Summary
The film opens with a close-up shot of Benjamin as voiceover of an airplane pilot announces the plane’s descent into Los Angeles. As the camera zooms out we see that Benjamin Braddock is sitting in an aisle seat of the plane staring straight ahead, as the captain announces the weather on the ground. As we watch Benjamin disembark from the plane, riding a moving sidewalk, Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Sounds of Silence” plays. The camera then tracks a nondescript black suitcase riding on a conveyor belt, which Benjamin grabs as his own and exits the airport. We see him forcing a stretched smile as he comes towards the camera through the entrance of the airport.
The following scene shows Benjamin sitting in front of a fish tank, staring even more aimlessly into space. His eyes are glazed over in a sign of internal despair, as his father enters the room, asking him what’s wrong and beckoning him downstairs to come down and meet the guests at their house. Benjamin requests that his father “explain to them that I have to be alone for awhile,” and his father hesitantly presses him to tell him more about what is wrong. Benjamin confides that he is worried about his future, but cannot quite articulate the specifics of his worry. With a small smile, Benjamin tells his father that he wants his future to be “different,” but before he can elaborate, his mother enters, and helps him put on his blazer, telling him about all the people who have come to see him and ushering him downstairs, as the camera stops on a large black-and-white portrait of a stone-faced clown in the stairway.
The camera stays in a tight close-up on Benjamin’s face as he enters a room of enthusiastic admirers, who congratulate him on his award-winning athleticism and graduation from college. A jolly-voiced man says that a new car that he has just received as a present from his parents is perfect for picking up “teeny-boppers,” and everyone is delighted when Ben suggests that he is beyond the teeny-bopper phase. When Benjamin exits, saying he needs to check something on the car, he runs into another of his parents’ friends, who calls him “Mr. Track Star.” The man tells him to wait there, because he wants to hear more about the award that Ben won, but Ben walks away. He is interrupted shortly after by the outstretched, manicured hand of yet another family friend on his shoulder. Women kiss him on the cheek and a man tousles his hair, and when one of the women ask him what he is going to do now, he replies, “I was going to go upstairs for a minute.” Laughing, the woman clarifies that she wants to know what he is going to do with his future, which he admits is “hard to say.” Interrupting their conversation is Mr. McGuire, yet another family friend who pats Ben on the shoulder, and looks at Ben with a cryptic smile and asks Ben to come with him for a minute. The women smile at each other glowingly as Ben and Mr. McGuire walk away.
Coming through a sliding door to the outside, Mr. McGuire says—as though confiding a deep secret in Benjamin—“Plastics!” Standing in front of a large lit pool, Ben stares at McGuire with a blank expression, before comedically asking, “exactly how do you mean?” McGuire explains that there’s a “great future in plastics,” and gets Ben to say that he will think about going into a career in the field. McGuire exits, and as another group of family friends descend on Benjamin, he excuses himself to go back inside. Inside, he walks through a receiving line of adults congratulating him, as a high-pitched woman’s voice in voiceover reads aloud a list of Ben’s accomplishments from his college yearbook. Walking through the throngs of adults, Ben appears as though he is being chased, an anxious and restless expression on his face. One of his parents’ friends, Mrs. Robinson, contrasts with the bubbly adulation of the others, and Ben notices her for a moment as she lounges on a sofa, smoking and staring at him. He continues up the stairs as the woman in voiceover lists his accomplishments: “…Captain of the Cross Country Team, head of the Debating club, associate editor of the college newspaper…” but her list is interrupted when Ben briskly shuts the door of his bedroom, finally safe from the high octane adoration of the party guests below.
