Analysis of The Graduate Movie - Essay Example

Unit The Graduate The era of 1960s witnessed the departure of movies from political issues to the countercultural points of view. During this time, the youth movements shifted from political interests that had dominated earlier movies especially during the time of the world wars and colonialism. Critics analyze this period as a period of awakening the new American cinema that characterized the explicit treatment of intercultural barriers. The film area concentrated on social issues that involved explicit treatment of psychological concepts as sexual issues. The film critics came up with reasons that could justify their reference of this period as a period of sex and violence. The Graduate supports these arguments by ignoring all the political upheavals and concentrating on the topics of adultery and sex as the major themes of his work. The Graduate movie ignored the political movements that were taking place in the1960s. This was a time when many of the European wars were coming to an end. There were many political activists, civil rights advocates, feminist movements among others. Example of these movements included the Vietnam anti-war movements. The Graduate focuses on issues other than the political culture. It concerns with the generational gap while ignoring the counterculture movements. It attacks the film race by applying the Hollywood style; thus, causing the youth of a generation to re-examine their future by altering their course of lives. The Graduate also ignored the activist movements such as anti-racism; this indicates that the author was explicitly interested in issues of sex and adultery (Schuth 47). Dr. Benjamin argued that America had entered into a period of middle-class affluence that gave parents a chance to raise their children with greater permissiveness than before. The Graduate movie focused on the adult race. Its main focus is to criticize the adult insensitivity to the graduate. The adults are portrayed as vulgar and crass. It condemns the parents’ inability to raise their children in a pervasive way. The upper social class is portrayed as stereotyped and corrupt beyond their understanding of the meaning of true love. This is further illustrated in the movie by the character of Mrs. Robinson. When Benjamin runs away with Ms. Robinson on the wedding day, Mrs. Robinson is cross with her and openly tells her daughter that her decision is wrong. However, the love that Elaine is big enough to blind her from her mother’s arguments. This argument results in Mrs. Robinson’s slap on her daughter. On the evening of his graduation, Benjamin is seen staring at the aquarium and his father comes to him with an interest of getting him downstairs. His father is not interested in having an insight of his son’s future despite having hinted to him that he is concerned with making his future different. The Graduate style conforms to the classical period Hollywood style (Belton 10). The film uses colors, objects and costumes in a way that unify the story at the same time provide insight to the story. The personalities of the characters of the characters, their relationships and the background to the play are presented using colors. Colors are used to hit or suggest a dialogue in the movie. The colors also represent the social status of the Californian milieu. The airplane seats that Benjamin sits on are white which stands for cold and sterile environment. The use of color, objects and costumes in the movie may also signify aloneness. Benjamin, although in a crowd that is playing loud music is faced with loneliness to the point of hearing “The Sound of Silence.” His credits are superimposed in the white papers while he is wearing a gray suit with a white shirt. He is carrying a black suitcase and a white court. The motif of color goes beyond Benjamin’s dressing code up to his house. At the party, his mother is dressed in white is while he and his father are dressed in gray, black, and white. Additionally, Benjamin wears golden brown in his later scene which connects him to Elaine. Color use in the film goes ahead to seduce Benjamin among other functions. There are things used in the play that have symbolic meanings. Benjamin is given everything in terms of materials. He is given a sport car and driving suit. All these things symbolize a rich culture that that believes in consumption. In the party, he is given the word of success which is said to be plastics. All the given items are “plastic.” Other symbolic things include Mrs. Robinson’s dress code that shows her animal like behavior throughout the film. The use of keys that Mrs. Robinson gives Benjamin to drive her home has a symbolic meaning; the keys will take her to her house at the same time take Benjamin home. Aside from these, the throwing away of the keys symbolize Mrs. Robinson’s cruel nature towards Benjamin (Gerald and Bruce 40). The film shows that a counterculture will not succeed. The characters violate the social norms by violating the middle class culture. Elaine and Benjamin’s actions seem to deviate from the middle class social expectations. Elaine accepts to leave with Benjamin after Carl’s has made his vows to her. The author demonstrates that the counterculture is impossible. Their marriage is not consummated neither is it legalized thus proving that moral obligations carry equal importance as true love and honesty which win even when cultural barriers block the way. Benjamin creates a scene at the wedding ceremony thus representing a compelling force that destroyed the holiness of marriage in America. The strong love that Benjamin has for Elaine compels him to use a gun in order to take away Elaine. He even bars the doors using the cross to prevent the people inside from reaching them. A placement code that was passed in 1968 gave more freedom to the films. The rating system classified that The Graduate as a good enough for the public view. This is a time when the Hollywood movies came into prominence and focused on issues of sex and violence (Belton 12) . The Graduate film which had the characteristic feature of the classical Hollywood movies also found a chance to display the generational friction and sex more freely than ever before. Intergenerational tensions are recognized in The Graduate. The conflicts that exist in the movie provide an insight on the intergenerational conflicts. The youth strongly disapprove the societal standards demonstrating that love can overcome anything. Despite Mrs. Robinson’s efforts to stop the relationship between her daughter and Benjamin, they go ahead to make a choice of being together. Elaine and Benjamin do not care about Carl’s feelings or listen to Mrs. Robinson’s argument. The conflicts exist between a parent and child as well as among the children. The graduate also recognizes the existence of adultery. Adultery causes intergenerational tensions between parents and the children. The Graduate makes this clear by using the characters. Mrs. Robinson is an adulterous woman who is not only interested in having sexual affairs outside marriage, but goes out with a man who qualifies to be his own son. This leads to a conflict between Mrs. Robinson and his daughter Elaine as well as the conflict between Elaine and Benjamin. Feminist movements and ideas are demonstrated in the movie, The Graduate. This is demonstrated by Mrs. Robinson, who has faced frustrations from her marriage and family. In order find a solution to her marital problems, Mrs. Robinson gets involved in an extramarital affair with Benjamin. Her wild and cruel personality represents her frustrations. The adultery, however, makes Mrs. Robinson lose both her daughter and her husband. The Graduate draws its styles from the New French wave. Nichol’s film brought change by using films with visual films on the screen. He uses styles that apply objects, colors and elements. The characteristic use of the songs and musical elements that deviated from the Hollywood movies rarely applied styles like colors are used in the film. Additionally, The Graduate film gave an explicit treatment of sex more than ever before (Hollywood Renaissance 1964 – 76, 461). Conclusively, the film sector has witnessed several changes. The earlier films focused on the political and cultural issues that existed in the society. The renaissance period witnessed a shift from a focus on political life to the contagious issue of sex and love. The society had earlier viewed such films as unethical but with the changes in the film classification boards, many authors could freely express the subjects that focused on issues outside politics. The Graduate movie is one of those that focused on social classes, sex and love. The author of The Graduate applies styles that distinguish his work from the Hollywood movies. Work cited Belton, John. The 1960s: The Counterculture Strikes Back. American Cinema/American Culture. 4th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2013. 341-363. Print. Gerald, M. and Bruce F. Kawin, Hollywood Renaissance: 1964-1976. A Short History of the Movies. 6th ed., Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon, 1992. 461-469. Print Hollywood Renaissance1964–76.Retrieved from file:///C:/Users/admin/Downloads/1037364_hollywood_renaissance.pdf on 20th March 20, 2014 Schuth, H. Wayne. The Graduate. Mike Nichols, Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1978. 45-63. 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