Reviews

Wyatt was a character that you could connect with because he wanted to find something better than what life offered so far. The image that struck out the most to me was this idea of the cities versus the open road and expansive valleys. I noticed that when they were on the open road they were meeting interesting down to earth people that shared similar ideas with them. They come across the farming family that sit down for family meals and live off of the land. Wyatt seemed to admire this idea of living off the land and the willingness to offer them food and a place to sit while most people would turn strangers away. The family did not stereotype them or disrespect them because of the way they looked.

At the point in the movie when they picked up the hitchhiker you could tell the distrust that people had towards each other. Billy did not trust the man even though the man was simply trying to do them a favor. Trust in fellow human beings was something rare during the time and it seemed like kind acts were suspicious acts. Billy was not a trusting person but he was also a little bit paranoid, while Wyatt was willing to believe in the goodness of people and give them a chance before judging them. Wyatt figured that the trust had to start somewhere.

We can tell when the close minded communities are coming in to play because we are leaving the open road and coming to the small enclosed streets. When they run into George he is their saving grace from this small town. George offers a new perspective for Billy and Wyatt because he is a suit that does not judge them but he acknowledges the prejudices against them. He gives them the first straight answer they will receive on the way the world works. George's character was really refreshing and it was interesting that he is the one that gets killed by people that he 'represents.' I thought that the scene when they finally get to New Orleans and are tripping the cemetery is really telling of how religion was viewed by Wyatt and Billy. They are tripping and sitting on statues and graves and the girls start to take their clothes off while they run around and curse their parents and the world in the middle of funeral services. At one point Wyatt looks up at a statue and sees a great ball of fire crashing to the earth. This is an omen of how is life will end and it almost seemed like god was scorning them or something with that flash of fire kind of like the apocalypse.

An aspect of the filming that I found interesting was the transitions that they used to go from scene to scene. The characters would be sitting by the camp fire and then to go to then next scene of them riding off was the three panic-like shots of the incoming scene. I thought that this method went well with the film and the characters because they were always changing scenery in search for something more. They were restless souls with no limits but they do not find clarity in the end. Wyatt felt that their experience in Orleans was not what they had expected and that they had failed but the question of what they had failed at was something that could be many different things. Easy Rider was a shocking film in a good way a film that many youths relate to because of the sense of restlessness and the need to live and be real.

Mike Nichol's The Graduate was a movie that everyone could relate to. The feeling of being thrown out into the world and life just passing you by is overwhelming which is how we find out main character Benjamin feeling. When we first meet him he stares straight ahead with a look that could mean so many things and in fact I felt that through out the movie I could never really tell how he felt except by the change if music and its tempo. I found Hoffman's character hard to grasp except that he is just going through the motions in his monkey suit to make his parents happy.

When Benjamin is on the plane there is a head shot of him staring straight ahead and his head seems to be enveloped by the brilliantly white head rest. I found that shot to be amusing because it showed the innocence that he possessed even after completing four years of college. Benjamin was the prodigal son who did everything to make his parents happy, even when he voiced complaints to his father about the party or the diving suit; he was never heard, throughout the movie his character is ignored until he meets Elaine.

One of the many great scenes that drive the point across that he is lost in his own world where he can only hear himself is when he comes out for his 21st birthday party and his father will not listen to his objections. The audience is taken into the back yard through Benjamin's perspective (his own world) looking through the goggles. All we can hear is his breath and all he can hear is himself which is what he is used to. His breath blocks every body out and he is pushed repeatedly back into the pool by his father. Benjamin decides to stay submerged and avoid reality. This theme of submersion is present in the beginning of the movie when he is looking through the fish tank and watches the fish swim around, they seem so free yet they can only swim so far before they are back where they started.

Benjamin feels alone in the beginning until Mrs. Robinson begins to show an interest in him and pretty soon that white 'halo' from the plane turns to black. As far as the viewer can tell there is no emotional connection between Ben and Mrs. Robinson, he still walks around aimlessly and his manner turns from that of a paranoid youth, like many of us, to an almost cocky young man. An interesting aspect between the relationship of Ben and Mrs. Robinson is the way the gender roles are switched. Ben is interested in involving conversation to their meetings and feels like he is being used while Mrs. Robison just wants to be purely physical. Ben has a more feminine personality then Mrs. Robison because she has so many secrets kept inside.

The romance between Ben and Elaine is somewhat rushed because one second they are in a adult club where Elaine feels insulted and wants nothing to do with Ben, and then the next thing we know they are laughing and getting along and going on another date. The next instance Elaine is being married off yet she does not object. When Ben shows up to the wedding it is hard to say whether she is happy because she loves him or if she is happy because he offers and escape for her. All she can hear is Ben screaming her name, everyone else is blocked out.

They escape from the wedding and the end scene I found leaving me hanging. I would have expected that they would have kissed and lived happily ever after but instead their smiles fade away as they realize they have no idea what will happen next and they are back to the beginning again. The film leaves you wondering what will happen? Will the characters end up happy together? Or are they looking to each other as an escape from the domination of their parents?