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johnw613 's review for:
The Graduate
by Charles Webb
dark
funny
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The conventional wisdom is that the book is always better than the movie. Not in this case. Kudos to Mike Nichols (and particularly screenwriters Buck Henry and Calder Willingham) for getting an A+ movie out of some C- material.
The story turns on Benjamin Braddock’s uncertainty about what to do with his life having come from a place of undeniable privilege. The Braddock and Robinson families are nothing if not conventional in their approach to launching their next generations into the world, and the responses of their offspring can and do stray from the tried and true. Add in the Robinsons’ fragile marriage and we have the seeds for the story we all know so well.
One aspect the book plays up that was largely passed over in the film was the anxiety felt by the parents that their progeny’s poor decisions would reflect scandalously on the parents (cf. the Beatles’ song “She’s Leaving Home,” with the lyric “How could she do this to me?”) However doing so takes too much of the focus off Benjamin and Elaine and their search for meaningfulness in their lives.
Miraculously, Nichols gave depth to the characters as he was creating the film. In the book they are made of the flimsiest cardboard and it is only through many screenings of the film that we are able to appreciate any of them as three dimensional. The book reads like a bad after-market novelization. Benjamin’s father is somewhat more fully actualized than many of the others, but Ben himself is an enigma, vacillating between obnoxious brat and naive wastrel.
The scenes in Berkeley bring Benjamin the closest to having viability as a character, but the plot elements of that part of the story are played as farce, and are completely lacking in believability. Much of the dialog in that part of the book is also needlessly repetitive.
That such an utterly disappointing book should inspire one of the most compelling movies ever made represents an alchemy few artists can achieve. Nichols’ Oscar for best director emerges as a monumental achievement.
One alluring hypothetical is to consider what I would think of the book had I read it prior to seeing the film. Let’s just say I’m glad things occurred in the sequence they did.
The story turns on Benjamin Braddock’s uncertainty about what to do with his life having come from a place of undeniable privilege. The Braddock and Robinson families are nothing if not conventional in their approach to launching their next generations into the world, and the responses of their offspring can and do stray from the tried and true. Add in the Robinsons’ fragile marriage and we have the seeds for the story we all know so well.
One aspect the book plays up that was largely passed over in the film was the anxiety felt by the parents that their progeny’s poor decisions would reflect scandalously on the parents (cf. the Beatles’ song “She’s Leaving Home,” with the lyric “How could she do this to me?”) However doing so takes too much of the focus off Benjamin and Elaine and their search for meaningfulness in their lives.
Miraculously, Nichols gave depth to the characters as he was creating the film. In the book they are made of the flimsiest cardboard and it is only through many screenings of the film that we are able to appreciate any of them as three dimensional. The book reads like a bad after-market novelization. Benjamin’s father is somewhat more fully actualized than many of the others, but Ben himself is an enigma, vacillating between obnoxious brat and naive wastrel.
The scenes in Berkeley bring Benjamin the closest to having viability as a character, but the plot elements of that part of the story are played as farce, and are completely lacking in believability. Much of the dialog in that part of the book is also needlessly repetitive.
That such an utterly disappointing book should inspire one of the most compelling movies ever made represents an alchemy few artists can achieve. Nichols’ Oscar for best director emerges as a monumental achievement.
One alluring hypothetical is to consider what I would think of the book had I read it prior to seeing the film. Let’s just say I’m glad things occurred in the sequence they did.