The Graduate / 1967 / 8.1
Director/Studio: Mike Nichols
Lawrence Turman
Embassy Pictures
Box Office: Budget- $3,000,000 (estimated)
Gross- $100,000,000 (Worldwide) ( January 1973)
Genre: Comedy/Drama/Romance
Running Time: 106 minutes
The first thing you see in the movie The Graduate, is the protagonist, Ben Braddock in an extreme close up view. We also immediately hear the whirring of machinery and white noise. Once there is a voice that is saying "Ladies and Gentlemen, we are about to begin our decent into Los Angeles. The sound you just heard is the landing gear locking into place..." This non-digetic voice is then recognized as being a pilot on a plane as the view is then zoomed out and we see other passengers. I think this is quite entertaining because in the very first scene of this movie, we aren't completely aware that he is on a plane, only until our view is changed when the sound of the machines are juxtaposition with the voice and what he says. The pilot then says it was the landing gear locking into place, confirming that Ben was on the plane. I love how sounds can confirm a location or give the viewer a new perspective.
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| Opening Scene from The Graduate. Extreme close-up on Ben. |
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| We see here that Ben is now on an airplane. |
Another great example from The Graduate is the editing done throughout the film. Nichols uses a technique known as associational montage so that the viewers can connect the events of Ben's summer together in such a way that the viewer knows that Ben is lazy during the day and then he is sleeping with his fathers' partners wife at night in a hotel room. There are moments where we see Ben in the hotel room with his white shirt, get up and walk to the door, and we see his parents on the other end. I feel like this is such a great cinematic approach at expressing progression of time. Other movies that do this well is Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid when, the trio are traveling to Bolivia, there is a montage of photos showing them travel to different places showing time passing. The City of God, coincidentally also has a sequence similar when there was a procession of an apartment going through ownership of drug dealing and who the dealer was at a specific point in time. As well as the movie New Moon from the Twilight Saga, there was a point where Bella was in a depressed mood after Edward left her and showing months going by, there was a scene where the camera moves around her in a sweeping motion that shows seasons changing through the window. The use of montages are very practical especially if the director doesn't have enough time to show the actual time lapse on screen. Plus it will keep the audience entertained and not have them sit through unneeded material.
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| Travel montage from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. |
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| Apartment montage from City of God. |
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| Bella's depression montage from New Moon. |
"Nichols begged him for more but Simon, who was touring constantly, told him he didn't
have the time. He did play him a few notes of a new song he had been working on; "It's
not for the movie... it's a song about times past – about Mrs. Roosevelt and Joe DiMaggio
and stuff." Nichols advised Simon, "It's now about Mrs. Robinson, not Mrs. Roosevelt."
This movie was really well made. The story line seemed like it was one from a short story but the editing, cinematic techniques, and music and sound were the best part of the movie. I would definitely watch this movie again so that I could examine the jack pot of cinematic elements that go along with the film, however I wouldn't see it again because I thought the character development went on far too long and the acting from Dustin Hoffman was mediocre. ★★ Porter.
References:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061722/?ref_=ttmi_tt
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXJKIuxpfkA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmAHbDSf4jQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOzbGBxAqto
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4gEFZ0TJ8o
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mrs._Robinson
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