Better In Your Head?--THE GRADUATE

 

Spoiler Alert: disillusioned and tired.

THE BOOK-Written by Charles Webb, released 1963

THE MOVIE-Directed by Mike Nichols, written by Buck Henry & Calder Willingham, released 1967

THE STORY-While everyone around him is busy drowning, Benjamin Braddock floats. Fresh out of college--and, apparently, ideas--Benny is a boxer without an opponent, a guitar with no strings, a Garfunkel with no Simon. His parents wait impatiently for him to get smart, but Ben's still got some dumb stuff to do. 

MIND THE GAP-Charles Webb's first novel, and does it show. Enter the notorious washed-out world of Benjamin Braddock if you dare, a world of hot air and cold feet! The Graduate is the rare film-from-book that notably improves on the original story by adding heart and humanity. The wit-sick script lifts generously from the book, so the real magicians are director Nichols and a brilliant cast co-captained by Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft, each splendidly inappropriate in their own special, sensational ways. 

This is how Webb describes the first coital clash between Ben and Mrs. Robinson: "He let her unbuckle his belt and push his pants down around his legs, then climbed on top her and started the affair." It takes all kinds in this world...one man's bed is another man's beanbag...but that is just goddamn terrible.

Now, whether Ben's unscrupulous self-indulgence is an early indicator of terminal asshole, or just the indiscretions of an indistinct youth buckling under the wretched weight of expectation, is anyone's guess. He's no hero. Nor is Mrs. Robinson, who abandoned her dreams to raise a child alongside a man she never loved. The hero is...anyone who gets through the book.

What, precisely, vexes young Ben so? Why does he fall in love in Elaine, and why does she fall in love with him? Who knows. Let the audience imagine the answers. Generation gap follies will forever entertain.

BETTER IN YOUR HEAD-Hard not to top what's basically a published first draft. The filmmakers did what the author could not--exploit the comedy inherent in a horny older woman seducing a course-confused college grad, and create an enthralling story, intriguingly populated.