Comparing Affairs: The Graduate vs. Norwegian Wood

If there is one thing that humans are seemingly designed to do, it is to find connections. It is the reason why science exists, and also why many superstitions exist. I found myself in a rather uncanny coincidence when I just so happened to see The Graduate one weekend and Norwegian Wood the next. Both films are about an affair. Not only are they about affairs, but they are both about young men trying to find themselves through these affairs. So I thought to myself, why throw away an opportunity to do some film analysis?

The Graduate starts off with Benjamin Braddock graduating college and returning home to the tune of “Sound of Silence” by Simon and Garfunkel. The song foreshadows this ennui and boredom that Ben feels after (and perhaps during) his college experience. He ends up driving Mrs. Robinson, his father’s friend’s wife, home, and shortly after, she offers Ben to have an affair with her (cheating on her husband). While the affair goes on, Ben begins to be pressured by his parents (whom Ben is keeping his affair with Mrs. Robinson a secret) to date Elaine, Mrs. Robinson’s daughter. Ben attempts to sabotage his date with Elaine but they end up really enjoying themselves anyway. Mrs. Robinson tells Ben that he can’t date her daughter, and this makes Ben want to be with her even more. Elaine goes back to college while Ben begins to follow her everywhere she goes in order to marry her (to the tune of Scarborough Fair). Though Elaine is already engaged to someone else、and Ben is determined to follow her everywhere, even to her own wedding with somebody else. He bangs on the church glass and starts a brawl to help her escape. The movie ends with both of them on a bus, having escaped the wedding party, but not the ennui that fills them (indicated by the same song that started the film,The Sound of Silence).

Norwegian Wood, on the other hand, takes place in 60’s Japan, where we follow the story of Toru Watanabe. The movie starts though with the suicide of Watanabe’s best friend, and it shows him as a quiet fellow that is focused primarily on studying and various jobs he has to work for money. He runs into Naoko, his best friend’s girlfriend before he committed suicide. They seem to hit it off, but after their first sexual experience together, it becomes clear that Naoko may not be emotional adjusted enough for a relationship (or even normal life for that matter). She is sent away to a therapy facility in the middle of the forests in Kyoto while Watanabe is left to continue studying on his own. In that time, Watanabe falls in love with Midori, a smart woman who does not seem to have any problems with emotions (in fact, if anything, the initial problem is that perhaps she is almost too reserved in her emotions). Watanabe has to then deal with whether he should stick with Naoko and try to be her emotional support or should he switch to Midori whom he has less of a emotional connection, but has a much better intellectual connection. As the story goes, he gets closer to Midori, but as Naoko starts fading away, he becomes more adamant that he must stay with Naoko to the point when he promises that they will live together. Unfortunately, Naoko ends up taking her own life, and the movie ends with Watanabe telling Midori that he wants to be with her.

Both films actually have many similarities. Both are set around the 60’s-70’s, both have young men trying to figure out what they do, but where they differ completely is how the movies themselves try to tell the story. The Graduate is much more about showing shots of the characters at particular angles and giving montages to really give the audience a feel of the story. Music also plays a big role, filling in the emotional holes where the dialog just can’t express what the characters are feeling. A lot of the story in The Graduate revolves around people’s inability to communicate their needs. Whether it is Ben’s inability to express his ennui, Elaine’s inability to communicate what she wants, Mrs. Robinson inability to communicate just about anything about herself, and almost the comical way Mr. Robinson seems to misunderstand everything anybody says. Norwegian Wood on the other hand revolves around the narrator’s inner dialog, conversations between characters, and character confessions for much of the story of the movie. It is the visual focus of The Graduate that makes The Graduate a better movie for me, but it is the characters in Norwegian Wood that make it the better story for me.

It is that conflict between better movie making and better story-telling that makes me question what I really want out of a movie. Cinema is, in essence, visual story telling, but there are so many other elements that comprise a movie that it comes down to personal preference to what a person really values and pays attention to. The Graduate has some extremely memorable camera shots (especially the shot that shows Mrs. Robinson after Ben tells Elaine about the affair in the corner of the hallway, she looks so small and helpless in a way that words can’t easily express in that short a time) that defines that movie and makes it a classic. On the other hand, the moral and emotional struggle that Watanabe goes through about dealing with someone who is suicidal, but then having to deal with his own needs, is much more compelling. While Ben is sympathetic due to his own depression and ennui, he often comes off as creepy and obsessive about Elaine. Doing things like following her to college, never leaving her alone, and just generally being a pest to all those around him. In the end, that is sort of the point of the movie; showing how his behavior didn’t really make anyone happy in the end. There is a sense though that, in The Graduate, that if Ben was a different person and made better decisions, he could have been happy, which heightens the tragedy at the end. In Norwegian Wood, there is a sense that people are just sort of filled with ennui normally and people have to do what they do in order to be happy. Depression in The Graduate seems like a disease everybody has, while Norwegian Wood treats depression as a normal thing that people get sometimes.

I think that is why I prefer Norwegian Wood better as a movie. It may not be nearly iconic or the camera work, acting, etc. may not be as good as The Graduate, but Norwegian Wood has it where it counts: story. The Graduate is a comedy that tries to be serious, but Norwegian Wood is a drama, that in retrospect can be kind of funny. I feel that the act of “funny in retrospect” is much truer to life, and it makes the more compelling film. Either way, I would encourage you to see both.