Disclaimer.
I don't normally have powerfully negative feelings.
Unless I read/watch/see something as hopelessly, desperately, pointlessly death-drive, postmodern and morally ambiguous as this.
Synopsis:
The Graduate is about a guy who has recently completed his first four years and returns home with feelings of listlessness, hopelessness, lack of direction, etc. Wife of his father's business partner, Mrs. Robinson, offers herself to him in a disgustingly casual manner and he agrees. They have a horribly callous affair filled with no conversation or love. They just copulate to fill this void inside of them which is like stuffing yourself with more emptiness.
Then he takes her daugheter on a date (to a strip club so she would feel completely mortified, used and unloved) and then promptly falls in love with her after she bursts into tears. She love him back, and then Mrs. Robinson does everything to ruin his life and separate them. He treats everyone horribly in turn, stalks the girl and then they run away together.
The End.
After watching The Graduate (against my mother's good advice) I got on the phone and ranted to Cam. He listened patiently and then laughed his head off after I said I felt just as empty as when I read The Invisible Man (another story I CAN'T stand. Please don't make horrible life choices that you had complete control over, act helpless, ride backseat in your own life and then WHINE about it for the length of a novel!)
He said "I love how much you hate that book.
I didn't like it either, but I just think it's hilarious how much you hate it."
He suggested I should have watched Shaft or Pulp Fiction instead.
Ha. Ha. Another two I despise.
I just feel so wretched after reading/watching things like that.
Cam asked me "Do you know why you hate them so much?"
"Why?" I sighed.
"Because you care so much."
That made me glow.
Those who believe in love, believe in how perfect life can be are dreamers and are a wonderful group of people.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, this movie is so bitter and confusingly sweet so-to-speak.
Their life was a roller coaster - and in the end - it wasn't very hopeful. The look, dismay, the 'what have I done' on their faces on the back of the bus showed a not-so-bright future.
If Dustin Hoffman's character did at least one thing to make him a redeeming character where we really FEEL for him and fall in love with him, and we are as desperate for him to get the girl as he was - and when he did we are happy - the movie would be completely different. AND... 'commercial'.
I liked this movie. Because of what it was. I didn't like the story - because I, like you, believe in true love.