Preview

The Graduate/American Beauty Sequence Analysis

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1251 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Graduate/American Beauty Sequence Analysis
Sequence Analysis: The Graduate

The Graduate is a subversive, wistful coming-of-age tale epitomizing the ambiguity of reaching adulthood, and the struggle of this experience. Robert Surtees, the cinematographer, successfully uses mise-en-scene to illustrate these particular themes. A variety of props are scattered throughout the opening sequence that allude to Ben’s melancholy and detachment. Additionally, the same sequence uses social and graphic blocking to depict the impedance Ben feels from his parents and their friends.

The sequence begins with a scene of Benjamin sitting in front of his fish tank, submerged in thoughts of his future, and later confronted by his father. Fill lighting isolates Ben’s face from the dim background, and enhances the overall sense of glum and dispassion. Moreover, Ben’s impassive expression and wish for a ‘different’ future is also in strong contrast to the enthusiasm and conformity seen later at the party. The subtle placement of the sea-diver beside Ben only adds to this sense of alienation, while, at the same time, foreshadows the comical events at the second cocktail party later in the movie. In fact, the use of water is frequent throughout the film as tool to illustrate Ben’s self-reflection and wavering identity.

Perhaps the prop most indicative of Ben, or at least humorous, is the black and white portrait of a clown frowning behind a painted smile, which is briefly shown before Ben’s parents lead him into the party. Clearly, the painting acts as a metaphor for Ben’s character within the sequence, yet, it is so outlandish that the mise-en-scene momentarily teeters from naturalistic to theatrical. However, this is characteristic of The Graduate as a whole. While the movie seems to maintain a certain level of absurdity throughout, it is always hidden behind a certain amount of reality, which is what makes the film’s message so poignant. The quintessential example of this is when Mr. McGuire

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    1. Class: Working Class. Living right outside the main city. She is the only child of her parents.…

    • 1723 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout the film, the ship has an explosion and causes the people to fall into the water. Due to the explosion on the ship, most of the people did not know how to swim and a quantity of them drowned. As the film continues, a shark attack takes place. It causes the audience fear and raises the level of excitement towards the public. Rainsford, being the only survivor, leaves the audience wondering. Questioning how Rainsford is the only one who made it out alive out of all of the people. The author also shows a lot of different perspectives of expressing emotions throughout the film. The love interest between the characters begin…

    • 521 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Symbolism In Big Fish

    • 262 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In the film Big Fish directed by Tim Burton water is a big, if not the biggest symbol in the entire film. Water symbolizes life, healing, and the flow of time.…

    • 262 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Secret Goldfish

    • 606 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The fish tank is a symbol of the ebb and flow between good and bad times. The fish’s existence which relies solely on the owner 's hand is predictable only by the constancy of the protagonists’ marriage. When the marriage is stable the aquarium is clean, the fish is well fed and happy “wondrously free, swimming – for all he knew – in Lake Superior… free of desires, needs, and everything else” (218). This clean state represents the favorable parts of life. When the marriage become unstable the opposite happens, the aquarium became a filthy mess, “the water so clotted it had become a substantial mass, a putty within the fish was presumably swimming, or dead” (215). The dirty stage symbolizes the base facets of life; the water is restricted, dark, and full of need. The fish tank is a representation of the ephemeral nature of life and the good and bad times we all face in our own lives.…

    • 606 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In lines 22-23, the speaker gives a detailed view of how the fish is in a near death experience and is fighting for its life. A small use of figurative language is used to describe the view of the fish’s gills as frightening (24). This proves how scared the fish was getting as it was almost down to its last breath. The gills are revealed as “fresh and crisp with blood” to continue to reiterate that death is on the way through imagery (25-26). This shows how man’s power can either be used for the better or the worse in the world. At this point, readers can see how the environment depends on the actions of human beings. The speaker then starts to think about the interior of the fish; they speak about its “white flesh”, “bones”, “black and red entrails” and “pink swim-bladder”. As the speaker looks into the fish’s eyes (34-35), the speaker makes note of how “shallow” and “yellow” its orbital area looks. In lines 37-40, the description of the eyes is continued. At this moment, there is a showdown between the narrator and the fish. Their eyes do not leave each other and the speaker starts to reconsider its actions. It is safe to infer that the fish’s eyes read desperation as it was facing death and was in need of a miracle. Once again, this establishes how much a person can influence the world through positive or negative actions. Bishop describes how sad the fish looked (45) and later emphasized on how intense it…

    • 1191 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Safely Home

    • 1060 Words
    • 5 Pages

    college, Ben fell into a large amount of mistakes and dramatic experiences such as his…

    • 1060 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    пловец

    • 2620 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Analyze the importance of water imagery in "The Swimmer" and other works of literature, for example, John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath and Saul Bellow's Seize the Day. What different kinds of things does water represent in these works?…

    • 2620 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    This is water is a mighty odd title, don’t you think? Throughout the reading I kept the image of the fish in the back of my mind, what does the fish scenario mean? David Foster Wallace tells a couple stories: a tale of two men in Alaska and a story of a real-world scenario of the reader at grocery store. Each story prevailed a meaning to me, though the most vibrant element of this presentation was found in the scenario of the grocery store.…

    • 277 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Breakfast Club is a film about four different students-Allison, Claire, Andrew, John, and Brian - who come from different backgrounds and are serving a Saturday detention. After they get comfortable with one another’s presence, they all share their personal stories. Principal Vernon, who is powerful and strict, gives the students’ directions in order to write an essay describing who they think they are. The movie centers around the social divisions between high school students, labels that students feel are given to them, and the absence of a genuine relationship with teachers and administrators in school. The students are deviant in their unique ways and progressively overcome their differences and eventually become friends. The Breakfast Club is a significant and valuable film to observe in a sociology class because it offers detailed observations of status, deviance, social sanctions and control theory, and the sociological perspectives.…

