Hosey Adam Question 3 Comm 150H May 4th, 2006
Free Love and the Sixties
Although I did not grow up in the sixties, it looked as if it was an incredible place to be an adolescent. Sex, drugs, and rock and roll was the motto and rebellion was commonplace. I get this picture of the sixties from the films from, and about the era. While Hollywood portrays events and people the way they want to, there is some truth behind every picture about the era. From Cameron Crowe's "Almost Famous," where a fifteen year-old boy gets to write for Rolling Stone while touring with one of the premier bands of the time, to a movie like "The Graduate," where Dustin Hoffman gets to have sex with the sultry Mrs. Robinson, then ends up marrying her daughter. From what I've seen in the portrayals of the sixties, it seems like it was the closest thing to a utopia that America has ever come to. "The Graduate" is reflective of the care-free, pseudo-utopian feel of the sixties, but at the same time it is a timeless classic about love and hope, a testament to the doctrine of free love that was sweeping the country. The young and dashing Benjamin Braddock is quickly becoming one of my on-screen heroes. While watching the film again, I frequently said to myself: "That guy is the man." While I know that this was not commonplace, the general idea that I have of guys from the sixties is one who does no work, drinks a lot, and gets whatever he wants, including women. Fresh out of a very successful college career, Braddock has the world at his feet. Hoffman was surprisingly well built in his younger years, this can be seen when he is getting out of the pool. It is no wonder that Mrs. Robinson seduced him. The relationship between Mrs. Robinson and her
husband, compared with Braddock and Elaine is a prime example of the generation gap. Braddock's relationship with Elaine is true love--so much that it broke up a wedding at the opposition of everyone in the church. This is opposed to the Robinson marriage, where Mrs. Robinson got pregnant, which forced them to get married. Now their marriage has failed, with Mrs. Robinson resorting to seducing young men for her pleasure. The older generation love portrayed through a failed marriage, and the younger generation shown through free love and finally settling down in a marriage--all in the span of a few months. I'd say this is a young (or even older) man's dream: to have care-free sex, then months later find the girl of your dreams to settle down with. "The Graduate" has quite the fairy-tale ending. But the audience was not always made to believe that the fairy tale ending would occur. The first time I saw the film, I did not think that Braddock and Elaine would end up together. Watching the movie a second time, I realized that they had to be together, if they weren't the movie would not have been as popular as it was, and would definitely not have been a classic. I've found that the most popular movies that people still watch from the sixties are the ones that have positive endings. Movies like "Cool Hand Luke" and "Easy Rider" are timeless because of the way they portray the era as carefree and reckless. though Even in "The Graduate" things did not always work out for Braddock, Mike Nichols always portrayed them in a hilarious manner. One of the funniest lines in the movie came during the scene where Braddock is on the phone desperately trying to find out where Elaine is getting married. During the conversation, he says he's the priest that has to perform the ceremony; all the while the gas station attendant is listening and watching intently. After Braddock hangs up, and is frantically trying to get to the church, the attendant yells, "Need any gas father?" A very tense and potentially dramatic scene, as a few moments too late and Elaine would have married the wrong man, yet Nichols makes it a
comical slap-stick event that left me laughing out loud... not to mention Braddock grabbing a cross and warding his enemies away with it. Just another moment when I said to myself: "Dustin Hoffman is the man." Braddock sleeping with beautiful women, lounging around all day in the pool, driving a convertible, all symbols of my ideal view of the sixties. Two other words that help to encapsulate the sixties, and make "The Graduate" a timeless classic: Simon, Garfunkel. I think Cameron Crowe showed the duo's power the best in "Almost Famous," when S and G's "America" album was left for William with a note that said: "Listen to this with a lit candle, and you will see the future." Along with Dylan, The Who, and others, Simon and Garfunkel were God-like in the eyes of the sixties generation. The music, maybe even more than the movies, that come out of the sixties are some of the most remember aspects of the era. But what movies from the era do is put pictures into the eyes of anyone who watch them. Movies like "The Graduate" not only have the soundtrack of the generation, but also the sights of the generation that so many modern adolescents strive to be like. How many young people a day do we see with Grateful Dead teeshirts and the Beatles playing from the headphones? It is because the sixties are generally viewed as a great time to live, and movies like "The Graduate" help further this idea. So Nichols choice to put timeless music as the soundtrack for "The Graduate" made his movie timeless itself. It is an unanswerable question: did the song "Mrs. Robinson" become famous because of the movie? Or did the movie become famous because of the song? The answer doesn't even matter; both the movie and the music are symbols of the sixties. "Make love, not war" was the motto of hippies everywhere during the sixties. And while Braddock in "The Graduate" is not a hippie, he is the kind of guy that I would love to be: smart, successful, and has a lot of sex. Even in times of trouble, he still gets to drive around that little
sports car and things always turn out for the better in the end. There's hope for even the most awkward lovers like Braddock was. "The Graduate" is timeless because of the way it portrays the sixties: as a utopian world free of major problems. In our modern world laden with serious problems, the carefree world of the sixties is a nice escape.