Once in his room, Ben looks down at the pool area from his bedroom window where party guests are assembled. He then goes to his fish tank and stares at the fish inside. He is interrupted by the intrusion of Mrs. Robinson, who mistook Benjamin’s room for the bathroom. Ben gives her directions to the bathroom, but instead she comes into his room, asking him questions, lighting a cigarette, and sitting on his bed. When Ben becomes more agitated and tries to request that Mrs. Robinson leave his room, she ignores him and asks him if he has an ashtray. Ben puts a trash can next to the bed for Mrs. Robinson to ash in, and she asks him if he’s upset because of a girl. He cryptically replies that he is “disturbed about things.” She congratulates him and leaves, but not before remembering to ask him if he will drive her home, because her husband took the car. When he gives her the keys, she insists that she cannot drive a stick shift and must be driven, so he agrees to take her. Reaching for the keys, Benjamin is surprised when Mrs. Robinson tosses them into the fish tank for him to retrieve.
Benjamin drops Mrs. Robinson off at her home. When they arrive, she does not get out immediately, waiting for him to come to her side and open the car door. He helps her out, and just when he thinks he is free to go, she asks him to come inside until she gets the lights on. Mystified by Mrs. Robinson’s forthrightness, Ben follows her inside, shaking his head. When they get to the door, Mrs. Robinson insists that he go first, until she has turned on the lights, even though Benjamin insists that the lights are already on. Walking through the large main hall, Mrs. Robinson removes her coat and takes a place behind the bar, asking Ben whether he wants a glass of bourbon. Benjamin insists that he needs to go home, and although Mrs. Robinson seems to agree to his exit, as he starts to leave, she again asks, “what do you drink?” Benjamin turns around and Mrs. Robinson apologizes for being so persistent, but insists that he stay until her husband gets home. Handing him a drink he never agreed to, Mrs. Robinson lights another cigarette. When Ben asks why she cannot just lock the doors and go to bed, Mrs. Robinson twirls around and tells him, “I’m very neurotic.” This silences Benjamin and Mrs. Robinson goes to turn on a very dramatic and groovy song.
Having put on seductive music, Mrs. Robinson begins to evaluate and question Benjamin. She asks him what he thinks of her, having known her his whole life. Benjamin tells her he always thought of her as a nice person and Mrs. Robinson asks him if he knows she is an alcoholic. Again, Benjamin tries to excuse himself, but Mrs. Robinson refuses to let him go, even though he tells her that “this conversation is getting a little strange.” When Mrs. Robinson tells Ben that her husband won’t be back for several hours, Ben becomes more and more anxious, as a comically plucky cha-cha plays on the record player. Benjamin begins to pace around the room, chuckling and stuttering, saying that he could not possibly do “something like that” (i.e. have an affair with an older married woman). Mrs. Robinson calmly sits at the bar smoking, feigning ignorance while also seductively resting a leg on one of the bar stools. Mrs. Robinson giggles as Benjamin insists, “Mrs. Robinson, you’re trying to seduce me.” As she laughs more, he becomes less confident, adding a feeble, “…aren’t you?” to the end of his sentence. Mrs. Robinson denies trying to seduce him, which sends Benjamin into a flurry of embarrassment. He begs for forgiveness and says that it makes him sick that he even said it, downing his bourbon. Mrs. Robinson remains calm and simply asks, “Have you ever seen Elaine’s portrait?” Benjamin awkwardly tells her he has not and that he would love to.
Going into Elaine’s bedroom, Benjamin admires her portrait on the wall. While Benjamin admires Elaine’s portrait and brown eyes, Mrs. Robinson begins to remove her bracelet and rings onto Elaine’s bed. She then asks Benjamin to come over to her side of the bed and unzip her dress. Benjamin refuses and anxiously tries to leave, but Mrs. Robinson insists that she is not trying to seduce him, it is just hard for her to reach. When he unzips her dress, she asks him what he is so scared of and slowly takes her dress off, revealing a leopard-print bra. Benjamin blushingly tells her he doesn’t think he should be there while she gets ready for bed, to which Mrs. Robinson responds, “haven’t you seen anybody in a slip before?” Benjamin becomes upset, saying, “What if Mr. Robinson walked in right now?” but Mrs. Robinson remains unfazed, saying that no one would get the wrong idea about the situation, since she is twice as old as him. Benjamin continues to insist that the situation looks unusual, but Mrs. Robinson assures him that she is not trying to seduce him, before asking him if he would like her to seduce him. He quickly excuses himself and goes to the bottom of the stairs. Mrs. Robinson asks Benjamin to get her purse as she stands at the top of the stairs. He tries to get her to meet him on the stairs, but she impatiently demands that he put the purse on Elaine’s bed.
