In regards to: http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19970328/REVIEWS/703280304
Dear Mr. Ebert,
I am fully aware that "gods do not answer letters" (Updike, 1960), so for the sake of my own expression I'm writing this more for other people than you.
Regarding your 1997 re-review of The Graduate, I strongly disagree with almost all of what you say about the film. Not necessarily the impression it leaves you with, but how it represents a generation. Of course Benjamin Braddock is not a hero. He's not the heroic counter-culture revolutionary of the late 60's, but then again who was? There were 100,000 in San Francisco's "Summer of Love" in 1967; there were 500,000 people at Woodstock in 1969. What percentage of the actual youth population was that? Not every child in the 1960's was a hippie, a radical, an activist, socially-conscious, or otherwise political. There was plenty of ambivalence among the youth of America, and I'd argue that Benjamin Braddock fits that "silent majority" that Nixon was so fond of as perfectly as possible.
The brilliance of the ending lies in how uncertain they are about their future, and I think that unsatisfying ending is the pinnacle of the movie. The climax is not when he rescues Elaine (who is not dopey, just going with the most idealistic idea she can think of, as is Benjamin) from the Church; it is when their faces turn to blank on that bus ride.
Benjamin doesn't rebel against his parents with drugs, politics, demonstrations, crime, or anything else for that matter. He becomes them in a sense--he is a predictor for what actually happened to his generation. The hippies changed the world for a while, but eventually became a part of it. Benjamin just sped up the process. He drinks, like all generations of Americans have done, and has sex, as all humans have done so for years. Just because his biggest vice is idleness doesn't mean that he missed out on his generation; he just became a yuppie a little bit earlier than the rest of his peers.
The best scene for this is probably the drive-through he goes to with Elaine. All the other kids are talking loudly, partying, debauching as would be expected. Instead, he sits in his fancy car and stays silently bored with his similarly bored counterpart. Just because he doesn't become the zeitgeist of his time doesn't make him wrongly-placed in the film; like others in his generation, he was born to a more turbulent time than he could think of.
Your interpretation of Mrs. Robinson is definitely a sympathetic one, and I agree that she is a rather unfortunate character, but she is still the seducer of the film. Benjamin may not be self-aware enough to refuse her advances, but that doesn't make her a hero for just doing what she wants at the cost of someone else.
Mr. Ebert, just because your first impression of the movie isn't equal to your lasting impression doesn't diminish the value of the film. At some level it spoke to a younger you as a "4-star film" and degrading it as your perspective shifts does a disservice to yourself, your readers, and the film itself.
Also, how on Earth did you ever think that Mrs. Robinson wouldn't catch on?
Sincerely,
Danny Gessner
Film Aficionado
