51. Benjamin Braddock
The Graduate
Benjamin Braddock just graduated from college. His whole future is ahead of him. Too bad he has no idea what to do with it.
The perfect pre-Hughes angsty young person, Braddock is a great representation of the time in every one's life where you're just caught. You're not a kid or a teen anymore and you're barely an adult. You never have anywhere to go. Dustin Hoffman, one of the best actors of the last generation, keeps Ben aloof and distant but still makes him interesting. He begins to sleep around with proto-MILF Mrs. Robinson as a means to escape from his own lack of ambition or direction.
A lot of people tend to fuck up the image of the sixties. For some, it was a free love romp of sex and drugs and bullshit awesomeness. For others, it was the start of an age of corruption and violence and bullshit bullshit. For out-of-touch 40-something Broadway directors, its the most cliche eye-rolling sixties cliche bullshit scored to the music of The Beatles. But I found Benjamin Braddock to be the best metaphor for his age: a distant man (at least, i guess he's a man) who doesn't know what to do in an era of what he knows is bullshit.
Defining moment: Finally preventing the marriage of Robinson's daughter Elaine and running away on a bus with her, Ben's satisfied smile slowly fades to a neutral uncomfortable expression. When Elaine looks at Ben, her smile fades as well. Even running away, they still don't know where they're headed.
No comments:
Post a Comment