Reviews
The Graduate (1967)
A subtle, insightful, multi-layered satire
Who is Mrs. Robinson? The first time I saw this movie as an adolescent, I didn't ask myself this question. Early on, Mrs. Robinson was sexy and mysterious. I wanted Ben to sleep with her. Then I was ready to forget all about her when Ben met her daughter Elaine. I fell in love with Elaine, and from then on wanted Ben and Elaine to live happily ever after. I started to hate Mrs. Robinson, because she tried to keep them apart. At the end, (spoiler alert!) when the camera shows her silently cursing as Ben breaks up Elaine's shotgun wedding, I felt a vindictive pleasure.
It's different for me now. My mind fixes on the stilted hotel room "conversation" between Mrs. Robinson and Ben. She keeps Ben at arm's length with distant answers to his naive questions about her life. Ben doesn't see her face here, but we do. And we have a chance (one that I missed on my first viewing) to see much more clearly than Ben how much Mrs. Robinson is actually revealing about herself.
She married Mr. Robinson in an era before The Pill and legal abortion. They had sex in Mr. Robinson's Ford and the pregnant, future Mrs. Robinson had little choice. For the sake of petty bourgeois respectability, they got married, and Mrs. Robinson began playing the role assigned to her of wife, mother, and cocktail party attendee.
Mrs. Robinson tragically made a deal with her devil. She will make her husband breakfast every morning. She will smile graciously at social engagements with his business associates and their wives. She will drown her sorrows in alcohol. She will distract herself from her boredom by having an affair with young Benjamin--perhaps not her first. And if anything were to upset the uneasy balance of this, she may be expected to sacrifice her own daughter on the same altar (literally) of social expectations.
Elaine escapes her mother's fate. Mrs. Robinson screams, "It's too late!" as Elaine and Ben are fleeing the church, but Elaine answers, "Not for me!" Too bad nobody tells Mrs. Robinson that it's not too late for her, either.
The only problem with the film is Elaine's character. After Ben stupidly humiliates her at the burlesque club on their first date, we suddenly cut to the now happy couple chatting away at a burger joint. What happened in between? Why didn't Ben's cruel behavior end the date right there? The filmmakers don't seem to know. Elaine runs away with Ben at the end without ever mentioning that it might have hurt her when he broke up her family. It's another inexplicable, unearned forgiveness. What real woman acts like Elaine does in this movie? How could someone so flighty and spineless make the stand that Elaine does at the end of the movie? It's as if the filmmakers, like Ben, don't know how to behave themselves around a pretty girl.
I would understand if this ruins the movie for some viewers. I personally can forgive the filmmakers because, even if they don't understand Elaine, they understand Ben perfectly and show a surprising level of (accidental?) insight into Mrs. Robinson. These strengths, along with a whole series of unforgettable visual moments, help me to appreciate the film's satire and philosophy.
Director Mike Nichols has said that the last scene in the bus was more or less an accident. Bewilderen by Nichols' fierce directions, the actors gradually stopped laughing and started looking around blankly, not knowing what to do next. It was inspired for Nichols to decide to keep these reactions. By getting on that bus, Elaine and Ben made a thrilling getaway. But where are they going? They don't know. They're young and they still have a lot of things to figure out. Hence the stares. This ending alone earns this film "classic" status.
At their age, neither Elaine nor Ben is ready to make any sort of lifelong commitment, let alone the carefully calculated marriage and career commitments that their parents expect them to make. And they sense something artificial, something "plastic", about their world that they find abhorrent. That's the rebellious thread that so many viewers have identified with while watching the movie. Mrs. Robinson's tragedy is the role she reluctantly plays in propping up the institutions that Elaine and Ben rebel against. Mrs. Robinson would stand to gain a lot from the very same freedom that Elaine and Ben seek, but do not know how to find.
Jaws: The Revenge (1987)
The shark that roared ... no, I'm not kidding
Usually when a "3D" sequel of a movie franchise appears it is a sure sign that it has been milked for all its worth, and the final, derivative, intelligence-insulting rehash of a well-worn formula has arrived. Tragically, this was not the case with "Jaws".
Just to highlight the remarkable capability of Hollywood's cinematic alchemists to turn gold into lead, I must hasten to remind the reader that the original "Jaws" was an excellent film that set a high standard for the horror genre. Spielberg's original (which I gave an IMDb score of 9/10) stands, with the original "Alien", as one of the exemplars of my #1 rule for horror films. Don't let the audience get a good look at the monster -- until it's too late! Who ever would have thought that a simple dorsal fin could be so scary? Who even knew what a dorsal fin was before they saw "Jaws"?
But back to the grim task at hand, "Jaws: The Revenge" flagrantly violates this rule. If you get to see the shark all the time (and it's easy to see how poorly constructed the "shark" is as another reviewer has pointed out) then it's not scary. At all. Once that happens, what's the point of making a horror movie?
Let's talk about the title -- "Jaws: The Revenge". They really, honestly, sincerely mean that. It's not one of those movies where the monster goes berserk and the body count soars with gruesome special effects galore. No, not that type of revenge. You know, the type of movie where a sleazy corporate lawyer talking too loudly on his cellphone wades a couple of feet into the water and then ... CHOMP! (And the whole audience cheers.) I could imagine enjoying a movie like that -- in the right mood.
But I did not enjoy "Jaws: The Revenge". At all. When they say "revenge" they mean that other, human type of revenge. The shark actually has a personal vendetta against some poor woman throughout the movie, then jumps out of the water and roars at her. Now there are just three problems that I have with that.
1. The shark has a personal vendetta against a human being.
2. The shark jumps out of the water.
3. The shark roars.
Maybe it's just me, but I have a great deal of difficulty believing that any fish would or could do such things. Maybe in an animated feature where the fish also talk to each other and sing songs. Tragically, this was not such a movie.
The last straw for me is the abuse of genuinely talented, famous movie stars in this picture. Tragically, Michael Caine, Lynn Whitfield, and Mario and Melvin Van Peebles were all tricked into appearing in "Jaws: The Revenge". That may be my biggest bad-movie pet peeve. A low-budget schlock-fest with no-name actors is one thing. I can almost forgive the makers of "Manos: Hands of Fate". (Almost.) But when a major Hollywood studio drags good actors we know and like through a festering pile of manure like "Jaws: The Revenge", I cannot forgive that. At all.
IMDb Score: 1 out of 10 (only because I can't give it a 0)