiguous east) for college. Hoffman was frequently bullied in California by vocal anti-Semites and felt that New York welcomed him like Cali never could.

He brought this intense feeling of discomfort and marginalization to the wasp-y character, giving it the depth Redford would never have achieved. Hoffman’s non-traditional Hollywood appearance (short stature, thick neck, large nose, brooding eyebrows) also made the character seem more every-day and relatable. Braddock wasn’t a gorgeous blonde God of the silver screen, he was an awkward twenty-something suffering from an existentialist crisis.

The unlikely choice ultimately paid off. Hoffman was nominated for two Golden Globes and an Oscar, winning one of the Golden Globes for New Star of the Year- Actor. It’s hard now to picture anyone but Hoffman in the role of Benjamin Braddock. The movie also launched Hoffman’s ultimately successful career as a movie actor.

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Here are the two great articles I used to write this post. Would definitely recommend reading!

http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2008/03/graduate200803

http://www.amc.com/talk/2008/04/dustin-hoffman-the-graduate

One of the most iconic elements of The Graduate is the use of the Simon and Garfunkel soundtrack.  It’s almost hard to ignore the ballads that play throughout the background of the film and the certain moods that they set.  Director Mike Nichols claims that while showering every morning he would listen to Simon and Garfunkel’s album before going to work, and one morning it hit him that this is the album he would use for the film.  How amazing that one of the most iconic movie soundtracks came about from singing in the shower!

The impact of using Simon and Garfunkel was far-reaching for both the band, the film, and the film industry.  After The Graduate, Simon and Garfunkel were able to reach a much larger audience and opened them up to an older audience.  The only song wrote by the duo solely for the film was Mrs. Robinson which turned out to be one of their most popular songs.  In the case of the film, the soundtrack allowed deeper connection to be drawn to the emotions in the film.  The themes of the music complemented the film’s themes of post-college dissatisfaction and rebellion.  With the successful use of the soundtrack, the film was able to reach the status that it did and improved both Nichols and Hoffman’s careers.

The iconic use of Simon and Garfunkel’s music as the films soundtrack has been replicated throughout the film industry following the release of The Graduate.  Perhaps even more successful than The Graduate, was Purple Rain‘s use of Prince’s music.  The film is not renowned for its plot, but rather Prince’s creative expression of music that carries the film.  Other examples of using a singular artist on a soundtrack is Daft Punk in Legacy, Kevin Shields in Lost in Translation, and Curtis Mayfield’s Superfly.  Thus simply by listening to an album in the shower led Mike Nichols to make a decision that would have a lasting impact on film to this day.

Sources:

http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6327146/rip-mike-nichols-the-graduate-soundtrack

As I was sitting in class watching The Graduate, I couldn’t help but feel that the actor playing Mr. Braddock looked very familiar. A quick Google search after class confirmed my suscpicions- he was Mr. Feeny. Those of you who grew up in the early 2000’s will probably remember Mr. Feeny and his wise words on the show Boy Meets World. Calm, collected and always there to give advice to Cory Matthews over the neighborhood fence, William Daniels gave life to an individual who was more than a teacher, he was a role model. So, imagine my surprise when I discovered that the same actor who portrayed such a beloved TV wise man, also played the role of a father who was so detached from his own son that he bought him a scuba suit for his 21st birthday.

The scuba suit scene is one example of many times Mr. Braddock cannot hear what his son is saying, instead overpowering the conversation and guilt-tripping his son into acting like the perfect trophy boy for his own benefit. This is in stark contrast to Mr. Feeny on Boy Meets World, who typically was the one person that understood what Cory was going through and lended a listening ear to his problems. With that being said, lets compare and contrast Mr. Braddock and Mr. Feeny reactions to their respective youth counter-parts.

