a critical review and model of the video the
Existence in a Fishbowl
Mike Nichols’ film, The Graduate, is a coming-of-age story that won the hearts of young college graduates during America. Irrespective of being made inside the 1960’s, this kind of soon-to-be well-liked work of cinema would not focus after the typical concepts portrayed in this decade, including hippies, medicines, and rock and roll music. Rather, it dedicated to the natural and practical confusion that young adults truly feel, even today, if they are expected to instantly enter into the impending world of adulthood. Becoming an adult proves to be challenging for some, especially The Graduate’s leading part, Benjamin Braddock, a recent college or university graduate, played out by Dustin Hoffman. Dernier-né does not are most often a part of the generation gap, but rather, entirely excluded coming from all parts of society, struggling to find a niche in his existence where he truly belongs, in spite of those his own age group. The stark realism described in this film helped the youth on this era to relate to Benjamin in a way that that were there not had the capacity to prior to. He is a symbolic figure for the adolescents on this time and over and above, who would not and do not know very well what they are going to carry out with their lives, and who as well do not feel that they are supposed to be. Nichols brightens the idea that Benjamin is stuck within a metaphorical fishbowl constructed by unfulfilled expectations and life’s sudden turns, through his properly and attentively chosen uses of form, as well as his visual style, encompassing mise-en-scene and sound within The Graduate.
Brian Ott, author of Bringing out Critical Media Studies, identifies form as such: “form identifies the intellectual component of a message. Form may be thought of as how a message boxed and provided. The packaging of any message is known as a consequence, 1st, of the method, and, second, the genre or course. Every moderate or conversation technology plans messages differently” (Ott, 13). In the case of The Graduate, Robert Nichols developed narrative film, told by young Dernier-né Braddock’s standpoint. His film has a linear structure, although is still able to make the target audience feel not comfortable through his use of topics and genre, and how they interact with each other. One of the major themes inside Nichols’ film is this “fishbowl” reference, which stems in early stages in the film, while in Benjamin’s bedroom. He provides a tank along with his pet fish in this, with a plastic-type scuba diver planted inside the bottom of the tank. A great echo of the is consistently created over the film, including when Dernier-né himself enters a scuba diving suit, and also the recurring lakes and rainwater he continue to be encounter. Bill feels captured within his life, and feels that others expert in upon him throughout the glass among himself and adulthood. Having said that, he seems to find comfort in wishing he could just live by itself in the normal water, rather than getting started with adult your life elsewhere. Genre plays a part in Benjamin’s inner turmoils as well, pertaining to, even though The Graduate student is meant to become a comedy, it is rather dark. Classifying this film as a humor is almost a great insult to Benjamin’s your life, as he struggles to find a place in the world. The viewers are made to feel that they are peering in about something they need to not become, and perhaps they are area of the problem, and they are part of those causing Benjamin to truly feel as though this individual does not fit in.
Mise-en-scene is typically described as parts in a frame, cautiously chosen with a director, to aid set a mood and depict a certain feeling to the audience. Mike Nichols was especially deal of about the use of mise-en-scene although shooting The Graduate. Color and halloween costume, both pieces of mise-en-scene, play important parts in each scene in this particular film. Nichols’ use of color guides the audience to truly feel certain thoughts, quite intentionally. A good example of this can be the scene by which Benjamin’s father and mother give him the birthday present of a scuba diving suit. He can repeatedly motivated to test it in their 6-foot-deep, in-ground pool area in the back garden, by his unrelenting dad until he finally confirms. This will remind the audience of your earlier field, where Ben is advised that his future is “plastics”. Dernier-né never has a choice about what he is carrying out, and this pool area scene is not a exception. Certainly not wishing to dissatisfy his parents and their anxious group of good friends, Benjamin taking walks out, as well as the camera reductions to a renowned point-of-view shot from inside of his scuba mask. Though the colors in the backyard will be warm, fantastic parents’ close friends are dressed in white, making them seem quite innocent, the mask he could be wearing makes a black edge around them. This allows for the interpretation that Benjamin, in fact , separates him self from these types of older, more established counterparts, and also implies that this individual feels like a creature being checked out from in back of “glass” or, rather, his plastic hide. The dark-colored border developed around his parents and their friends is meant to symbolize that, though they are people great intentions, the repercussions with their actions aren’t quite so great. When Dernier-né makes it for the pool, he could be coerced into jumping in. When he does so , his community, and that from the screen, turns blue and cool. It almost seems unhappy, if designed for the rejuvenating realization that there are no longer confronts pressing in on him, and the scene no longer seems hectic and overwhelming. He can alone at the end of the pool, and, initially, he withstands, attempting to get out of the water. When he gets nearer to reaching the surface, the statistics of his parents are black, grey, and fuzzy, and, as he attempts to escape, his father’s side reaches in and shoves Benjamin down again into the pool area using his face mask, covering Benjamin’s perspective. At this point, in the cool, green bottom with the pool, he can alone, yet seems to accept it. Because Benjamin floats there, inside the cloudy water, holding onto his harpoon, this individual looks like Neil Armstrong, claiming his rightful place on this depressed and remote plane, which is the one place he feels like he truly belongs. Dernier-né is caught up in this metaphorical fishbowl that is certainly his existence, with faces peering in, but no-one can hear him as he figuratively cries for help. The cool colors in this landscape, as well as the direct act of immersing Benjamin in drinking water, amplify the underlying metaphor that Nichols wants to demonstrate to the market. These pallettes continue to happen throughout the film, helping the viewer separate what they should be feeling toward this dark comedy. “The arts offer us extremely involving activities, ” Bordwell and Thompson state in Film Artwork: An Introduction. “We say that videos draw us in or immerse us¦ artworks involve us by engaging our senses, feelings, and head in a process¦ the specialist has created a pattern” (Bordwell Thompson, 51). Nichols represents this idea throughout The Graduate student, creating habits with his visual and stylistic choices, getting himself capable to fit pleasantly into a particular form in this film.
