I just watched The Graduate last night and have some questions:
[ul]
[li]What was Mrs. Robinson’s motivation for seducing and having an affair with Ben? And why Ben in particular?[/li]
There’s a scene where it’s explained that she has an unhappy marriage, and that she wed only because Mr. Robinson got her pregnant. However, she doesn’t seem to be particularly emotionally needy. She never wants to talk to Ben; the one time he tries to start a conversation with her, she just offers curt responses. If she’s not getting love and attention from her husband, then she’s not seeking it from Ben either.
I don’t think the affair is just about the sex, either, since she doesn’t seem particularly horny. Her seduction of Ben is carried out so matter-of-factly. She doesn’t even react when Ben tries to grope or kiss her.
[li]Why did Elaine marry Carl when she was so quick to leave him at the altar? She knew perfectly well that Ben wanted to marry her, and was receptive to the idea. I can understand that her parents didn’t approve of Ben and would rather her marry Carl. But I don’t see how they could have forced her into it, since they would have had to force Carl as well. Why couldn’t she just tell Carl that she needed more tme to decide? Or why not run off to elope with Ben, as she eventually did anyway? Why do it at the last minute instead of after accepting Carl’s proposal, arranging the wedding, and marrying him?[/li][/ul]
Maybe some of these questions are answered in the book from which the film was adapted, but I haven’t read it.
As an aside, it was nice to catch a glimpse of Mr. Roper earlier in his property management career. I had no idea that before running that apartment building in Los Angeles he was landlord to a student residence in Berkeley.
She wasn’t horny. She was bored, and she considered Ben to be more of a plaything and a distraction from her Stepford life than a legitimate lover.
I last saw this twenty years ago, so I don’t remember the specifics, but really, it’s easy to force a girl like Elaine into an arranged marriage. They could have threatened to disinherit or even disown her unless she complied. Just remind her that she would be cut off from everything and everyone she knew without any survival skills, and she’d shut right up and go along with the plan.
Then again, I don’t think Elaine had a lot of experience asserting herself with her parents, and they probably wouldn’t have had to go this far. She was probably just going along with the flow until Ben showed up at the church and shocked her out of her dream world.
The Graduate is a great movie. I had to watch it twice before I realized how evil Mrs. Robinson was.
Because Ben’s over-the-top act at the church kind of snapped her out of the mental rut she’d been stuck in. She suddenly decided that she’d rather be free with Ben and an uncertain future than wind up rich, safe, and bored with a man she didn’t really love just like her mom had. That’s my impression of it, anyway.
Did you notice her (and Ben’s) face on the bus? She’s not too sure she did the right thing. Neither of them are. It’s not exactly a happily-ever-after ending, more of a “what the hell did I just do?” ending.
Cool. Guess I know the video I’m renting this weekend. I’m going to watch it on my own, though, 'cause I don’t want to give Mrs. Fresh any ideas. :dubious:
I don’t think Mrs. Robinson was really evil. I think she had become a very pitiable person who did things without ever really admitting to herself why. I got the impression that yes, it was about the sex for her, but also something more. The look on her face when she goads Ben into making love to her the first time is absolutely priceless. She longs for passion, which Ben has plenty of and she hardly any. She can’t seem to shake her poker face and so she uses Ben to feel the emotions she never lets herself feel anymore.
[QUOTE=psychonaut]
I just watched The Graduate last night and have some questions:[li]Why did Elaine marry Carl when she was so quick to leave him at the altar? She knew perfectly well that Ben wanted to marry her, and was receptive to the idea. I can understand that her parents didn’t approve of Ben and would rather her marry Carl. But I don’t see how they could have forced her into it, since they would have had to force Carl as well. Why couldn’t she just tell Carl that she needed more tme to decide? Or why not run off to elope with Ben, as she eventually did anyway? Why do it at the last minute instead of after accepting Carl’s proposal, arranging the wedding, and marrying him?[/li][/QUOTE]
My impression (last saw this film over 30 years ago!) was that when Elaine found out that Ben had been sleeping with her mother, she was disgusted and never wanted to see him again, and agreed to marry Carl on a severe rebound. Then Ben’s over-the-top behavior at the church reminded her of everything she loved about Ben (how down-to-earth and real he was) and everything she didn’t like about her family and social group (remember the flashes from her POV of all the angry faces of her family and friends). And so she fell back in love with Ben.
Fun fact: Nichols kept yelling at both of them to laugh better. Shouting, yelling, just trying to get them to laugh the right way. It happened enough times that, after they had finished laughing, they were so scared that they just looked blankly into the camera. Nichols liked it so much, he kept it, but it wasn’t written like that.
In the book, her attraction for Ben was partly physical in nature. The character was the All-American boy: handsome, tall, athletic, blond, etc. With the exception of age, Dustin Hoffman looked nothing like the Ben he portrayed from the novel.
[QUOTE=psychonaut]
I just watched The Graduate last night and have some questions:
[list]
[li]What was Mrs. Robinson’s motivation for seducing and having an affair with Ben? And why Ben in particular?[/li][/QUOTE]
Might she have sensed Ben’s nascent interest in her daughter, sensed it was becoming mutual, and decided to intervene in a very territorial/competitive manner?
No; in the film it’s clear that Elaine is away at school when Mrs. Robinson first seduces Ben. At that point Ben hasn’t seen Elaine since high school (three or four years).
The role was originally offered to Robert Redford, who definitely looked the part. He turned it down because he didn’t think he had the degree of naivity that Benjamin needed. Good thing for Hoffman.
I think the whole seduction was based on the fact that she loathed her husband for creating the empty, loveless existence she was living. It was about control and hurting Mr. Robinson. The fact that he didn’t know it wasn’t important. She was twisting the knife in his back in her mind.
That’s interesting- I heard a slightly different story about the ending- that Nichols purposely kept the camera running without saying “cut” because he wanted to get a very real “so what are we supposed to do now” kind of reaction from them, which would be the reaction they’d have after doing what they just did. Hmmm- OK, so we’re running off together. Um, what do we do now?
I’m teaching THE GRADUATE ( novel and film) this summer, and here’s some info (probably more than you want to know) and some links I found:
NYT article (BEFORE casting in '67) containing the followijng quote:
The biggest problem with The Graduate is casting the three main roles, according to Nichols and Turman. They are looking for a 22-year old boy to play Benjamin, a young girl to play Elaine, a Berkley student who is Benjamin’s romantic interest, and Mrs. Robinson, the “older woman” who covets Benjamin. “It’s the hardest thing I ever tried to cast,” said Nichols. “These people are so far removed from stock characters.”
Why was Nichols interested in Benjamin’s story? Part of the answer, he says, lies in Benjamin’s basic dilemma - that of a prosperous young man in contemporary America “who has every desirable object he could want - a young man who has just obtained an excellent education without knowing its purpose.”
The crux of the film is Benjamin’s emerging awareness that there is something totally wrong with his life. “Benjamin has been surfeited with objects,” the director said. “Even his girls are regarded as objects. Benjamin himself has become an object to his family. In the end the only thing that can save him is some uniquely personal experience - something to arouse his passion.”