Mr. Braddock: The Fish Tank Scene

This scene is one of very first scenes played out in the film, and it immediately sets the tone of Ben’s relationship with his parents. Listening to the bubbling of the fish tank, Ben feels like he is drowning as his father overpowers the conversation- cutting him off mid-sentence, answering his questions for him and not understanding why Ben can’t please the guests by coming downstairs (“They’re all waiting for you….they’ve known you since you were born.”) Even as the viewer, this scene is overwhelming, as you too feel like you are drowning in Mr. Braddock’s questions.

In contrast, Mr. Feeny offered this advice to his students when they too are faced with the pressure of society:

Mr. Braddock and the Scuba Suit

Though I have already mentioned it, the scuba suit scene is truly when the viewer realizes the extent of Mr. Braddock’s disillusion about his son. He blocks out Ben’s muffled pleas for his father to listen to him, instead opting to yet again, guilt-trip him into wearing the suit and “perform” for his guests. Even when Ben tries to come up from his submergence into suburbia, his parents immediately fills his entire field of vision and pushes him back down into the water.

Meanwhile, when Cory asks for Mr. Feeny’s advice, the teacher steps up to the plate and offers not a quick, plastic solution to his problem, but a worthwhile piece of advice that can be applied to any young adult trying to navigate the scary, adult world.

So thank you, William Daniels, for bringing to screen a young adult’s worst nightmare, but also their best role model.

The Graduate has a ton of interesting cinematography. We already talked about a good amount of it in class such as with the aquarium or the scuba diving scene or the claustrophobic conversations Ben has with family friends at the beginning of the film. I wanted to look at some of the clever shots we did not get to discuss in class.

One thing I always liked about the opening shot with Ben on a conveyor belt is the fact that he moves from the right side of the screen to the left. We already associate moving to the right as progress, and it feels more natural to us as we also read from left to right. There have also been psychological studies in film that show that we associate more positive emotions with people moving from left to right in a shot. So Ben being carried leftward at the start of the film indicates that he is not progressing, and it adds to the sense of dread we feel. It also seems purposeful that Ben is on a conveyor belt as he gives up control while on it. He is carried in a certain direction by an external force, and this is the current condition of his life. There is some parallelism with the shot that follows as we see his suitcase on a conveyor belt moving in the same direction:

This editing seems to say that Ben has as much free will as his suitcase on the conveyor belt.

I also wanted to mention the sun glare shot. After the montage showing the progress of Ben and Mrs. Robinson’s relationship, Ben is lying on a raft in the pool, and his dad starts lecturing him that he needs to do something with his life. We can barely make out his dad’s face because of the sun beating down on the camera:

This is just another of many shots that illustrates the dynamic among Ben and his parents. They are blinding and suffocating, constantly looking down and beating down, like the sun in this shot.

Speaking of the sun, I wanted to briefly mention the motif of tans I noticed in this film. It seems every single character has a tan. In the same scene with the sun, we see how much color Ben’s back has. And by the midpoint of the film, we are pretty familiar with Mrs. Robinson’s tan lines. These tans seem to be another artifact of the cloying life that Ben has become disillusioned to. They indicate a social pressure for good looks and the presence of leisure in the middle class life, as everyone seems to have the free time to lay down and get a tan.

The last cinematographic technique I wanted to point out is the use of dramatic zoom such as in this shot of Mrs. Robinson, if you remember:

Right after Ben comes out of Elaine’s room, we have a closeup of Mrs. Robinson’s face, and then it zooms out into this shot. It reminds me of the zooms in Kubrick’s filmography. From what I have seen, I think many filmmakers do not utilize these zooms because they are very dramatic and call attention to themselves. I don’t know why, but I love these zooms. I think it may be because it makes the moment feel very important. When these zooms are used effectively, it is never in a shot with action. It is during a quiet moment with no movement. Something serious just happened, and this is the moment of realization. I think it is the stillness of such a grave moment, combined with the camera movement which builds intensity, that makes this technique so immersive for me.

