Quote:
Originally Posted by jyl
They are in the back seat of the bus, exhilarated and smiling. Today, the movie would end there, with triumphal music and a long kiss. But The Graduate doesn't end there. Elaine loses her smile, her expression turns uncertain, she fidgets. Ben alternates between a manic grin, which we know isn't like him, and a lost look. They never touch each other, or even look at each other. That's what I mean by a non-ending. It's not at all clear that this escape will last, that this couple will stay together, that there will be an ever after.
|
Really NOW... Times were achangin in the 60's, so what things would change to was uncertain. The end of the movie is where they ride off together into an uncertain future. They have both rejected the Status Que of doing what was expected of them. They are going off together to forge their own futures on their own terms. Two perspectives from different points of view.
Ben tells his parents he is going to marry Elaine Robinson, his parents ask a bunch of questions, then say, "Ben this sounds half baked." to which he says, "No it is fully baked."
The end of the Graduate is quite affirmative in that both Elaine and Ben have stood up and said no to their parents idea as to how they should live their lives The movie is about a young persons search for their own idenity, finding their own course and meaning in life. As juxtaposed against defining their own meaning as to what love and marriage means.