How do you remember the movie The Graduate ending? They’re on the bus sitting in the back, happy and laughing as they ride away into the sunset, correct?
Well, that’s how I remembered it too until just the other night when I re-watched it.
My wife Pam was out of town and because she does not care to re-watch a movie that she has already seen, I use those times home alone to re-watch old movies. I can re-watch a movie several times and still enjoy it just like the first time I saw it. Guess that I am just an easily-entertained-boy-from-Ridge.
The Graduate however, was one movie that I had not re-watched since I originally saw it back in the late 60’s when it first came out. My second viewing of it the other night though, conjured up some different takes for me. For instance, the whole “plastics-is-the-future” thing struck me as kinda prophetic and ironically (sadly?) funny.
Also, Mrs. Robinson, as the cougar, didn’t seem as villainous to me this time around probably because I’m now viewing as an old fart who sees her as a hottie and not just as some old hag wanting to get laid by a younger dude. (Little trivia for you, in real life when they filmed the Graduate, Anne Bancroft at 35 was only 5 years older than was Dustin Hoffman at 30. Katherine Ross, as Elaine Robinson, was 27. Both Dustin and Elaine then were a little older than their roles called for while Bancroft was much younger than Mrs. Robinson would have been. Double trivia for you – name Katherine Ross’s current husband. Free drink at Buzzy’s for you if you knew the answer without having to look it up (click here.)
But, as I alluded to above, my biggest revelation re-watching The Graduate had to do with the ambiguous ending of Elaine and Ben on the bus going from joy to whatever state of mind it was that they went to. First time I saw the scene I didn’t get all that nuanced bs about them slowly coming to realize that they had just screwed up royally. In fact, as I said, I always recalled the scene as a happy, up beat one of “We made it! Now let’s party!”
Searching around to read reviews and critiques of the movie now (click here) I just shake my head at how I missed all that “great ending” stuff. In my defense however, keep in mind that when I first saw The Graduate, it was back in my get down days so my perceptions may have been artificially skewed at the time. Feeling good, I may have “Rorschached” the movie’s ending and saw what I wanted to see.
I tried explaining all this to Pam as to why it is good to re-watch movies and pick up on things that you may have missed the first time around. Now, it was her turn to shake her head as she made some comment about how pathetic I am that I didn’t get it the first time around. (Why DO I love this woman?) But hey, you live you learn right? Better late than never!
Here then is that final scene that only took me 50 some years to process.