The Graduate:
I have to think that a good chunk of this movie is largely symbolic in some way, because the alternative is that life in the sixties was damn near unlivable, and no one I have talked to from around that time has really given me the impression that this is true.
Like, the shiftlessness of the main character, I can relate to that. I -am- that. But around where he meets Elaine, things kind of go off the rails and make no sense. This is a guy that would be arrested (oddly, not for the various things he was threatened with.....) and thrown into a nut house. Why did he love Elaine? WHY IS THE OPPOSITE true? Her personality makes absolutely no sense in any context until, I guess, right at the very end. Is it really that easy to force someone into a marriage? Apparently so.
This movie made no sense. None. Trying to read reviews of it, I find that, apparently, Roger Ebert thought it was a comedy. Did I have to be ALIVE in 1967 to understand this movie? Apparently so. Although, I did crack up pretty hard at the "Don't tell me he did it in a car" line, in response to Elaine's other proposal. That was delightfully dickish.
The other thing is during the seduction, the sort of.... stiff, sudden way he grabs Mrs. Robinson's breast. Is that a thing? Is this a thing guys do on their first contact with boobs? Because it's something I've seen in plenty of films, but it just seems completely untrue. Who -does- that? I wasn't like that. Am I apparently the only young awkward soul who didn't haphazardly palm a tit to get the ball rolling? Apparently so.
Also, Simon and Garfunkle: At times, really enjoyable. At times, "AREEEE YOU GOINGGGG TO SCARBOROUGH FAIIIIIIIR.... PARSLEY SAGE, ROSEMARY AND THYME...... .....Stir for fourrrrrty minutes and simmerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, for extra flavour, add zest of limmeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee"
Can't say I really enjoyed this movie. Can't say I know why this movie was made. I'm gonna go on a limb and say context was everything for the film, and I apologize to the no doubt thousands of fellow film students who had to watch this for some reason or another.