After he puts the purse on the bed, Benjamin turns around to notice Mrs. Robinson has come in behind him and shut the door, and is completely nude. As he groans and mutters in discomfort, Mrs. Robinson tells him that she is available to him sexually, if not now, whenever he wants, as quick shots of her bare stomach flash across the screen, almost like subliminal advertisements. We hear the sound of Mr. Robinson’s car arriving home, and Benjamin pushes Mrs. Robinson aside and rushes downstairs, taking a quick seat at the bar with his half-finished drink just as Mr. Robinson comes in the front door carrying golf clubs. Benjamin nervously explains to him that he drove Mrs. Robinson home at her request, and Mr. Robinson expresses his gratefulness and congratulates Ben on his graduation. When Mr. Robinson offers Ben another drink, Ben quickly refuses and begins to rush out. Mr. Robinson asks him if anything is wrong, but Ben insists that he is just worried about his future.
Mr. Robinson pours Ben another bourbon for a nightcap. He asks Ben how old he is, and Ben tells him that he is turning twenty-one next week. “That’s a helluva good age to be,” Mr. Robinson responds, and then confides that he wishes he was twenty again, because “you’ll never be young again,” as they take a seat on the couch. Mr. Robinson then asks Ben how long they have known each other and it is revealed that Mr. Robinson and Ben’s father are business partners. Lighting a cigar, Mr. Robinson tells Ben that he has watched him grow up and that he thinks of him almost as his own son. Given the closeness of their relationship, Mr. Robinson suggests that Ben ought to be “taking it easier” than he seems to be. Mrs. Robinson can be seen coming down the hall from the stairway, as Mr. Robinson tells Ben that he ought to “have a good time with the girls and so forth.” Benjamin gets up abruptly as Mrs. Robinson enters, but she tells him not to get up. She lights a cigarette at the bar, and Mr. Robinson announces that he just told Ben that he ought to “have a good time while he can.” Mrs. Robinson agrees, and Ben excuses himself nervously, but Mr. Robinson will not let the subject of Ben’s sexual development go, asking for Mrs. Robinson’s agreement that Ben looks like the “kind of guy who has to fight them off.” Mrs. Robinson agrees, and Mr. Robinson tells him that Elaine arrives from Berkeley on Saturday, and that Benjamin should give her a call. Benjamin walks to the car, as Mrs. Robinson thanks him for the ride home and tells him that she hopes she’ll see him soon.
Analysis
The beginning of the film aptly frames Benjamin Braddock’s primary state of alienation. Surrounded by anonymous passengers on an airplane, Benjamin stares straight ahead with a disaffected expression; he is lost, and surrounded by strange faces. The world of the public is alienating and cold, not warm or inviting. Simon and Garfunkel’s melancholy “The Sounds of Silence” perfectly underscores Benjamin’s alienation, their moody tight-knit harmony complementing Dustin Hoffman’s deadpan gaze. As the camera frames Benjamin in profile on a moving sidewalk, the viewer sees that, while Benjamin is moving forward, his propulsion is out of his control, and he is fundamentally lost. Benjamin is not a heroic protagonist, but a hesitant one, looking at the world around him with suspicion.
