A Film Analysis Of The Film 'The Graduate'

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Semester Two Research Paper- Film Analysis of The Graduate Benjamin Braddock has just graduated college. and expectations are high for him to succeed. Upon arriving home, he’s immediately confronted with a crowd of his parents, their friends, all of whom insist on knowing about Benjamin’s plans for the future. Benjamin, however, has no clue, only a vague desire for it to be different. Desperately trying to be alone, he gets roped into driving Mrs. Robinson, the wife of his father’s business partner, home. This exchange eventually escalates to an affair. In fear of their son wasting away in the family pool, evoked by Benjamin’s growing indifference, Mr. and Mrs. Braddock urge him to go on a date with Elaine, Mrs. Robinson’s daughter. He reluctantly goes on a date with…show more content…
The Graduate, directed by Mike Nichols, became the top grossing film of 1968, for it embodied the concerns and growing tensions of the time period-its conformity, its superficiality, its defiance. Even today, it remains one of the most influential films, capturing one’s own ambiguity toward the future, catalyzed by the barbed wire confinement of a rigid, plastic society. While some viewers of this movie might falsely mistake this film as a poor love story, The Graduate aims to do much more. Benjamin’s story is one of someone attempting to cross over from passiveness to activeness, of someone searching for authenticity within a sea of artificiality. As the film progresses, this intent becomes increasingly more futile. The Graduate, consequently, censures the inescapable, materialistic lifestyle of the 1960s, focusing on society’s changing values and

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