Audio-visual Aspects of ‘The Graduate’

I like paying attention to sound in films. I guess sound is the key element for me to immerse myself in films and therefore, I like seeing movies at the movie theatres because I can experience sound better. In this paper mainly two scenes- the opening and the ending scene- from The Graduate, directed by Mike Nichols in 1967, will be analysed in terms of their sounds. It will be focussed on the functions of the sound in the selected scenes.

The graduate‘s screenplay was written by Calder Willinghom and Buck Henry. As I mentioned before it was directed by Mike Nichols in 1967. Larsen also discusses this movie in his book Film Music. Actually he is the reason why I grew interest in this movie. I haven’t seen the movie till I read about it in Larsen’s book. I found the discussion interesting and decided to watch and then write about the movie. I wondered about my observations. The movie is based on Ban Braddok or Benjamin’s experiences after he is back from collage with a bachelor’s degree. He is twenty one years old, insecure and very confused about his future. The opening scene must be analysed briefly because it is important for the analysis of the sound of the movie in general and also in the ending scene. It starts with a close up view to Benjamin’s face. His face looks expressionless and motionless. At the same time, we hear the engine sounds or noise and then a man talks and informs people that they are about to land to Los Angeles so the audience understands that he is on the plane and arriving at Los Angeles. As the man continues to talk the camera zooms out and allows us to see Benjamin among the other passengers. It is kind of surprising to see the other people all of a sudden because in the opening seen he looks so isolated and alone. This feeling was created by both the close up shot and his empty expression and also the white cover of the seat. The cover of the seat gives the spectator no clue about the environment and supports the neuter empty look. It looks like just a white background to a photograph. So you never expect to see many other people surrounding him in the following scene. Whole scene combined with the following one, gives the impression of his alienation. He looks so lonely and isolated although, he is sitting with many other people in a plane. There seems to be no communication among them. The man welcomes the passenger to LA and we move to another seen, where Benjamin is seen walking, so the spectator assumes that he is walking in the airport trying to leave the airport. As this scene starts also a song, ‘the Sound of Silence’ written by Paul Simon and performed by Simon and Garfunkel, starts to accompany. He then takes the speedwalk, stands very still. Meanwhile the song is still playing and sort of it associates itself with Benjamin. The whole opening scene introduces us Benjamin. He is always alone in the scenes (other than a bit of plane scene) and very much in the focus. All background is very plain supporting him as a focal point and the song has a clear association with him. The viewer thinks that this is his song. The song could refer to his inner thoughts or it may refer to his situation or his mood and in this sense, the song may be an external comment. But no matter what, the song has some sort of association with him. During that scene the title of the movie, the director’s and crew’s names appear on the scene. What I find interesting is the appearance of the song writer’s and performers’ name in this scene very clearly as if they really want the audience to notice the song writer and the performers. This could be related to marketing of the movie because promoting the movie by pop and rock songs of the time was common in 1960s (Larsen, 146). At this point, to give some information about the developments in the film industry in 1950s and 1960s is necessary to understand the character of The Graduate’s music. In 1950s, TV gained great popularity and became a rival to cinema (Larsen, 150, Wierzbicki, 160, 161). People preferred to stay home and watched their TV instead of going to the cinemas. As a result of this, the movie industry tried to regain the audience by new technological innovations or big productions. But the industry couldn’t bring the audience back to the movie theatres but it took youngsters’ attention this time (Larsen, 150). So, to have them, movie makers started to use pop and rock songs in the movies. This became extremely popular in 1960s and even Hitchcock wanted to try this and fired his previous composer Herrmann (Larsen, 146). So, one can say that 1960s Hollywood films targeted teenagers and youth culture (Larsen, 149, 150). Also related to these developments in this period sound tracks became important and were started to be considered as independent products as well. They can both promote the movie and also be sold out separately. The graduate was made in 1967 and the soundtrack was released in 1968 and topped the lists. The Graduate is obviously part of this trend of 60s film industry and it must be analysed having these information in mind.

