(In this weekly column, I’ll take two films, one old and one new, and compare them in terms of theme and substance, hopefully in some interesting ways. I’ll be trying not to spoil too much of these films, but in order to dissect them properly I’ll have to venture into spoiler territory a little.)
(Minor Spoiler Warning for (500) Days of Summer and The Graduate follow)
To dwell too long on the homage toward Mike Nichols’ The Graduate drawn by Marc Webb’s new non-romantic comedy (500) Days of Summer would be to state the obvious. In fact, when images from one film actually appear in another, I feel like it stops being homage and starts being an overt, friendly nudge to what’s come before. Anyone who has seen Webb’s film knows what I’m talking about, and should also know that Dustin Hoffman’s winking smile used to poppily visualize Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Tom Hansen’s mindset in 500 is perfectly at home in a wonderful film.
Even without the visual cue, the tale of Tom Hansen and Summer Finn’s romantic rollercoaster ride would evoke memories in the educated filmgoer of The Graduate. I mean, the first five minutes of The Graduate have parallels in a variety of films, ranging from Jackie Brown’s opening credit sequence to Garden State’s immediate sense of morose to Donnie Darko’s … immediate sense of morose. That one even shares an actress, the talented Katharine Ross.
However, there’s value to comparison between (500) Days of Summer and The Graduate, though, on more than just a superficial level. Both Tom Hansen and Dustin Hoffman’s Benjamin in The Graduate are desperate youths, products of a society that markets and tampers with the emotional tracks of the next generation. Tom, as he so astutely remarks, has been force-fed romantic malarkey on store-bought cards since the cradle, leading him to idealize relationships and make mountains out of molehills. Benjamin is a talent pulled in a hundred directions at once (literally, in the case of The Graduate’s opening scene) by an older generation’s apathy and clockwork mechanics.
Benjamin’s seduction by the infamous Mrs. Robinson is a seduction by the hand of a whole slew of bad ideas being thrown his way; Tom’s catastrophic (and hilariously relatable) relationship with Summer is the sad consequence of around 23 years of misconception. Tom’s journey is Benjamin’s, a mad dash through post-college anonymity through one means or another. Without ruining much of either film, it’s safe to say that both characters have much more of a path to travel before they find Mrs. Right, or a even a sense of direction. Both films revolve around spinning compasses.
As a person who is slowly approaching my graduation from college, it’s not hard to relate to both of these men. Watching both of this films within the span of a month at this point in my life is poignant and sad and funny in just the ways the filmmakers intended. If (500) Days of Summer were a weaker film, its inclusion of footage from The Graduate would seem awkward and unnecessary; as it stands, it threads the film to a much larger cloth of movies that don’t just define events and characters, but movements and periods in life. Gordon-Levitt is a torchbearer for Hoffman’s iconic character, and while one film is a classic, both will undoubtedly be of equal importance to me.
Try to catch (500) Days of Summer before it leaves theaters. In a summer filled with the usual fluffy, explosive entertainment, Marc Webb’s film is unusual, insightful and inventive, with a visual flair that owes much to The Graduate. If you haven’t seen that film, do. It’s as pertinent, funny and phenomenally well-acted as it was the day it was released.
