Imprint Movie

Via libraryman

One of my favorite questions to ask people is "What movie did you see at in impressionable age that forever changed the way you saw all other movies?"

This isn't the same as "What is your favorite movie?" It's entirely possible, though implausible, that your "imprint movie," as I'll call it, isn't even a movie you like anymore, but simply a movie that was the one that hit you at the right time, the one that made you grow up and see things differently.

The imprint movie is the movie that makes you realize that any movie you saw before it doesn't count anymore; you might as well re-add it to your list because you didn't really see it, at least from the guise of your adult self.

Via Unboxed Writers

For me, that movie was Mike Nichol's 1967 film The Graduate, starring Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft. Hey, I never said the "imprint movie" had to be some indie gem known only to you and your coolest compadres. :)

In the movie, Ben (Dustin Hoffman) is a college graduate who returns to the glossy comfort of his parents' posh southern California world. He is filled with utter malaise, feeling expectations upon him to make the right choices and continue on the path to prosperous adulthood.

Via engadget

More out of apathy than desire, he succumbs to the advances of Mrs. Robinson, the elegantly aggressive and profoundly damaged older woman who swans in the same circles as his parents.

Via The Guardian

Ben "wakes up" when he begins to aggressively pursue Mrs. Robinson's daughter Elaine. Despite her loveliness, it is unclear what drives him so manically, other than sensing a fellow innocent soporifically gliding along on the path so clearly laid out for her. Benjamin takes action on her behalf, but it's unclear who he is really doing it for. That ambiguity about who he is, where they are, and where they are going continues towards the famous ending.

I saw this movie when I was about 16 or 17, when I was just beginning to imagine a life I might make for myself. I don't think the pressures I felt were imposed upon me; rather I imposed them on myself. The Graduate had an honest directness that spoke to me at the right movement. The glorious shots of California at its most dreamy and the crooning sounds of Simon and Garfunkel at their most haunting added up to a move experience that I hadn't known existed before.

Via DGA

I spoke to a teacher last week who said that his greatest wish was that his students become something. He didn't care what they became, as long as they became. 

He wanted them to avoid stasis and live in a continuous state of becoming. That sounds about right.