Would you like me to seduce you?

2007-09-29T19:19:00.000-07:00

Mr. Braddock: Don't you think that idea is a little half-baked?

Benjamin: Oh no, Dad, it's completely baked.

So what do I plan to do now, having been given the keys to my own little red Alfa Romeo Spider? I plan on taking it for a spin through The Graduate, in some ways scene by scene, providing musings on the movie, life and trivia (which I will steal from wherever I find it). I would like to also say insight, but we'll see ... So I hope you join me for the ride. Top down, OK?

(Thanks again, imdb.com)

Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me.

2007-09-29T13:19:00.000-07:00

I don't know the year I first saw "The Graduate." It was the early '70s. I was in junior high school. I remember TV Guide's fall preview issue listed the major motion pictures that the networks would show that year. This was big, huge. There were no HBOs, no DVDs, hell, no VCRs. So the networks were it. If you missed a movie in the theater, you had to wait for TV. So I remember looking at that TV Guide and mentally marking when I could watch "The Graduate" -- and "Planet of the Apes" -- on my family's B&W TV.

Well, that was the long way around. And maybe not the best lead, huh? What I wanted to tell you is that "The Graduate" made an immediate impact on me. It started with the music, Simon & Garfunkel, and the fact I felt a disconnection, even at that young age, with so much around me. I saw my disconnect echoed in Benjamin Braddock, and "The Sound of Silence" was a song that spoke to me (to use a really bad pun).

So the music hooked me -- it also won a Grammy -- and when the movie came to TV, I was very excited. And it didn't disappoint. It was the perfect movie for that time, obviously not just for me, but for a generation that wanted something different. Even though we might not know what that different life was, and didn't realize that, in the end, we may end up with what our parents had.

Ben and his father in his bed room just after the son has flown home from college in the East.

Mr. Braddock: What's the matter? The guests are all downstairs, Ben, waiting to see you.

Benjamin: Look, Dad, could you explain to them that I have to be alone for a while?

Mr. Braddock: These are all our good friends, Ben. Most of them have known you since, well, practically since you were born. What is it, Ben?

Benjamin: I'm just...

Mr. Braddock: Worried?

Benjamin: Well...

Mr. Braddock: About what?

Benjamin: I guess about my future.

Mr. Braddock: What about it?

Benjamin: I don't know... I want it to be...

Mr. Braddock: To be what?

Benjamin: [looks at his father] ... Different.

(Thank you, imdb.com)

The Singleman Party

Would you like me to seduce you?

Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me.