To say the film "The Graduate", it must not leave the year it was born. In the United States in the 1960s, political turmoil, the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War, people's dissatisfaction with the government and society reached an unprecedented height. The new generation of young people has grown up and is out of tune with the previous generation in terms of ideology, behavior and style, and their performance is radical, rebellious, depraved and confused. Compared with our society's evaluation of the youth of the 1980s and 1990s over the past decade or so, it is no worse than that. for the beat generation.
This generation of young people advocates freedom and breaking the rules, and often behaves deviant, hippies, sexual liberation, drugs, and violence are full of this era. As a digression, the reason why "Forrest Gump" in the 1990s was so highly rated, winning "The Shawshank Redemption" at the Oscars, was not only because of the personal fate of Forrest Gump he told, but also a humorous self-mockery. The way it tells the fate of America's difficult growth in the era that includes this quagmire. Therefore, it is against such a social background that the film "The Graduate" appeared in a timely manner, creating a generation of classics.
This is a movie about a college graduate. In an unprecedentedly confused society, this young man is also in a period of confusion about his personal destiny. After graduation, the actor Benn played by Dustin Hoffman is extremely concerned about his future. Dazed, in chaos. Life is full of boredom and anxiety.
In Benn's state, he has experienced two relationships, one is an affair with Mrs. Robinson, and the other is to pursue Elaine, the daughter of Mrs. Robinson.
At first, Benn, under the stunning seduction of Mrs. Robinson, was somewhat submissive, but still able to maintain a refusal attitude. But in the boring time, Benn quickly took the initiative to date Mrs. Robinson. In the days of cheating with Mrs. Robinson, Ben went from being cautious to losing interest, and the change was too fast. This is a relationship that is driven by loneliness and confusion to seek comfort. It's just that Mrs. Robinson only wanted physical satisfaction. It was clear that Ben also wanted spiritual fit, and he was still confused.
The process of Ben's falling in love with Elaine is doomed to be twists and turns, after a fierce ideological struggle. During the period, the unfaithful relationship with his mother was exposed, and it was a fatal blow, but Benn finally broke through the shackles of his thoughts, disregarding the moral judgment, and the prodigal son did not turn back and pursued Elaine. At the last moment of the movie, the almost crazy Ben rushed into Elaine's wedding scene and snatched the bride. Even in the face of everyone's scolding and obstruction, Ben still resolutely dragged the bride onto the bus and walked away. The movie also came to an abrupt end at this moment.
Such sadomasochistic plots still have a certain impact compared to the dog-blood TV series that we are flooding the screen with today.
This does seem to be a great identity, not a problem, society, not a problem, status, not a problem, age, not a problem, experience, not a problem, a love story, but the scene where the film ends abruptly always makes people think, it seems to be a problem. The last scene of "The Graduate" is a classic scene in film history. After thinking about it over and over again, I always feel that there is no end to it. Benn, who has been running around for days, and Elaine, who is wearing a scruffy wedding dress, sit on the last seat of the bus, and sometimes look back. Looking at the road that just ran wildly outside the back window, sometimes they looked at each other with embarrassed smiles, and sometimes a ecstatic smile appeared as if in a daze, and finally turned to face the camera, and the confusion came out from their eyes again.
This last abrupt stop seems to tell us that the beautiful and resolute love between them seems to be slackening at this moment; they will also face a series of problems and deeper confusion; Elopement is more like a release of human nature that has been suppressed for a long time, more like a declaration of war against tradition and the previous generation against society. In short, for this love, the meaning of doping is always more than itself.
In fact, this is a personal growth story of a graduate who breaks the shackles from immaturity and confusion in a confused society and pursues the freedom and love he wants. The mental journey of active struggle for love. This is the focus of the film's expression, and love is just the way of expression, it's just the embellishment of its growth.
"The Graduate" never tells you that you can get love as long as you pursue it, never tells you that there is always someone in your life you are destined to fall in love with, it just depicts a typical middle class in American society at that time A graduate from a class family, and two relationships growing up. The male protagonist of "500 Days with Summer" will be wrong, but we can only say that we are all too young.
It is worth mentioning that in the film "The Graduate", there are two background episodes that have been passed down to this day, "The Sound of Silence" and "Scarborough Fair", which are extremely durable and classic. Among them, "The Sound of Silence" was recently heard in the domestic film "Fighting War".
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