Mother of All Cougars

#17—The Graduate

Marriage 50 years ago was a very male dominated institution. Men went to work and paid the bills, while women stayed home with the kids and took care of the house. Those roles have drastically changed obviously, but this was a time in our society that our grandparents lived through.  So when #17 on AFI’s Top 100 list was released in 1967, it sent ripples through male and female relationships that we are still feeling today. The Graduate flipped the sexual roles of male and females around and inadvertently defined a certain group of women even today.

Fresh from his graduation of college, Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman Rain Man) has no idea what to do with his life. It doesn’t help that he is pushed into a coming home party that he really doesn’t want to be a part of. So when the opportunity to leave his own party arises, Benjamin jumps at the chance and agrees to take family friend Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft The Miracle Worker) home. After arriving at her home, Mrs. Robinson convinces Benjamin to walk her inside and even have a drink with her. Of course, Mrs. Robinson has no intention of Benjamin leaving with just a drink, but would like something else from Benjamin entirely. A sexual affair begins between Mrs. Robinson and Benjamin, however, Benjamin soon finds out that Mrs. Robinson is not a woman that you should cross.

When I watched this movie, I really had to put myself in the mindset of the 1960s. An older woman seducing a younger man was not really heard of. Men were the dominate beings in any type of relationship with a woman and having that flipped upside down was a shock to a lot of people. Though, as the movie went on I started to see the movie as more of a character study of Mrs. Robinson. Mrs. Robinson was forced into marriage due to a pregnancy with a man that she didn’t love. So her only real way for ‘revenge’ is through her husband’s partner’s son, Benjamin. Of course Mrs. Robinson being dressed in animal print through most of the film helped clarify her ‘cougar’ status.

Anne Bancroft is very cold as Mrs. Robinson. Bancroft allows herself to only have a slim range of emotion when it comes to playing Mrs. Robinson and rightfully so. As I have said, she is in a loveless marriage out of wedlock and has grown older and bitter. Bancroft also does a glorious job subtly slipping from seductress to villainess. My only disagreement with film scholars and/or film students on this film is Hoffman’s performance. Through the first half of the film, Hoffman does show simple naivety and lovable awkwardness which was fantastic, but toward the last act of the movie I found Hoffman a tad annoying. I’m not sure if it is because of the choices that he makes or the fact that the second part of the film just seemed to drag a little, but in any case I just felt that Hoffman could have made Benjamin as likable as he did in the beginning of the film.

The Graduate is one of the first film jobs that legendary film director Mike Nichols (The Birdcage) took. Nichols does astonishing things with the camera in this film, especially when it comes to framing his shots. Nichols frames Benjamin in a way that allows the audience to experience his emotions with him and also gets the audience to view the world through Benjamin’s eyes. For example, the infamous shot one the movie poster. It is Mrs. Robinson’s leg bent upward with Benjamin in the background looking at it. The framing of the shot allows us to feel the enticement of Mrs. Robinson and what Benjamin must be thinking while looking at her bare leg.

The Graduate has a few humorous scenes and is definitely one film to see. The film is the start of ‘cougars’ to become acceptable in modern society. Fantasies for a lot of young men in 1967 probably started with Mrs. Robinson and now after seeing the film I can see why. Not particularly a good date movie, but a good film nonetheless. 

The Verdict: Worth Your Time