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Benjamin Braddock has withstood four years of college life and on the way has collected every conceivable honor, both scholastic and athletic. But the end purpose seems to evade him. On the plane trip home, the one word "Why?" hammers his restless brain. But his proud parents, the Braddocks know. The purpose is to have a 'bash' for themselves and their friends. A party in progress with free-flowing drinks and conversation swirls about his head as guests fawn and paw and utter inanities. Ben goes to his room, observed by the one other sober member at the party, Mrs. Robinson, who follows him, asks him to take her home so she can be spared the humiliation of sobering her husband, Mr. Robinson. With indifference Ben drives Mrs. Robinson home, and follows her through the house to her bedroom where she casually asks him to help her to slip into something comfortable. The approach is as obvious as the intent; Mrs. Robinson, for all her suaveness and grace, her beauty and superiority, is in reality a predatory animal on the prowl for a little adventure, the nocturnal kind. Mr. Robinson comes home in time to interrupt-happily in Benjamin's mind-what could have been an 'interesting' situation. But Mr. Robinson's threat are only the catalyst which moves Ben from passive love into passion. Elaine is what he wants. He follows her to Berkeley, where 'Elaine is an undergraduate at college. From the campus to the classroom to the gym, and finally to the San Francisco Zoo where he learns to his anger and dismay that the Robinsons have conspired to marry Elaine off to Carl Smith whom he meets. In a meeting with Elaine she discloses that her mother has told her 'everything' including the fact that it was he who had forced his attentions on her mother. Simply put, he had raped her mother. This misinformaiton is followed by an ominous visit by Mr. Robinson, himself full of threats and implications. The youth's affair with his wife had resulted in divorce proceedings. Benjamin assures Mr. Robinson that he only wants his daughter, not his wife, a statement hardly calculated to warm a father's heart. The Robinsons get their wish: an arranged marriage of Elaine and Carl... Interrupted at the climatic moment by Ben who breaks into the ceremony and fending off parents, minister and friends, 'steals' the bride away from the wedding- and takes off in a passing municipal bus... presumably into a life of eternal wedded bliss. Bus just as Mrs. Robinson has no intention of letting up on her prey, Benjamin decides later to follow the scent. Awkwardly he arranges a first rendezvous in a fashionable hotel, where after a few stops and go's, their love match is culminated in the expected ritual. Mrs. Robinson-Benjamin is always careful to address her that way- and Ben are cozy lovers. There is always more of the same where it originally comes from. The love affair between Ben and Mrs. Robinson drifts along at a pace arranged by Mrs. Robinson. It was at his parents' insistence that he 'take out' Elaine Robinson- the Robinson daughter which propelled the relationship between the callow youth and the experienced matron into an interesting if disastrous course. Ben goes through the motions of taking Elaine out. She is bright, she is attractive, she is a good companion. But Ben goes on the date as a chores, as an obligation. After a stale dinner he forces her to go to a seedy strip joint by way of punishment or compensation or righting what he conceives as a wrong-taking out a girl recommended by his parents. Sensitive Elaine bolts from the twirling tassels, the nudity, the obscenity-for-sale, and in a flash Ben realizes that this frail, honest creature is really for him. This is what he wants, and what he needs. But Mrs. Robinson the baited tigress in her lair, has strong opinions about Benjamin going out with her daughter. In a carefully plotted rendezvous with Ben she warn him against ever seeing Elaine again. Mrs. Robinson tries to cow Ben with assorted dire threats.cited from a Japanese movie catalogue published in June 1968. |