(2016) The Graduate

I watched this film for the first time in class, and I thought I didn't understand Elaine because I've missed a few lines. After all, there must have been at least some reason for Elaine's decisions (even if it's just for the sake of the movie making sense.) Ben's motives weren't clear either, but if he were simply a young man desperate to marry his love without any further reason, that would have been, at worst, only banal. But it turns out (thanks to both rewatching and Roger Ebert) I didn't really miss anything. These two had simply no idea what they really wanted, and that might be the most important theme in The Graduate. Benjamin is so anxious about his future (and probably so frightened from Mr. And Mrs. Robinson's marriage) that he's adamant in marrying the first girl he falls in love with, although they don't even know each other. Meanwhile, Elaine is playing the (still) traditional female counterpart, remaining passive and clueless about what she should do, more or less accepting things as they come. She doesn't really have any reason to forgive Ben after the strip club or after his relationship with Mrs. Robinson is exposed, and neither her marrying nor leaving Carl was much of a decision either. Benjamin (probably along with Elaine) being “utterly unaware of his generation” is a nice touch that signifies that all this wasn't about the hippie problem; it wasn't exactly a cultural issue, but one that affected the whole generation. In fact, it's still relevant today – the way subsequent generations were thinking and living since has been essentially experimental. Their children are known as Generation X, then Gen Y and Z arrived, and they (we) still don't know what are we supposed to do about certain aspects of life. I also liked the symbolism of the church scene: Ben fighting with the cross and using it to banish the older generation's will is a statement that the old values are obsolete, yet the last scene ruthlessly exposes the lack of new ones.