The American Journal of Psychoanalysis, 2014, 74, (233–249) © 2014 Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis 0002-9548/14 www.palgrave-journals.com/ajp/

WHY, MRS. ROBINSON? THE SEDUCTION OF TEENAGE BOYS BY WOMEN IN CLASSIC FILMS Calvin A. Colarusso

Utilizing three classic films, and psychoanalytic developmental theory, this paper explores the conscious and unconscious reasons why older women become sexually involved with teenage boys. After a presentation of aspects of young adult and midlife female development and a psychodynamic explanation for the developmental similarities between adolescence and menopause, each of the three films is summarized. The dynamics behind the women’s behavior, as presented in the films, are discussed. The third section of the paper discusses similarities and differences among the three women and the negative effects on the boys’ development.

KEY WORDS: female development; seduction; infatuation; child abuse; adolescence and menopause DOI:10.1057/ajp.2014.14

Twice in the course of individual development certain instincts are considerably reinforced: at puberty, and, in women, at the menopause. We are not in the least surprised if a person who was not neurotic before becomes so at these times. When his instincts were no so strong, he succeeded in taming them; but when they are reinforced he can no longer do so. The repressions behave like dams against the pressure of water. The same effects which are produced by these two physiological reinforcements of instinct, may be brought about in an irregular fashion by accidental causes at any other period of life. (Freud, 1937, p. 226)

INTRODUCTION

Nearly everyone is familiar with the classic film The Graduate (1967) in which Anne Bancroft as the famous Mrs. Robinson seduces young Benjamin, played by Dustin Hoffman. The film has become part of our culture and has been immortalized by the Simon and Garfunkel song that plays throughout the film. But The Graduate is by no means an isolated example of the theme of an older Calvin A. Colarusso, M.D., Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, University of California at San Diego; Training and Supervising Analyst in Adult and Child Psychoanalysis, San Diego Psychoanalytic Institute. Address correspondence to Calvin A. Colarusso, M.D., 1020 Prospect Street, Suite 415 A, La Jolla, CA 92037; e-mail: [email protected]

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woman and a teenage boy. In this paper I will utilize three classic films to explore this theme by focusing on the dynamics of the women seducers, comparing and contrasting their motivations. By providing psychoanalytic developmental theory on the midlife development of women, and a discussion of psychoanalytic thinking on the similarities between puberty and the menopause, I hope to provide a theoretic framework for a deeper understanding of their motivation. I’ve chosen to focus on women rather than men because the theme is less explored in film and in the psychodynamic literature. The three films to be discussed are as follows: The Graduate 1967; Tea and Sympathy, 1956 and The Last Picture Show, 1971. I will begin by briefly discussing some of the major developmental and dynamic tasks that are at the core of female development in middle adulthood, ages 35–65. All of our “heroines” fall into that age group. As is evident from the opening quote, Freud had some interesting things to say about female development in midlife. So does psychoanalyst, G. J. Montero, from Buenos Aires (Montero, 2013a; 2013b). Then each of the three films will be summarized with a discussion of each woman’s dynamics at the end of the section. In the concluding section of the paper I will discuss the similarities and differences among the three women and the effect of their relationships on the teenage boys. The paper concludes with a discussion of how the presentation of these relationships has changed since 1956 to the present.

PART ONE Female sexual development in adulthood

Development may be loosely defined as the thinking and behavior that results from the interaction among the body, mind and environment at any point in the life cycle (René Spitz, 1965. For an in-depth study of psychoanalytic views of life transitions in films, see Akhtar, 2011). Thus, it is important to understand that as women enter middle age, they experience profound physical and psychological changes and re-examine their core relationships. All of this dramatic change is propelled by the awareness of the aging process in the body and the realization, both consciously and unconsciously, that life is half over. If significant dissatisfactions exist in one’s relationships, such as with husbands, the time to change is NOW before chances of starting over are significantly diminished (Colarusso, 1992).

