Ending Scene Analysis - The Graduate (1967)

Having been released in the midst of counter-culture exuberance and the rebellious free love era of the 1960's, The Graduate is well known as a cultural American staple with themes well fitting for the decade it was made. With a young college graduate with his whole life ahead of him as our protagonist, we follow Benjamin Braddock as he goes through a series of crazy events all stemming from his desire to be different and rebel from the carefully cut out expectations of his over-the-top parents and other authority figures. This hidden desire for rebellion leads him through a rather clumsy sexual affair with Mrs. Robinson, a married older friend of his parents, before he eventually focuses his attention on Elaine, Mrs. Robinson's daughter. Though, Mrs. Robinson very strongly forbids Ben from seeing Elaine, in a fit of rebellion, he does so anyway. This eventually trickles down to the unfortunate circumstances that lead to Elaine finally finding out about Ben's affair with her mother and the eventual falling out of the Robinson family. Despite this, Ben continues to press for the controversial and problematic as he pursues Elaine and attempts to convince her into a rushed marriage. Ben finds out a little too late that the Robinsons have already arranged a marriage for Elaine with a young man with a suitable future and income. In a fit, Ben seeks out Elaine at the church where the marriage is happening, successfully crashes it, fights off the families of both Elaine and her groom with a cross and whisks away Elaine to a public bus, laughing all through out.

However, the very last shots of the film are no doubt, the absolute most important. Within the last couple of runs of the camera, we see the laughing couple sitting at the back of the bus slowly calm themselves, their smiles fading as they look around awkwardly and then to each other with a tension that seems too uncomfortable to be suited for a happy ending of a quirky comedy. The sad tune of Simon and Garfunkle's "The Sound of Silence" plays as they force themselves to smile once more, but fail, falling into a pair of sullen melancholy looks that avoid the camera's gaze with a sense of 'what have we done' and 'what now' forcing themselves into the minds of the audience without a single word of dialogue, It speaks volumes on the decisions made by the protagonist and his supposed new found love through out the film, on whether the paths they have chosen were truly what they wanted at the end of the day, or if they were all just impulsive instances of rebellion against the authority figures in their lives; both Ben's and Elaine's parents that were hardly ever truly thought or fleshed out. It's bizarre because an intelligent adult viewer would be fully aware of the bizarreness of Ben and Elaine's decision making, Ben's stubborness in persuing a girl that hardly wants anything to do with him, his self imposed need to marry her only after one date, Elaine's acceptance of Ben's marriage proposal despite his affair with her own mother; it all seems very rushed and backwards, yet it isn't until the last few seconds of the film that we become aware that it was all purposefully written to be that bizarre and clumsy (not just a fault of bad writing), because the protagonists do finally become self aware of it all with the solemn wordless looks they give to each other, a silent solidarity that clearly reads 'we screwed up, didn't we?'.

Extra Credit : Evaporating Boarders

On Monday evening, I swung by the MOMA and attended the screening for Evaporating Boarders. I sat in the darkness of the theatre, not exactly sure of what to expect, but as the film went on, I was honestly surprised as to what I was seeing, considering its subject on racial tensions half way across the world that is not unlike the racial divide that is going on within U.S. boarders today.

In the city of Cyprus, immigrants travel into its boarders with the hopes to escape war, violence and extreme poverty. According to a number of interviews shown in the film, even while in the city, these immigrants still find extreme difficulties getting by as jobs are terribly scarce and money is hard to come by. As a default, these immigrants are forced to rely on money funded by the government, which by what can be seen in their home life is hardly enough, but better than living out on the streets with nothing at all. However, there is a huge conflict in which the citizens of Cyprus have taken notice of the big wave of immigrants coming into the city and have thus created a huge outcry of defiance against the so called 'foreigners' and their government funded welfare. The film shows that a lot of the opinions of these conservative protesters are hugely based on ignorance and the spread of false information, but it doesn't appear to slow down the strength of the anti-immigrant movement.

It was shocking just how similar the opinions of the conservative groups of people in Cyprus mirrored the opinions of many Republicans and Tea Party members here in the U.S. who seem to be very against the immigration of peoples, particular from Latin America, claiming to have taken jobs away from 'struggling Americans who can't find jobs for themselves'. There is also a defiance against the welfare system, all hugely based on ignorance.

It's just surprising simply because while the racial tensions within the United States do stem largely from an overall racist history, xenophobia does not seem to be something that is apparent within the U.S. alone.  It is rather eye opening and it gives Americans a much broader view in racial politics across the globe.

Final Project: Short Film

The Calling from Samantha Bonnet on Vimeo.