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FILM 2340: Mid-Term Exam Feedback

Prompt: There are two steps to this exam. First, analyze the salient instances of mise-en-scene, editing,

and sound in the wedding scene and explain how they advance an understanding of the film’s

narrative and its implicit meaning. Second, explain the relationship this scene has to the rest of

the film, addressing what you believe to be the overall meaning of The Graduate and how this

scene effectively concludes the film’s narrative, thematic, and aesthetic developments.

How to Answer This Prompt:

One of the first tasks is to identify the film’s implicit meaning: “An alienated young man must

learn how to grow up and take control of his life and only seems to learn to do so by falling in

love.” Having this as your guide helps you organize your more interpretive observations.

Salient aspects to identify and analyze:

1. The first shot begins as an extreme long shot of Ben running to the church. Having run out of

gas and now running out of time, Ben is making every possible effort to get to the church in time

to stop the wedding. We root for him and are anxious that he won’t make it there because it

seems that he is so far away. The use of a wide-angle lens here exaggerates the distance of Ben

from the camera. The uninterrupted take also contributes to a perceived lengthening of time.

The camera pans to the left as Ben turns the corner and we see the church and hear a brief series

of dramatic guitar chords being struck as he enters the building. The sound of the guitar is

enigmatic. It emphasizes potential victory (Ben has made it to the church) but also potential

failure (he still may be too late or Elaine may still spurn him). The possibility of failure is

emphasized by Ben’s small stature in comparison to the church. He’s arrived but he still has an

enormous task ahead. (Of course this also promises to reward us if he succeeds because the task

has been presented to us as appropriately formidable to satisfy our need for goal-oriented drama.)

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2. The quick zoom in to Elaine and Carl kissing indicates Ben’s subjective point-of-view (the

drama of realizing that the ceremony has just concluded and Elaine is now wed). All seems lost.

The wedding song played by the organist may as well be a funeral dirge for Ben’s hope of a

future with Elaine.

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3. Cut to a close-up of an anguished Ben. We have seen many close-ups of Ben in the film,

usually looking lost and/or depressed. This one is different in that, while he’s clearly anguished,

he is feeling something. This helps us understand that he not about to give up.

4. The mise-en-scene of this shot indicates a few important elements: that Ben is far removed

from Elaine, that Mrs. Robinson is literally between him and his goal, and that Mrs. Robinson is

once again marked by her costume as a jungle cat (in this case, one who is protecting her young,

a role emphasized by the slight low angle). We also see that, as in the first shot of the film (Ben

in close-up on the airplane) and the birthday party scene, Ben is seemingly drowning in a sea of

white (just as we also saw Mrs. Robinson at the end of the scene in which the affair is revealed),

a visual motif in the film for being emotionally lost.

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5. Elaine sees Ben and is drawn toward him. Clearly her true desire is to be with him, as

suggested by this close-up, which corresponds to the earlier close-up of Ben in this scene.

6. Elaine’s desire to be with Ben is further emphasized by the series of close-ups of her parents

and Carl spewing invective either at Ben or her. The manipulation of sound, in which all we

hear is Ben calling her name as he bangs on the glass reinforces that Ben is all that really matters

to Elaine in this moment. The close-up of a particularly feral looking Mrs. Robinson reminds us

of her symbolic role as a jungle cat. The lack of sound for the dialogue of Elaine’s parents and

Carl also compels us to pay more attention to their faces, which are grotesquely distorted in

anger. The choice for Elaine is clear: stay in a world defined by fear and hate or enter a world

with Ben defined by courage and love.

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7. After Elaine makes her decision and returns Ben’s cry, Ben runs down and tussles with Mr.

Robinson (again, demonstrating a new-found agency). Elaine has an important exchange with

her mother: Mrs. Robinson tells her that it’s too late (i.e., the wedding ceremony was completed),

to which Elaine retorts, “Not for me!” Elaine recognizes that her mother’s life has been one of

disappointment and frustration, having felt compelled to submit to the dictates of society. Here

is the essence of the film’s articulation of a generational divide. The older generation in The

Graduate feels obligated to fulfill their socially proscribed roles at the expense of personal

desire. The younger generation, as represented by Ben and Elaine (Carl represents the

conservative youth of the time who are willing to follow the script written for them), is willing to

reject these roles and remake their lives in their own way.

8. Ben and Elaine flee the church, joyful in their victory. As in the first shot of this scene, Ben is

moving, acting on his desires (as opposed to the inertia and aimless drifting that defined him

earlier in the film). Now, however, he moves quickly through the frame and hand-in-hand with

Elaine. The church, a symbol of conventional society, is being left behind, with the older

generation locked inside (just as they are locked into a narrow definition of their own lives).

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9. As luck would have it a bus pulls up just at the right moment and Ben and Elaine board it,

unaware and uncaring of its destination. They are now free from the strictures of society and are

willing to go wherever happenstance may take them. They are deliriously happy in this moment

of liberation.

10. The rest of the passengers stare at Ben and Elaine with expressions that range from the

quizzical to the disapproving. As at the graduation party, birthday party, and wedding, the group

is composed almost entirely of older people. Here again is that great conforming body – the

older generation – but now they are no longer able to impose their will on Ben or Elaine. The

young couple is free. They no longer care about what the older generation expects of them. Ben

and Elaine are bonded in the two-shot against this anonymous group of people (society).

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11. As Nichols stays on them in this two-shot, Ben and Elaine experience a range of emotions as

reflected in their shifting expressions. The strains of “The Sound of Silence” begin as we look at

them and this return of the somber ode to darkness gives us pause. Finally, Ben and Elaine’s

expressions in the shot end with both looking ahead apprehensively. They seem unsure of what

the future will bring. Perhaps this isn’t such a victory after all.

The song compels us to recall earlier points in the film in which we have heard it: Ben at the

airport, and Ben emotionally adrift during the affair with Mrs. Robinson. Perhaps Ben is still

trapped.

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12. As the full instrumentation of the song kicks in, Nichols cuts to a shot of the bus heading

down the road. This image of movement toward an unknown future (but one, finally, sought

after by Ben), coupled with the dynamic shift in the music, compels us to regard Ben and

Elaine’s escape as hopeful. This is not the standard “happily ever after” fade to black of

Classical Hollywood. It’s a new kind of positive ending for a new generation of Americans who

are ready and willing to break with the dictates of the past to create a different future. Ben’s

desire for a different future, as expressed to his father at the graduation party, now seems less

like the vague musings of a depressed young man and more like an embrace of change and

renewal, of risk-taking exactly because you don’t know what lies ahead. The comforts of a set

life plan are rejected for the possibilities of entering uncharted waters with the one you love by

your side.