Daily Dialogue — October 10, 2011
“Plastics.”
— Mr. McGuire (Walter Brooke), The Graduate (1967), screenplay by Calder Willingham and Buck Henry, based on the novel by Charles Webb
The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is memorable one-word lines. The Graduate suggested by Gabe.
Trivia: Two interesting camera techniques are used in the film. In the scene where Benjamin is running, he is shown at some distance running straight at the camera, an effect which makes him look as if he getting nowhere as he’s running. (This technique is accomplished with a very long telephoto lens, which foreshortens distances in relation to the camera.) In another scene, Benjamin is walking from the right side of the screen to the left, while everyone else in the scene is moving from left to right. In western culture, things that move left to right seem natural (think of the direction you read words on a page), those that move right to left seem to be going the wrong way. These two visual techniques echo the themes of the film, Benjamin is going the wrong way, and getting nowhere in life.
Dialogue On Dialogue: Why was this one-word line named by the AFI as the #42 all-time side of dialogue? What does it mean? What is its subtext?
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