The Graduate
Directed by: Mike Nichols
Won the Oscar for Best Direction, 1967.
This film was a key film in the New Hollywood Wave, mainly due to its anti societal, individualistic themes unlike the community adhering films being made till then. The antagonist aria, as Michael Arndt says in his lecture 'Endings: The Good, The Bad and The Insanely Great' is about how youngsters are often adviced by elders about what they should do in their lives. This is the dominant ideology of the film, the mother who wants Ben to have an affair with her, this is direct and all the people who keep advicing him is a subtle portrayal of that aria. The climax is intellectually cathartic, in a way that all hell breaks loose and all the conflicts get solved when the use the cross to lock the door, symbolically telling them to stay locked in their own rules, religion, society or whatever and that these people won't be affected by it.
There is a scene where Ben's girlfriend gets to know the truth that her mother and Ben have been in an affair and they use rack focus brilliantly there to visually depict her angst. As Michael Arndt pointed out, this film has various levels of conflicts and all of them are resolved in less than a minute in the ending which is what makes it a great ending. Throughout the film, Ben is trying to belong and by the end is when he takes a stand and does what he feels like. The messaging and the moral order of the film is turned upside down. The ending would've definitely been a shocking ending back then, because everyone thinks that she's married now and it's too late, who would've thought that they don't care about marriage as an institution.
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