    • 1364 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    A Single Man mise-en-scene

    • 1561 Words
    • 7 Pages

    The shot behind the opening credits could give the audience the impression that the character, George, is having an out-of-body experience (OOBE). In the shot you can see George slowly sinking under water, whilst he is naked. George is alone within the shot, showing that he is feeling lonely and isolated, which is a factor of an OOBE. Being depressed can make you feel like you’re drowning, which can come as a result of sinking and being unable to resurface. Which is why the water is an important element in this shot, as it would start to give the audience thoughts of how George is feeling and what genre it might be.…

    • 1561 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Billy Elliot

    • 396 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The progression of moving ‘into the world’ provides opportunities that can lead to growth and development. This change in an individual’s life is shown through significant experiences that force the individual to step out of their comfort zone and into the new world. Scene 10 in Billy Elliot is a scene that demonstrates the protagonist, Billy Elliot, confronting his father and family and dancing on the table. Daldry uses close up shots and editing between Billy, his family and Mrs Wilkinson, his teacher to show the tension between them and to emphasise the panic they are all in as Billy continues to confront his family’s comfort zone. The use of editing shots shows that Billy is caught between two worlds – the world of his ordinary life and tradition and the new world of dancing. The experience for Billy was significant: it allowed Billy to challenge the expectations of his family and provided him with an opportunity for growth and development.…

    • 396 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Flashes of bright lights, greens, yellows, reds...mixing together...spinning, dancing...overwhelming the soul and mind's eye. Captivating, titillating and over-stimulating, the music surrounds him, the voices rising and falling to a conductor's chaotic direction...Everything stops. The soothing calm drips off his nose in fat drops and he lets the warm, slightly stale air dry his self-saturated head. Something glistens over in the corner of the room and it catches his peace-seeking eye. The blues have a calming effect on his psyche and the noise that had aggravated his being seem to have died in favor of a throaty, rhythm-and-blues induced voice. And as the crooner's aching, lovelorn melody swells into the corners of the house; he becomes entranced with the multitudinous tank of blue. Striking and yet completely placid yellows, greens and electric blues swish in and out of the water paradise, creating a place for his thoughts to retreat into. As the liquid swirls around the dreamy fish and his tumultuous ponderings begin to abate, another human reflection suddenly materializes. In a reverent awe he allows himself to explore the facial construction of the captivating young maiden. Her eyes appear to be as blue as the water in front of him and he begins to lose himself in them just as he did in the enthralling underwater kingdom. Gold flecked strands of silk cascade down over her touchable, ivory skin and her lips curve into a mirror image of his apparent approval. In his flustered mind, he finds his thoughts tainted with desire, passion, and longing...his hand, quaking a bit...reaches out to touch the glass that separates the young courter from his…

    • 272 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Ben, a magnificent young man, has many characteristics that are expressed throughout the story. The theater, Ben's second home, is a place where he excels, especially in the singing…

    • 254 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    American Beauty Essay

    • 452 Words
    • 2 Pages

    American Beauty has a lot of interesting scenes that catches the watchers attention. This film is a comedy drama that tells the story of Lester and Carolyn Burnham and their daughter Jane, a stereotypical American family who have a beautiful home like a typical rich family would have. This creates the illusion that they have the perfect American family. Lester is facing a mid-life crisis. His life is meaningless because of a job he has had for more than ten years and his family seem to hate him. Lester feels Carolyn controls him and forces him to act happy. Carolyn is frustrated as she feels she has lost control of her life, and seems to obsess with everything appearing normal and orderly. Jane is a confused teenager who shows hatred towards her parents and rebels against them. She is angered by Lester when he first meets her friend, Angela, who is the stereotypical image of a beautiful American teenager, and Lester's lust for her begins. Jane then finds herself interested in her neighbor, Ricky, a young drug dealer. Ricky's father, the Colonel, a homophobic abusive ex-marine, and Barbara, his wife, a broken woman who seems beyond repair. The gay couple are the happiest and most normal characters in the film. Now here is where it gets twisted, despite being portrayed as wrong and un-normal by the Colonel because of their sexuality; who he thinks his son and Lester have sexual attention. I think the director uses contrasting colors and mise-en-scene in this film to successfully convey to the audience certain feelings such as love and danger, and to reveal each characters personalities and feelings towards each other clearly. Mise-en-scene creates symbolism to further the audiences understanding of the characters feelings about their own lives and their relationships with each other, such as the roses symbolizing lust, power and danger and the front door, which is also red, symbolizing danger. Red…

    • 452 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    McKay Coble, scene designer, was tasked with sending the story back in time. She used crisp and clean retro furniture to return to the 50’s. The walls were covered in portraits, suggesting that this home was inhabited by a very close nuclear family. Above the stage, there were permanent fixtures of exposed pipes, and along the perimeter of the stage, there were open grates suggesting that water would play a pervasive role in the story. Every so often, these pipes would leak onto the grates. Whether this was done deliberately or not, every time a droplet of water fell, the audience was reminded of the over-looming aquatics. The role of water cannot be understated, it is very much related to the main conflict and assumes the role as a major thread throughout the show. The home was divided by two partitions, with a dining room upstage, and a living room downstage. Making these two rooms visible to the audience was quite the challenge for Coble. The walls that divided the rooms were lined with a see-through fixture so that the dining room and all action was entirely visible. Before intermission, the stage mechanically retracted to expose a larger concrete area. A writer’s desk, complete with a typewriter, pens, and files, ascended from a trapdoor center stage. This total transformation was a smooth transition from the Stockmann’s home to the office of the local paper’s editor. At the end of…

    • 1129 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Better Essays

Related Topics