Having said all these, I will return to the opening scene. Then he leaves the airport and the scene changes but the song continues and combines the scenes, so the music has a formal function here. When the song ends with the words; ‘…. the sound of silence’ at the same time the viewer sees his face close up and again alone and frozen in front of an aquarium. So in this scene are there any associations between the words and Benjamin’s silent, worried and frozen look? I am not sure and I think no one is sure. Larsen before discussing the song’s relation to the movie he gives the following title; ‘Difficult Songs: The Graduate, 1967’ (Larsen, 151). The reason for that is the song is not originally composed by this movie. The director wants to hire Simon and Garfunkel. But the songs written by Simon are rejected by the director and Simon can’t compose new songs on time. Therefore, the director uses the old songs as temp track during the editing process. He likes it and decides to keep it. So other than ‘Mrs. Robinsson’, none of the songs were written for the movie. Also, the reason, the director hired Simon and Garfunkel, was he imagined Benjamin character as someone who listens to Simon and Garfunkel (Larsen, 152). Larsen calls this song as a problem because it is crucial in the discussion about the use of music with lyrics in the movie. Many questions can be raised for the sake of this discussion such as; are the lyrics relevant to the images or what is going on in the scene?, or do they refer to character’s inner thoughts?, are they adding something to the scene or narration in general?... While theorists are already struggling with these questions they are facing this song which is sort of accidently selected or if it is put in another way, they weren’t written with this movie in mind. Larsen also mentions that the only song written for this movie is Mrs. Robinson and the only common feature between the song and the character is the name. I will continue to this discussion after analysing the final scene. Also I want to repeat that the reason I additionally discussed the opening scene is, the same song, which is very much associated with Benjamin, appears in several scenes as well as in the ending scene. This association is introduced in the beginning.

In the final scene he leaves the car. As the cars stops the music stops as well. But diegetic sounds still can be heard such as the sounds of the passing cars and the sounds produced by him. He starts to run. We hear the sound of his steps and the traffic and so on. As he arrives to the church we hear a chord played by a guitar. The chord is nervous in terms of character. It is a dominant chord which creates excitement and asks a question; what happened in the church or what will happen? Then the second chord comes as he arrives at the door and tries to get in. In terms of character it is similar to the first one. Then the third chord is heard as he decides to find another way to get in to the church and takes the stairs. The forth chord comes when he finally gets in through a door and then we hear the fifth one when he arrives at a big glass wall, where he can see the bride and the groom who are about to kiss. The first chord is really intense as he goes into the church, the chords get softer and resolve but still they all sound sad not happy. He sees them already married and kissing each other. He fails. He says ‘oh Jessus…’ Then the church organ player starts to play the wedding march. It sounds very annoying, irritating, and camera shows him standing against the enormous glass wall, disappointed and miserable. To me he looks sacrificed or crucified like Jesus especially with the annoying and in a way scary church music. In these scenes guitar is associated with Benjamin and humanistic feelings such as love and especially their love. It is also associated with being naïve, being young. Benjamin and Elaine are not like their parents and they don’t fit to the society that their parents belong, which is pretty fake. On the other hand, the church organ and church music is associated with that fake society and evil. Elaine’s father, Mrs. Robinson, and their pretentious friends they are all in the church and act like they are all so decent. They witness Elaine’s wedding ceremony. Elaine is like a sacrificial animal as well. So, on the aisles there are fake and evil people. On the altar Elaine captured by those people and the church and the church music. Benjamin is across Elaine facing her from the behind but outside of the church. They don’t listen to what Benjamin listens. But on the other hand, Benjamin is outside of the church and the music associated with his adventures is played by a guitar. So guitar music is outside of the church. Guitar music is not scary and not irritating. It is naïve. Then he screams her name dramatically and hits the glass, while the church music is still playing. He takes the attention from both Elaine and the others. When the camera shows her we hear Benjamin’s voice from the distance because he is outside and also we hear the other people talking, mumbling. Then camera shows her parent’s reaction and the sound focuses on what they are saying. She walks towards him in the church. As she walks the viewer sees her close up and the talking sounds become blurring, turn into mumbles. Then she looks around, surrounded by angry people who are all saying something, yelling but they are not heard. We see these form her point of view. They are muted but Benjamin can be heard he still screams her name and hits the glass. So, he is the one for her that’s why he is not muted. Finally, she screams his name very dramatically as well. As soon as he hears her, he starts running to meet her. He is stopped by her father. They start to fight. Then the crowd arrives and joins the fight. We don’t hear any songs any more but diegetic sounds such as screams, steps, mumbles and clear dialogues, the sound of the fight and so on. It makes the scene more dramatic I think. Finally, Benjamin grabs the cross and avoids the crowd, rescues Elaine and they together leave the church. He locks everyone in the church with the cross, creates an ironic scene. They together run away and again all we hear is diegetic sound of the steps and the sound of the crowd fading away at the background, the traffic and so on. A bus arrives immediately and they get in the buss. The passengers are surprised by the couple’s entrance. They move to the back, while the sound of the engine is really so dominant, which creates a space. It really locates us in the buss. They sit down on the back seat, look back out the window, turn back and settle down. He laughs. They look each other and smile and look towards us. The close up shot to their faces is very similar to the ones previously done through the movie to Benjamin when he is alone. But now he is with this woman. He doesn’t look that much alienated or I can say now they are together alienated from the rest. But they are together. There is a slight smile on their faces. The expression of Benjamin’s is not as empty as before. And again the same song; ‘The Sound of Silence’, which always plays when he is alone, starts but this time he is not alone. But when we hear the music the characters’ expressions change slightly. They keep smiling and stop smiling for a while but finally the smile vanishes and is replaced by a bit worried or confused expression. Benjamin always looks toward us as he always does when this song plays. But she looks at around and especially at him. Again alienation, even between the lovers, can be observed. Scene changes and we see the bus form outside; from the behind. We watch them leave but the music continues and combines the scenes-again. It has a formal function as it has before several times through the movie. The film ends, the main characters’ names are appeared on a black background but the song still continues.