Accepting the aging process in the body

Marcia Goin (1990) described the effect as follows: “The appearance of one’s body in midlife takes on a different significance. Efforts to remain trim and fit

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are made to maintain health and youthfulness and to deter the effects of aging” (p. 524). In addition to the obvious differences in vision, hair color and skin tone, there are even more important changes in the more private aspects of physical functioning such as the cessation of menstruation and alterations in sexual capabilities. Unlike men, women lose the ability to procreate in midlife. The menopause is not only a significant physical event, it is also powerful psychologically because of the need to adjust to the loss of an ability that is at the core of one’s femininity. Nature’s primary intention for the reproductive system is the propagation of the species, the creation of the next generation. Nature does not treat post-reproductive humans of either sex particularly well. Their reproductive function accomplished, they are no longer essential to the continuation of the species. From an evolutionary standpoint they are expendable. Each middle-aged woman must engage the painful developmental task of mourning for the lost body of youth. Many women become aware of the aging process in their bodies when they become “invisible,” no longer the object of sexual glances from younger men. The physical changes just described are experienced mentally in the form of body monitoring—a continual, conscious and unconscious, narcissistically injurious comparison of the midlife body with the body of adolescence and young adulthood. This preoccupation leads to a normative conflict between wishes to deny the aging process and acceptance of the loss of a youthful body (Colarusso and Nemiroff, 1981). Pathological attempts to deny aging include uses of plastic surgery and attempts at fusion with younger bodies. The latter is certainly one of the most obvious, but unexplored, dynamic in the three older women in these films. The acceptance of time limitation and personal death

Stimulated by both biology and the environment, by the aging process in the body, and by such experiences as the death of parents and contemporaries, the growth of children into adulthood, and grandparenthood; women in this developmental phase come face-to-face with their mortality with the painful, but unavoidable recognition that the future is limited and they will die. Thoughts and feelings about having a limited amount of time left to live increase in frequency and intensity and become an extremely powerful organizer, forcing a significant re-examination of all aspects of the positive and negative aspects of how life is lived in the present, particularly relationships. In these films the presence of unhappy marriages or the absence of a committed loving relationship is a very powerful factor that propels these women toward their young, vulnerable, controllable victims.

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Cultural anthropologist, David Guttman (1987) discovered that middleaged women become more assertive, less interested in caring for their families, and increasingly directed toward activities beyond home and family. They seek elsewhere for their gratifications with a determination that did not exist earlier in their lives. Such was the case with Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate (1967), Mrs. Popper in The Last Picture Show (1971), and Mrs. Reynolds in Tea and Sympathy (1956). Intimacy, love and sex—maintaining intimacy

Whereas the young adult is involved in developing the capacity for intimacy, the middle-aged man and woman are focused on maintaining it in the face of powerful physical, psychological and environmental pressures. In a longstanding relationship, inhibitors of sustaining physical and emotional closeness include changes in attitudes about sex and sexual functioning because of aging, the realistic demands of work and provisions for children and elderly parents. In regard to sexual functioning the task is twofold: (1) to accept the appearance of the middle-aged body and continue to find it sexually stimulating and (2) to accept changes in the ability of the body to perform sexually. Both men and women, who cannot accept the changes in the appearance of the partner’s body or his or her diminished interest in sex or ability to perform, stop having sex, have affairs or leave the marriage, usually in search of a younger person. Thus, each middle-aged woman must seriously reappraise her relationship with her partner. This reappraisal often includes experiencing intense feelings of nostalgia for former lovers, mourning for missed opportunities, and struggling with the question of whether to settle for the status quo or fling oneself into the jungle of the middle-aged singles world in search of greater satisfaction. For many the conflict rages internally. For other women it is manifest by relationships with inappropriate partners such as the boys in these films, or affairs, trial separations or divorce. Many of the developmental issues and tasks just described are not addressed directly in the films. It is my hope that by having a working knowledge of them, the reader will be able to experience a more in-depth understanding of the relationships being portrayed on the screen The psychoanalytic understanding of the relationship between puberty and middle age

There is a significant psychoanalytic literature on the similarities between development during adolescence and female development in midlife, more