We talked a lot last week about the role of women in Hitchcock’s films and so on, but in our discussion of “The Graduate” we didn’t touch on the topic nearly as much. In fact, I think the relationship between Ben and Elaine is very interesting. It was mentioned in class that “The Graduate” is a romantic comedy; I won’t argue with the comedy part, but I can’t say I found anything about this film romantic. After all, what really happens in their relationship? First Ben takes Elaine to a strip club, making her visibly upset, and then he reveals that he had been having sex with her mother. Then he stalks her all the way to her school and continues to stalk her even after she leaves school. You could say that he is doing the right thing because she says she loves him in her letter, but all I kept thinking was why. Why would Elaine like Ben at all if that was the impression she got of him?

At first I thought this was a classic case of the beautiful, smart girl inexplicably falling in love with the sad, broody male protagonist. They even made Elaine’s fiance an obvious asshole to make Ben seem like a better alternative (he’s really not). And yet, the more I thought about it the more I realized that Elaine does have something to gain from Ben. That is, rebellion. The two do have a conversation after leaving the strip club after all, and they seem to have similar thoughts about their futures (though again, I don’t think having a chat over some French fries exactly balances out the fact that he had sex with her mother). Both of them want to get out from underneath their parents’ thumbs, and hooking up is one way of doing that. It’s notable to me that Elaine only starts calling back to Ben when she looks at her parents’ and fiance’s angry reactions. She goes with him to piss off her family, and maybe she doesn’t even like him so much as she likes the idea of him. And maybe Ben’s feelings for Elaine are the same.

This idea coupled with the film’s final scene paint a pretty bleak picture for the end of the movie. But frankly, I prefer this interpretation to the idea that Elaine and Ben genuinely love each other. Their relationship is way too rushed and full of too many complications that can’t be realistically looked past. And frankly, Ben is a creep.

The Graduate ends with this scene of Ben interrupting the wedding of Elaine and the generic frat guy that she went on one date with. It’s a great way for the film to end, thematically speaking. For one, Elaine has been on exactly one date with both of these guys, but we root for Ben because he’s the protagonist of the movie and we naturally want to take his side. Plus, we know that he at least loves Elaine. The final shot of the movie shows how perfect the ending is. Ben and Elaine get on the bus and they’re so stoked that they ran away from the wedding and they’re glad to be together at least. But, as the shot goes on and on, they slowly realize that they don’t know each other, have just estranged Elaine’s entire family, and their situation is much less than ideal. Essentially, neither of them have any idea of what they’re doing. As “hello darkness my old friend” begins playing, the movie ends with the same humor that it had throughout the rest of it.

Now, that last scene that I linked above is SUPER important, because every movie that you’ve ever watched that has included a scene of someone interrupting a wedding to declare true love has ripped off that last part of The Graduate. Trust me, you’ve seen a move with that part in it. But here’s the thing, all of those movies have entirely missed the point of why that scene was poignant.

For one, besides Shrek, when have the romantic parts ended with the girl marrying a guy she doesn’t know? It doesn’t happen much. The movies show this successful relationship that is going up to the point of marriage and the girl throws it away for the guy doing a big romantic gesture. That’s not how love is supposed to work. Aren’t you supposed to marry the tried and true person over the guy you only know as the one doing those weird things? Essentially, why is a girl going to throw away work she put into both a relationship and planning a wedding for “Hey here’s a song we both like”? She probably wouldn’t.

The second part I’m uppity about is that part after the wedding. So, you’re a woman who just threw away two years of her life with a dude and a multi-thousand dollar investment in an awesome wedding to be with Owen Wilson. Doesn’t that weigh on your soul a bit? Why is it a happy ending? Essentially, the guy just came along and ruined a girl’s relationship with the groom’s entire family and also strained it with her own family. That’s not a happy ending! That’s kinda shitty really.

You know what makes me the most upset? Wayne’s World 2 has what is essentially a shot-for-shot remake of this scene and falls into the same traps that other movies do. And I love the Wayne’s World movies.