"MRS. ROBINSON" AND THE GRADUATE'S LAST THIRTY SECONDS

TONY T. - Managing Editor, 2nd Year, Economics and Data Science

"Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?/Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you..."

“The Graduate is a film that is redeemed by its last thirty seconds.”

This is a sentiment I’ve heard a lot and assume to be widespread, although with the caveat that I don’t profess to having a comprehensive grip on the worldwide consensus regarding the classic 1967 film; afterall, I am but a product of my circumstances, and, filtering out the majority of the zoomer generation who know of the film only tangentially via meme compilations featuring the classic Simon & Garfunkel song (prominently featured within the film) “The Sound of Silence”, I am merely observing an opinion which I have personally heard from many a film nerd of my age bracket, which is obviously but a fraction of the total proportion of the individuals who have seen this film, given how it is seemingly targeted at a cohort literally older than my grandparents.

I think I’m getting ahead of myself, though. While the premise of that statement isn’t exactly false, I believe it’s rather misleading in terms of providing a descriptive thesis as to why it is a great film. The Graduate, is, in many ways, a film which hints towards its main premise whilst still keeping its true value somewhat concealed. To me, the last scene of The Graduate is a reverberation of certain anxieties built up in the viewer throughout the film’s runtime.

Centered around Benjamin Braddock, a recent college graduate deluded with life returning to his parents’ home, The Graduate is a reflection of its era and setting. Released following a wave of California Dreamers in the post-World War Two era, protagonist Benjamin Braddock’s apathy is in many ways indicative of a generational culture shift. For the majority of its length, The Graduate is simply a narrative of his complex romantic ties with his far-older neighbor, Mrs. Robinson, and her daughter Elaine, who is around Benjamin’s age. In fact, this surface level love triangle narrative is actively uncomfortable at times, especially under a modern lens. Its vast critical acclaim (along with my personal enjoyment), though, comes with the way the film presents certain sequences, which directly tie into the tone of its ending.

Simon & Garfunkel’s “Mrs. Robinson”, produced specifically for the film and used sporadically in the leadin to its climax, is particularly memorable in part due to its namesake and how her actions seemingly contradict the song’s tone. The lyrics particularly call upon a cultural nostalgia of an even further bygone era. This is most evident with its references to Joe DiMaggio and Jesus Christ as two venerated figures, perhaps to tie that reminscinence to both an idealized America and the Judeochristian values that are generally attached to that perspective. What makes it striking, though, is that Mrs. Robinson’s main appearances in the film are in montage sequences of an able-bodied educated young man simply wasting his time, as well as committing adultery. There’s a sort of irony embodied by this contrast, with the simultaneous calls for traditionalism matched with angst-filled hedonism and actions which would be considered uncouth at the least under that perspective. These montages are probably a representation of the film’s thesis. Considering the era within which this film was released, especially with the rambunctious Baby Boomer generation coming of age, I think that it implied a struggle for meaning. The age demographic The Graduate targeted, were likely too young to have remembered the second World War, thus only hearing about traditionally American stories of triumph over evil with little understanding as to context. One has to disassociate their understanding of “Boomers” in a modern context and remember that the Baby Boomers, in their era, were very much a generation of counterculture and rebellion. Hence, the disjointed feeling of a song wistfully looking at an idealized America overlaid with the then-present America is extremely powerful.

With this in mind The Graduate’s finale is less a thesis statement and more a reiteration of the main point. Following a grand gesture where Benjamin intervenes in Elaine’s marriage (itself taking place after drama with Mrs. Robinson), the final scene of the film takes place as they escape on a bus. The camera lingers on the two, seemingly running off to be happily ever after, as their ebullient joy slowly turns to anxious trepidation regarding whether their actions were sensical. The scene is certainly memorable due to using a long cut and realistic expressions to reflect the implications of the characters’ actions, albeit its main point is already made – the finale merely states it more clearly. Just as the earlier scene accompanied by “Mrs. Robinson” juxtaposes Americanism and a 1960s counterculture, the extended shot of Benjamin and Elaine indicates that their escape may not be as they idealized it to be.

It is this underlying narrative, within a nation struggling to find meaning in a prosperous age, which transforms a somewhat banal script about true love into a classic. In spite of the decades that have elapsed since its release, The Graduate remains impactful - just as the film longs for a bygone America, a modern viewer themself views the bygone time of the Baby Boomers’ post-adolescence. As modern advances in technology paradoxically create greater interconnectivity whilst also perpetuating greater feelings of solitude among groups that feel othered, the pre-Internet era is becoming increasingly pedestalized. One could easily compare the wave of older millennials looking back at the “good ole 90s” to The Graduate’s lamentation within “Mrs Robinson”, that “Joltin’ Joe has left and gone away”. In both instances, a disillusioned generation ignorantly looks to the past for heroism and value due to a perceived lack of such qualities in their reality. Because of the universality of the film’s anxieties, its finale remains powerful in presenting a pair of youths questioning their actions in an era which idealizes tradition in name only.