Director: NICHOLS, MIKE
Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, Katharine Ross
Deceptively breezy and appealing, this film actually packs a
wallop. It was one of the first major films to use a pop
music soundtrack (composed by Paul Simon, performed by Simon
and Garfunkel). Secondly, it was one of the first genuinely
anti-establishment films ever made by Hollywood, though that
may not have been intended by its makers. Thirdly, the
ending is shockingly, stunningly open-ended.
Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) returns home from college
with a vaunted degree and no sense of purpose or meaning
whatsoever. He hangs around, frustrates his parents, and has
an affair with the wife of his father's business partner,
Mrs. Robinson. His parents pressure him to date Elaine, Mrs.
Robinson s daughter. He finally gives in, reluctantly, only
to
discover a powerful affinity with the young woman. He
decides to end his relationship with Mrs. Robinson and
pursue Elaine. This leads to a mad sequence of obstacles,
initiated by Mrs. Robinson informing Elaine about the
affair. Elaine breaks off the relationship and, pressured by
her parents, agrees to marry some shallow pre-med student,
but Ben interrupts the wedding, breaks into the church, and
drags her off, blocking the exit
with a large metal cross. They race away on foot, then jump
onto a city bus and make their way to the back seat. Here,
one expects, in the Hollywood Tradition, the music to rise
to signal happy ever after . Instead, the camera lingers on
their faces longer and longer and longer, past the point of
comfort. They look at each other sideways, shyly,
doubtfully. The implication is clear: their future is
uncertain, open, perhaps empty. It is
a wonderful, poignant expression of existential doubt. The
film completely undermines the values of the establishment ,
but balks at providing its own clear-cut solutions. It is
suggested, yes, the system is corrupt, but what can take its
place?
Mike Nichols was no revolutionary. I'm sure he thought he
had something "hip" on his hands, and maybe an intuitive
sensitivity to earth-shaking cultural changes that were
taking place in the 1960's. Dustin Hoffman's Benjamin is no
hippie. He is just unsure. When a friend of his father's
describes the career opportunities in plastics-- a
hilarious, twisted scene-- Benjamin is repelled, a response
that could not have been depicted ten years earlier. He
gives in to Mrs. Robinson, out a kind of aimless lust, but
he seems equally repelled by her. It is only when he
connects with Elaine, who also feels alienated and disgusted
with the world of her parents, that Benjamin comes to life.
The ending is a miracle. Why did Nichols choose to leave
the camera running, as Benjamin and Elaine shyly, doubtfully
look at each other, sitting in the back seat of a city bus.
It lingers and lingers. No music rises. No flourish. No
satisfied smiles. In the 60's, you would have called it "an
existential moment", for they seem to have been plunged into
painful self-actualization. They have just moved beyond the
mode of responding to forces around them, and, for the first
time, have to invent a future for themselves, and the movie
leaves you thinking that it's going to be painful.