What Are You Going to Do With Your Life?

It's only been about a week and I'm already running behind. I'm going to try to avoid skipping over a few things I've seen recently but I can't make any promises. This next movie is something that's considered one of the defining movies of the sixties and Dustin Hoffman's career so I would feel guilty if I avoided talking about it.

Finally, I recently watched The Graduate (1967) which is probably the main "classic" film that I've gotten the most shocked replies when it's came to light that I had yet to see it up until last week. Also, this is most likely the defining movie of Dustin Hoffman's career and that would be considering the likes of Midnight Cowboys (1969), Rain Man (1988), All the President's Men (1976), and Straw Dogs (1971).

**Caution: I may give away the ending**


Like the film's title would have us believe, Dustin Hoffman is Benjamin, a recent college graduate preparing to leave the limbo of pseudo responsibility of assisted college life and venture out into the world of adulthood. Though the movie is made of many layers, one could most likely write a lengthy essay about Ben's initial fear and crash course in sexuality from an older woman, I want to focus on one of the most evident areas of the film, the way our desires and free will clash with our inevitable responsibilities and control in adult life as well as the unlikelihood of getting what we want out of life and in some cases even knowing what we want out of life.

From the beginning of the film Ben is awkward, indecisive, passive, and submissive while those around him (his parents and their friends) discuss their plans for his future. He may show signs of being uncomfortable with their control in his life, but he waits until the very end to defy authority, and when he finally does we are left with the realization that perhaps he is uncertain of what he truly wants in the end. He accomplishes his goal, he steals Elaine away from her marriage but we're uncertain if that is truly what he desires in the end. This movie, like many stories told in cinema and literature, revolves around a woman, well in this case two.

Ben's relationship with Mrs. Robinson is his first step into adult life and it begins with him being told what to do, when to do it, and how to do it. He begins on being instructed about what he desires and how to get it. Later he meets Mrs. Robinson's daughter, Elaine, and after defying Mrs. Robinson's wishes takes the girl out. He believes he has fallen in love with Elaine and ultimately decides he must fight for what he wants, her hand in marriage.

The final shot of the film is one of the most interesting, we see Ben's immediate joy turn to indecisiveness and we're left pondering what will become of the two after the credits roll, if Ben really has changed all that much since the beginning of the film, and how this relates to our own lives, decisions, desires, and aspirations. I am glad to discover that The Graduate's praise is well deserved as is it's status as a classic of the late sixties, not something to be missed.