Indeed, Benjamin’s position in the various shots at the start of the scene often mirror his internal aimlessness. Back at his parents’ house, Benjamin sits in front of a fish tank, a symbol for his own enclosed and claustrophobic psychological state. The film goes almost five minutes before we see any other characters’ faces straight on. When Mr. Braddock comes to talk to Benjamin about coming down to the party, he is shot from behind, and we only catch glimpses of his face in profile. Meanwhile, Ben’s face is shot straight on, and the viewer cannot help but feel aligned with his depressive and anxious state of mind. When Benjamin’s mother comes into the room, the frame is flooded with the silver beading of her dress, and the viewer loses sight of all discernible characters. Additionally, the frame in the party scene remains in tight focus on Ben, with his parents’ friends often speaking boisterously, but remaining outside of the shot. The various camera perspectives suggest the short-sighted neurosis and worry of Benjamin’s character. The future and the big picture are out of focus for Benjamin, who can only see things in close-up, from moment to moment.
The beginning portion of the film also establishes Benjamin as a comic character, an almost clown-like protagonist to whom events happen, rather than a protagonist with a strongly-defined agency. The pitch and patter of the guests at the party is manic and energetic, while Ben’s energy remains placid and inexpressive. The contrast between Ben’s straight-faced discomfort and someone like McGuire, who has so much blustery confidence as to imagine that invoking the plastics industry will elicit awe, creates a very comic dynamic. Ben is a stony “straight man” to the absurd enthusiasm of the corporate squares surrounding him. While Benjamin is not particularly countercultural or rebellious, his youthful existentialism starkly contrasts with the more established and self-satisfied world of the adults in his life.
Benjamin’s impressionability and passivity is also highlighted by his early interactions with Mrs. Robinson, who imposes herself on him with a subtle persistence. When he asks for privacy in his room, she lights a cigarette and asks for an ashtray. When he finally manages to get her out of his room, she asks him to drive her home. The seduction and sexual tension between the two is mobilized by Mrs. Robinson’s stubbornness and languid ability to get what she wants. Benjamin wants to drop out and become invisible in his post-graduate state, but Mrs. Robinson will not let him, and will not take “no” for an answer. She is an aggressive presence in Benjamin’s life, throwing his car keys into the fish tank, and insisting on fixing him a drink even when he excuses himself for the evening. Where Ben is impassive, Mrs. Robinson is aggressive.
Mike Nichols’ directorial use of distance and frame help to tell the story of Ben and the other characters’ alienation and remove from their own desires. Often, shots are positioned from far away or through some kind of divider. The Braddocks’ house is full of sliding doors and corridors. Benjamin’s room has a fish tank in it, through which many moments are shot. Most strikingly, perhaps, is the moment in which Mrs. Robinson invites Benjamin into her house, as it is shot from a distance, from the far side of the car in which they arrived. The viewer watches their negotiation and feels its suggestive erotic undertones from a distance, as a voyeur, peeking in on the scandalous lives of suburban housewives. Because of the camera distance and angle, we are not quite let in on Mrs. Robinson and Benjamin’s relationship; rather, we spy on it like a gossip-y neighbor, left outside on the front lawn when Mrs. Robinson closes the door behind them.
Additionally, a canny manipulation of distance is one of the chief means by which Mrs. Robinson seduces Benjamin. As the seduction starts to take place as Mrs. Robinson sits at the bar, we are given a clear view of Mrs. Robinson’s seductive pose on her barstool, as Benjamin neurotically and anxiously paces around in the shadows, his back to us. When Benjamin delivers the iconic line—“Mrs. Robinson, you’re trying to seduce me”—the camera peeks under Mrs. Robinson long exposed leg to show a smirking and nervous Benjamin. Mrs. Robinson lures Benjamin over to her side of the bed when they are in Elaine’s room, and then when Benjamin retrieves the purse and waits at the bottom of the stairs, she requests that he bring it up to her. Benjamin and Mrs. Robinson’s physical distance becomes a leisurely game of cat and mouse, and Nichols often shoots the distance between them in inventive and illustrative ways, highlighting the sexual tension between them. The taboo of their intergenerational romance is reflected in the formal language of the way the movie is filmed.
