Erika Gregorio

The Graduate
1) Relate what was discussed in class or the text to the
screening.
The Graduate depicts the story of a just graduated guy. Benjamin,
who just graduated, is back home. His parents decide to throw
him a party for his so far major achievement. During this party,
Benjamin was not feeling confortable. He does not like the idea of
having a graduation
party. Most of the
people in the party
are old who asked him
what is he going to do
next. He does not
know, so he tries to
avoid them and go back to his room. Once in his room, he meets
Mrs. Robinson. This is the start of a lustful adventure.
Mrs. Robinson objective is to seduce Benjamin. At first, Benjamin
tries to avoid any temptation encounter with Mrs. Robinson.
However, Benjamin finally gives in, and calls Mrs. Robinson to a
hotel. The affair begins.
Seeing that Benjamin is not doing anything, except eat, rest, be at
the pool, and go out, his parents ask him to go out with the
Robinsons daughter who is in town. He does not accept in
beginning, for he promised Mrs. Robinson that he would not go
out with her daughter. After a couple of tries from his parents,
Benjamin approves to ask Elaine out. Benjamin is decided to treat
Elaine bad, but after seeing her cry he explains everything to her
and kisses her.
Subsequently, Elaine learns her mothers affairs and decides to go
back to New York. Benjamin goes after her. Once in New York He
tries to get Elaine back and explains everything that happened.
Elaine, who feels something for Benjamin forgives him. However,
she decides to marry a future doctor. They dont get to marry
because Benjamin got on time and stops the wedding.
The Graduate was one of the first true youth rebellion movies of
all time. This movie was written by Buck Henry and Calder
Willingham, and fully directed by Mike Nichols. As a result of
having produced a new masterpiece movie, he won an Academic
Awards as the best director for the Graduate. Also the Graduate
was nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best
Supporting Actress, Best Screenplay, and Best Cinematography.

According to the text and the class lecture, The Graduate is a
modern expressionist film, for it has obvious camera and cutting.
This movie stands out, particularly for its shots, sound and editing
used. It is very obvious to the viewer to realize that the
soundtracks overlaps scene, for example the sound starts at one
scene and ends in another. The cutting is also very well perceived
and Nichols used it as time progression in other words as to show
the course of time. And example of this is the cuts scenes in the
hotel, when Benjamin opens the door of the bathroom to go in
then he opens it to go out, you can tell are different scenes for the
way he is dressed.
2) Find a related article and summarize the content.
The Graduate (1967)
http://www.filmsite.org/grad.html

According to this article, the graduate helped to set in motion a
new era of film-making. This movie shows comedy and also
questions a lot societys values, referring to the materialistic
aspect. It also says that this movie is the second one of Mike
Nichols, who was and still be considered as one new talent in the
American film, he also won the Academy Award for being an
excellent director among others. However, he is not the only one
who won awards but the actors in the movie won awards as well.
The article also touches the main themes of the story. It says that
they are innocence, seduction, confusion, betrayal, corruption, and
materialist people.
This film has being adapted for stage, and premiered on
Broadway in 2002. It also says that most of us are unaware that
the last scene where Benjamin
runs to prevent the wedding was
originally a scene from a silence
film that was shot in 1924, called
Girl Shy. The rest of the article
focuses on a brief description of
the movie.
3) Apply the article to the film screened in class.

This articles serves as a compliment to the film The Graduate, for
the author of the article gives in depth insights of the themes of
the story. He says that the movies themes are innocence, the
innocence could be perceived from Benjamin, for he is being
confused, seduced, and corrupted by Mrs. Robinson, who is trying
to trap him in her sinful world. Another sign of innocence is from
Elaine, who is lied by her mother, she believed that Benjamin
raped her mother, people who have watched this movie knows
that this is the silliest lie.
The author also mentions materialistic people; he refers to them
as plastic people. Benjamin is expected to look for a job and earn
lot of money or go to grad school but do something that will make
him a successful man. According to the lecture in class and this
article, this movie has had a great impact on Hollywood, for it was
one of the first movies that show the major changes Hollywood
was having by that time. Awards were won as a result of the
quality of the movie. This awards served as proved that in fact its
a movie that belongs to be a part of the American Film History and
also example of the new age in Hollywood.

4) Write a critical analysis of the film.
The Graduate belongs to my list of favorite movies. It is a great
film and I believe that every college student should watch it for we
will graduate, eventually. After watching this movie and being
just weeks from graduation this movie has made think a great
deal. The question that it brings is, you are finished so whats
next? What do you really want to do next? Benjamin is not sure,
he is not the only one, most students go through the same. The
shots that I cannot avoid mentioning that captured me and I
believe were the greatest were the one in the hotel and the one in
Elaines room. Both shot were the mirrors reflection. One is when
Mrs. Robinson is for the first time seated in the bed and asked
Benjamin to help her undress, the whole shot was a reflection in
the mirror from the actual scene. The second shot I loved was
when Mrs. Robinson shuts Elaines room door for the first time
and suddenly Benjamin turns his head around. The illusion of the
head turning around in the shot is amazing, for you see the
reflection of Benjamin turning his head in the mirror but its
amazing that you dont get to see the camera, why? Because it is a
straight to the face shot (or at least it seems) and it is film from a
mirrors reflection. Another shot that I cannot go without
mentioning is the cutting of shots to make an illusion of the course
of time. There is so much techniques that makes Mike Nichols a
very unique director, but the camera person also deserves our
veneration.
CHECKLIST FOR PLAGIARISM
1) ( x ) I have not handed in this assignment for any other class.
2) (x ) If I reused any information from other papers I have
written for other
classes, I clearly explain that in the paper.
3) ( x ) If I used any passages word for word, I put quotations
around those
words, or used indentation and citation within the text.
4) ( x ) I have not padded the bibliography. I have used all sources
cited in
the bibliography in the text of the paper.
5) (x ) I have cited in the bibliography only the pages I personally
read.
6) (x ) I have used direct quotations only in cases where it could
not be
stated in another way. I cited the source within the paper and in
the
bibliography.
7) (x ) I did not so over-use direct quotations that the paper lacks
interpretation or originality.
8) ( x ) I checked yes on steps 1-7 and therefore have been fully
transparent
about the research and ideas used in my paper.
Name: Erika Gregorio Date: 05/4/14