The Graduate film review

Graduate (1967) is one of the very few movies from my father's generation that has had any impact on me. But honestly speaking, the first time I watched this movie, I found it rather corny and downright boring. It was only after I was made to see it for one more time that I began to see why it had received such rave reviews in its time. In this paper I shall be focusing on two important themes in the movie i.e. 1) the cougar element in the movie and 2) extramarital affairs.

The movie revolves around a directionless young man Brad who returns from college to get a rousing welcome at home as many speculate about his future. Everyone has many expectations of him including his father and father's business partner Mr. Robinson who wants him to join the family business. Brad is however completely lost and has no idea as to where his future lies as he is uninterested in family business and has no other economic ambitious as such. His idleness leads to a disastrous situation when he finds himself involved in a sexual relationship with Mrs. Robinson. Brad was initially a reluctant participant but soon starts using his sexual escapades as a way of avoiding other more urgent matters. Mrs. Robinson in this case had been the one to pursue him and it was not the other way around. In modern language, she would qualify as a cougar. A cougar is an older woman who looks young and prefers to date men younger than her. Mrs. Robinson was clearly one such person who had a fear of old age and hence seeks youth by dating younger man and in this case, it was Brad who got involved with her though not very willingly.

Cougar may be a relatively new term but it appears that the phenomenon is not. If it was happening in 1960s, there is a chance that cougar phenomenon has been there for decades now. Women over 40 who choose to date younger guys is something that has gained popularity only now as aging seems not such a huge threat anymore or at least the concept now has a name. "Suddenly aging isn't so awful, says Valerie Gibson, a relationship expert…"That was always a dreadful thing- women were supposed to shut down and be invisible and drop off a cliff. Try telling that to women today. It just isn't in the books. Cougars are desirable and sexy." (Donna, 2010)

In the movie, Mrs. Robinson was clearly a cougar. She was over 40 and wanted a man much younger than herself or her husband for that matter. Why cougars desire younger men can be tied to self-esteem issues on a deeper level as older women feel more young and energized by dating younger men. That was the case with Mrs. Robinson too who was clearly unhappy in her marriage and felt that her sexual desire couldn't be satisfied by the sexual appetite of her aging husband. But in the case of Mrs. Robinson, there is a subtle difference. She is pursuing a younger man who was reluctant to start a relationship with her. That's not what cougars are about today. They wouldn't want relationships like that, instead in their case; it would usually be younger men wanting to date older women. That is what makes Mrs. Robinson an odd kind of cougar who was aggressively seeking sexual relationship with a younger man and not only that, she also tries to keep her young daughter away from this young man- much to their chagrin.

The second important theme in the movie is about extra-marital affairs. When we study closely we notice something odd. In this movie, Mr. Robinson appears rather relaxed about the whole issue of his wife having an affair even though he temporarily gets upset. It is impossible to imagine that he didn't know about his wife's affairs and it is also impossible to think that this was the first ever time that she pursued another man for she clearly looked an expert in the area. She was confident of her ability to seduce a man and that doesn't come from a one-time affair. Hence it is strange that Mr. Robinson would still choose to be with her despite her infidelity.

This is what brings us to a study which states that fidelity in older couples is not as serious an issue as it is at the beginning of a marriage. In other words, as time passes and marriage becomes old, both partners become rather tolerant of extra marital affairs. This is what the study found and when applied to this movie, it appears to be quite true. What gives rise to this kind of tolerance is beyond me but I can imagine that both partners come to a point where they understand that despite their best intentions they may go astray now and then because of unmet needs and desires. "90% of women and 80% of men in her survey expected sexual exclusivity at the point of their first marriage but during marriage they became more tolerant and less insistent on sexual fidelity." (Glass, Wright, 1992)