So Larsen thinks since the music is not composed for the movie there is no real connection between the lyrics and the narration. He also discusses in chapter 10 that when we see images with music even though there is no relation we want to create some sort of relation or we search for it and usually we create a meaning. He says we find metaphors (Larsen, Chapter 10*). I think he is right and Cook, in his book Analysing Musical Media, suggests using metaphor model to analyze audio-visual culture. Actually I read the lyrics and try to understand the relevance to Benjamin character to understand the function of the song. Is the song represent Benjamin’s thought or is it an external comment to him or to the scene in general? Actually I couldn’t find a very direct relation with the narration or his mind. According to Berliner’s and Furia’s theory, which claims, the song represents Benjamin’s thoughts and it always functions like that through the movie (Larsen, 154). I disagree so as Larsen. The lyrics are more critical to the society then Benjamin character. Benjamin is 21 year old and very confused young man. Although, he feels alienated and naïve and in a way decent than the people he is surrounded by, I don’t think he is as intellectual or mature as to make those critics done by the song. In my opinion, the song refers to his alienation and his loneliness, his confusion. So, yes, it has an emotional function. But also it makes a general and external comment both to the specific scene and the movie in general. I think the song is not in his mind. He can’t hear the song; he is far away from the song. Larsen also discusses the lyrics, its association with the narration and Benjamin’s mind. Other than couple of tiny instances, which are like coincidences there is no direct connection, he thinks, which I agree (Larsen, 154, 155, 156, 157). But on the other hand, in terms of external comment that the song made, I can say it fits nicely to the film in general. Such as the critic of the society or Benjamin’s and people’s alienation, his emotions, the critics of the church, etc. In addition to these, the song has a formal function; it perfectly combines different scenes.

Bibliography

Bordwell, David and Thompson, Kristin, Film Art; An Introduction. NY: Mc Grow Hill, 2008.
Cook, Nicholas, Analyzing Musical Multimedia. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
James Eugene Wirezbicki, Film Music: A History. NY: Routledge, 2009.
Larsen, Peter, Film Music. London: Reaktion, 2007.