The Ambiguity of The Graduate

Vague.
Obscure.

The Graduate is as ambiguous as they come.  An excellent film with an even better performance by Dustin Hoffman.  Ben Braddock is a shy recent college grad who is seduced by a family friend, Mrs. Robinson.

Ben has an affair with Mrs. Robinson that goes on for weeks.  Ben has no idea what he wants to do with his life now that he's graduated.

He's constantly being pressured by his parents to go to graduate school and get going on life.  Ben however, just wants to relax and weigh out his options before he makes any decisions.  A pool is shown a lot in the movie (including in the famous sinking scene)



...to emphasize how Ben feels his life is sinking and that he is not in control of the situation.

However, Ben meets Mrs. Robinson's daughter, Elaine and eventually falls in love with her much to the dismay of Mrs. Robinson.  In time, Elaine finds out about the affair Ben had with her mother and leaves Ben to marry another man.  Ben runs to the wedding to try to win Elaine back and is successful.  They run out of the church together and board a bus in this infamous scene



At the very end, there is a look of uncertainty on both Ben's and Elaine's faces.  The adrenaline rush of leaving the wedding is starting to cool down, and based on both of their stoic facial expressions, we are aware that they might have second thoughts of what they just did.  The very end sumarizes the very vague movie entirely.