"The Graduate"

What the heck?!  That is my first impression after watching "The Graduate" directed by Mike Nichols. This movie won an Oscar along with 20 other awards.  Made in 1967 and starring Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, and Katharine Ross, this movie tells of a young college graduate, Benjamin, who has an affair with Mrs. Robinson, who happens to be his father's business partners wife.  If that's not enough, Benjamin eventually falls in love with Mrs. Robinson's daughter Elaine.  A good college movie should be easy to relate with the majority of college students. Which means of course a good college movie should include, Partying, non-complex story line, and dynamic characters.  "The Graduate" shows some of these aspects but not all.  Perhaps in 1967 the  college experience consisted of having affairs with women twice your age, but not in this generation.  Lets be honest, majority of college students have been to at least one party.  Because of this whenever we hear about college movies we always expect big party scenes, take American Pie for example.  "The Graduate" has no college party scene what so ever, unless you count bougie dinner parties.  College is fairly simple it consists of studying, meeting new people, and experiencing new things.  When are we ever going to be put in a situation where were having affairs with our parents friends then falling in love with their daughter? Also we as college students to the masses are fairly simple as well.  The world sees us as the future, hard workers, and respectable adults.  And of course some see us as party animals. The fact is that were fairly simple and out going people.  In this movie the main character is so complex.  He's so indecisive and awkward.  When we go to see a movie about college we expect at least one outgoing character.  If there is an awkward or reserve character, we expect a dynamic, and outgoing character to balance out the atmosphere. However, in a way his personality can relate to us as well.  We've all been there, we have all felt awkward around the person we like, and Dustin Hoffman does a great job showing us these emotions. After thinking about the movie more and going back to certain parts such as the pool scene where Benjamin's father asks, "would you mind telling me then what those four years of college were for?" and "what was the point of all the hard work?" We can all relate to how we have someone constantly asking us what we are doing with our lives.  Benjamin's character in way is so far apart from us that we may fail to see that he is very similar and has the same problems as we do. His situation can fit into this whole context of us trying to satisfy our wants while realizing our own weaknesses.  We all want the girl or guy, we all make bad decisions, and we all have our complexes. In conclusion this movie should be viewed a second time to look past certain aspects and realize how the main character can relate to us, college students.