The Graduate

"Mrs. Robinson, I think you're trying to seduce me...Mrs. Robinson, aren't you trying to seduce me?" "Would you like me to seduce you?" "I'm going home now", one of the most memorable lines in the history of films comes from the 1967 film The Graduate. Starring Dustin Hoffman as Benjamin Braddok, Anne Bancroft as Mrs. Robinson, and Katherine Ross as Elaine, this eventual love triangle becomes one of lust versus love but also adds that pinch of comedy to lighten the mood.

When Benjamin Braddok returns from college, he is consistently hounded with the question, "What are doing next?", and he states "Drifting...because it's comfortable". Now this could be taken many ways but as we see throughout the next couple months and years of young Ben's life, he is drifting but not as comfortably as he would like us to think. Mrs. Robinson enters the film when she asks Ben to drive her home after his party, so as any good gentleman would do, he did. Little did he know that there was more than bourbon on the rocks waiting in the bar. Mrs. Robinson tells him to come in side, he follows. Mrs. Robinson asks him what he wants to drink, he states bourbon. Mrs. Robinson asks him to come upstairs to Elaine's room, he starts walking up the stairs. It is here in Elaine's room that we learn what Mrs. Robinson really has in mind. She tells Ben that she finds him attractive and that she's available whenever he is. Availability is not her problem. The first time they do the dirty (well at least for the late 1950's, early 1960's) is at the local hotel and the room clerk asks him, "Are you here for an affair sir?" and Braddok panics and stammers over his words and says, "What?" shocked and scared that somone knows. But the affair the innocent room clerk meant was a party that was being held. Braddok laughs it off and states that he only has a toothbrush with and gets his room key.

After a couple months of the affair, Elaine Robinson returns home for a while before heading off to Berkely College. This is when Mrs. Robinson goes off the deep end and tells Ben that he must never take her out on a date but does he listen? No, of course not, he's Benjamin Braddok. Braddok eventually falls head over heels for Elaine and this upsets Mrs. Robinson to the point where she tells Elaine about Ben but puts a twist and says he raped her. Stupid Elaine, she believed her mother and left Ben to live with his thoughts. Smart but quirky Ben, follows Elaine to college and kind of stalks her to eventually trap her and tell her his side of the story. Of course, a week later they hook up because Elaine believes him but does not tell him that she is already engaged and to be married. Braddok finds this out almost a little too late but finds out which church Elaine is getting married at and again, stalks her down. He breaks into the church and the last scene we see is that of Ben yelling and Elaine screaming, her fiance yelling, Mrs. Robinson slap Elaine across the face, and Ben and Elaine run out, hop on a bus, and drive away.

Yes, all of the above is true but there is a follow up movie. The 2005 film Rumor Has It, starring Jennifer Aniston, Shirley MacLaine, Kevin Costner, and Mark Ruffalo, we learn that a famous movie filmed in the 1960's, The Graduate, was based on a true life story. No one had ever learned who this family was or how much of the story was factual but Jennifer Aniston's character, Sarah, knew something was not right with her and her family. Sarah eventually finds out that she is right about her quirky family and learns that The Graduate was written about the love triangle between her grandmother, Shirley MacLaine, and her mother who passed away thirty years ago. This follow up to The Graduate was the true closing we needed. The audience needed a sense that everyone's family is messed up but in the end it is possible to find true love even after you've had many problems.

I gave both of these movies a 9 out of 10 on my rating skill. Both kept us laughing and in suspense as we never knew what to expect from any of the characters. Shirley MacLaine is amazing and Kevin Costner is the best person to play a still sick-minded man. Anne Bancroft is just the woman to act seducively and Dustin Hoffman has the perfect expression for a movie where he hardly spoke at all. "People talking without speaking", a line from the song The Sound of Silence, perfectly describes what Hoffman accomplished in this film.