I agree with you that the ending is great, and unexpectedly ambiguous. I would recommend doing a compare/contrast with the end of "Georgy Girl," which not only got there a year earlier, but which still has the capacity to surprise, given how people misjudge it based on the commercial version of its theme song.
Oh, and thanks for pointing out the flags! I hadn't realized how much of that movie was shot on the USC campus, and how I unintentionally duplicated some of its shots in one of my student films! (See ~2:30-4:00 here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HCdd9TfTq4 )
Alrighty, I watched Georgy Girl. I didn’t take the end to be cynical, despite the tone of the song that plays over the credits. Georgy goes into her marriage with James Mason’s character with her eyes open: no, she’s not in love with him, but marriage will allow her to keep the baby that she does love. It’s not perfect, but hey, at least he’s a millionaire.
Of the movies I’ve watched that end moments after a marriage, I’d call Room at the Top (1959) the most cynical. Laurence Harvey’s character loses his true love when he marries someone else for money and he looks MISERABLE in the final shot. The Graduate strikes me as more ambiguous than Room at the Top and Georgy Girl: as least the protagonists in those other two films made well-considered decisions and you have an idea how they'll play out. We see the result of Ben's adrenaline-soaked race across California, but then what happens? Maybe it'll work out, or maybe the relationship will dissolve before the end of the bus ride.
I agree with you that the ending is great, and unexpectedly ambiguous. I would recommend doing a compare/contrast with the end of "Georgy Girl," which not only got there a year earlier, but which still has the capacity to surprise, given how people misjudge it based on the commercial version of its theme song.
Oh, and thanks for pointing out the flags! I hadn't realized how much of that movie was shot on the USC campus, and how I unintentionally duplicated some of its shots in one of my student films! (See ~2:30-4:00 here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HCdd9TfTq4 )
Alrighty, I watched Georgy Girl. I didn’t take the end to be cynical, despite the tone of the song that plays over the credits. Georgy goes into her marriage with James Mason’s character with her eyes open: no, she’s not in love with him, but marriage will allow her to keep the baby that she does love. It’s not perfect, but hey, at least he’s a millionaire.
Of the movies I’ve watched that end moments after a marriage, I’d call Room at the Top (1959) the most cynical. Laurence Harvey’s character loses his true love when he marries someone else for money and he looks MISERABLE in the final shot. The Graduate strikes me as more ambiguous than Room at the Top and Georgy Girl: as least the protagonists in those other two films made well-considered decisions and you have an idea how they'll play out. We see the result of Ben's adrenaline-soaked race across California, but then what happens? Maybe it'll work out, or maybe the relationship will dissolve before the end of the bus ride.