This is my favorite movie on this list. When I watched it for the first time ten years ago, I didn’t connect with it at all. Now, I find it one of the most poignant and relevant movies I’ve ever seen, which probably says more about me than about the movie itself, though that is neither here nor there, so let’s move on.
There’s something deeply relatable about the character director Mike Nichols and screenwriter Buck Henry were able to put on screen, with the help of a career-making performance by a young Dustin Hoffman. Benjamin Braddock is one of the great characters in movie history that is really doing most of the work internally, and doesn’t allow many people to know what’s going on inside his head. In fact, he is constantly trying to get people to leave him alone, seemingly crippled by the external pressures from an older generation that doesn’t seem to understand the challenges he faces. It’s a character who hails from a rising generation that wants to define themselves in their own terms rather than simply adhering to the expectations of their parents.
Even folks like Benjamin who aren’t the countercultural clichés who got most of the attention in the 1960s want to find a way to somehow rebel, to find their own identity. He just happens to learn things about his identity while banging his parents’ friend. The terrific insight by the end of it is that even though these younger adults find what they think is their own identity and their own path, they’re not ultimately satisfied. There’s something seemingly hollow to this pursuit they’ve put so much energy into, even though it seems like it was still supremely important. Whether any of it was worth it is the defining question.
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