Costume design and style within The Graduate student is common as well. In the opening field, Benjamin can be shown wearing a suit, providing him a professional, businessman-type seem. This potential clients the audience to believe that he features his existence put together, as most businessmen perform, though this is hardly the situation for Ben.. He carries on with this style through the entire first half the film. He, at first, generally seems to inherit this kind of style by his dad, who is in the beginning introduced although lecturing Ben about his life options. This observation is to later on be contradicted by the almost tourist-like clothes his father continues to wear throughout the remaining film. This kind of juxtaposition would indicate that he great father arrive to understand one another less, because his dad becomes more of a bystander in the life and fewer of an power figure. Mrs. Robinson’s costume design can be notable too. Played by simply Anne Bancroft, Mrs. Brown is the old woman which Ben comes with an affair, and who, incidentally, happens to be one of his parents’ oldest friends. She is initially seen in a dark, somewhat sheer dress and pumps, making her seem alluring as well as intimidating. When Dernier-né calls her from a payphone some scenes after and asks her to satisfy him in a hotel, she is wearing fur with animal produce. Following this halloween costume decision, the viewer may associate her with a tigress, or, even more fittingly, a cougar. “Cougar” is a term to describe an old woman who also sleeps with or preys upon more youthful men. In addition, Mrs. Robinson’s daughter, who also Benjamin ultimately falls in love with, is precisely the opposite. Prove first date, she is dressed in a light jacket which has a light pink undershirt. Even though Benjamin and Mrs. Johnson have become close, her daughter, Elaine, is a stimulating contrast for Benjamin. The lady dresses even more casually, and makes him think even more comfortable than her mother at any time could. The greater comfortable with him self he becomes, the more delicately Benjamin starts to dress. Though this does not necessarily make him a part of society, he generally seems to feel a bit less isolated, and fewer like a fish stuck inside a6105 bowl. He begins to break free from the glass and problem his parents’ ideals, expressing himself through his ever-changing clothing alternatives in the second half of the film.
By Roberts-Breslin, author of Making Press: Foundations of Sound and Picture Production, is convinced that, ” we should recognize that artful appear design is usually equal in importance to visual make up in creating effective audio-visual media. Sound design is the combination of audio elements, that they work together as part of a soundtrack, and how they will work with the visual to share with the story” (Roberts-Breslin, 162). Sound is an extremely important aspect of The Graduate, for this helped Nichols to create a genuine portrayal of society inside the 1960’s, rather than the “flower-power” proven fact that only associated with a certain part of the American population. The soundtrack to get The Graduate student was performed by Claire and Garfunkel, weaving out-and-in of the film, setting the pace and echoing the somber tones of the film itself. Although songs are not necessarily slower, the lyrics make a great segway into certain scenes, such as the lyric, “the sound of silence, inches which leads to a scene through which there is no music. This assists the audience in relating more easily to his scenario, for something is quite clearly amiss. The soundtrack in this film can be repetitive, utilizing music in the same strap throughout the entire film, and repeating certain songs when necessary. This, again, may lead the viewers to the metaphor of this fishbowl that Benjamin lives in. It seems that life continues on repetitively, with no sign of escape, which is shown by Nichols with the use of non-diegetic, repeating sounds. In the end of the film itself leaves the audience feeling disconcerted. Though Dernier-né and Elaine decide to run away together coming from Elaine’s wedding to another gentleman, they look just like confused and naive because they had at the start. The elderly people aboard the bus convert to stare at these people in silence as if they are pets at a zoo, as well as the song “The Sound of Silence” performs, just as completely at the beginning of the film, the moment Benjamin was utterly by itself in life. Although Benjamin got everything this individual wanted, the utilization of sound with this scene insinuates that, actually he was nonetheless not developed, and was still being headed in the unknown and unavoidable.
This significant, yet humorous-natured film needs a critical appearance on American society inside the 60’s. Overseer Mike Nichols crafted this work of art quite carefully, using form, audio, mise-en-scene, along with many other elements to get his message across to the children of America: “The only safe activity is to take a chance. inches This film was so radically unlike other videos during the 1950’s, and not targeted upon the Vietnam Battle, that Nichols was not quite sure how viewers might respond. Later on, he would become named the hero of American youth for your decade, having found a way to relate to these people without the hassle drugs, warfare, and other well-known subjects of the era. Instead, he place his audiences inside of a metaphorical fishbowl, along with Benjamin Braddock, and took these people on a journey of conclusion that developing up is usually something no one is at ease with, and some individuals never really will.