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specifically the menopause. The quote from Freud at the very beginning of the paper is one of four references that he made to this connection. Here is a second (Freud, 1937): We see people fall ill who have hitherto been healthy, who have met with no fresh experience and whose relation to the external world has undergone no change, so that the onset of their illness inevitably gives an impression of spontaneity. A closer consideration of such cases, however, shows us that none the less a change has taken place in them whose importance we must rate very highly as a cause of illness. As a result of their having reached a particular period of life, and in conformity with regular biological processes, the quantity of libido in their mental economy has experienced an increase which is in itself enough to upset the equilibrium of their health and to set up the necessary conditions for a neurosis. It is well known that more or less sudden increases of libido of this kind are habitually associated with puberty and the menopause—with the attainment of a certain age in women; in some people they may in addition be manifested in periodicities that are still unknown. (p. 236)

There were no dramatic changes taking place in these women’s lives. What was driving them to seduce these boys was clearly motivated by internal factors. Montero (2013a, 2013b), a major psychoanalytic researcher on midlife, has explored the nature of the infatuation of middle-aged women with teenage boys. That teenage boys and girls become infatuated, as opposed to falling in love, with individuals of their own age and older, is well recognized and understood. Those concepts will be addressed later in the paper. Montero suggests that middle-age infatuation is an attempt to recover pubertal feelings when the body was hormonally exploding at the very moment that the woman is experiencing the opposite, a significant decrease in hormone production and a loss of the capacity for procreation. In other words, it is compensatory, a way of dealing with loss through a misguided attempt at rejuvenation through physical involvement with hormonally flooded, virile, young men and their penises. He also suggests that the menopause represents a kind of “death,” namely the loss of the ability to reproduce. These films present the women’s conscious thoughts and actions but do not, or cannot, address the unconscious determinants. Psychoanalytic theory provides that insight. PART TWO: A CONSIDERATION OF THE THREE FILMS The Graduate

Whereas man grows old gradually, woman is suddenly deprived of her femininity, she is still relatively young when she loses the erotic

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attractiveness and the fertility, which, in the view of society and in her own, provide the justification of her existence and her opportunity for happiness. With no future, she has about one-half of her life to live (Simone de Beauvoir, 1974, p. 640). The Graduate (1967) was directed by Mike Nichols and is based on the 1963 novel of the same name by Charles Webb. The film stars the savagely wonderful Ann Bancroft as Mrs. Robinson and Dustin Hoffman as the deweyeyed innocent, Benjamin Braddock. In 1996 The Graduate was selected for preservation in the United States National Film registry as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” The other plots in these films will not be explored because of time and focus. Since it is the best known film of the three, I decided to consider it first. Mrs. Robinson is the iconic example of a middle-aged woman who becomes involved with a boy. Although Benjamin is 20, and becomes 21 during the film, he is a virgin and very much a boy sexually. Mrs. Robinson preys upon Benjamin from the moment he walks in the front door to a welcome home party thrown by his parents. Dressed in a full length, leopard-skin coat, the perfect symbol of a big cat stalking her prey, Mrs. Robinson approaches Benjamin and asks for a ride home, taking him away from family and friends. Step by step she leads him into her home, insists he have a drink with her as she tells him, and us, that she is an alcoholic. As she prowls, Benjamin states the obvious, “Mrs. Robinson, you’re trying to seduce me.” She denies it and he apologizes. Mrs. Robinson takes Benjamin (she always calls him Benjamin) to her daughter, Elaine’s room (his future love and the focus of the second half of the movie) on the pretense of looking at her portrait. Once there she asks him to unzip her dress. When he resists she uses another ploy, please go and get my purse. When Benjamin returns with her purse Mrs. Robinson locks the door behind them and stands naked in front of him. “I’m very attracted to you,” she says. Behind his shock and dismay is just a flicker of interest. Throughout the film the inappropriate nature of their relationship is conveyed by the fact that they always refer to each other formally— Mrs. Robinson and Benjamin. We don’t even learn Mrs. Robinson’s first name. When Mr. Robinson arrives home, getting Benjamin off the hook for the moment, he is happy to see his business partner’s son whom he has known all of the boy’s life. We learn that Ben is 20, and will be 21 next week. Mrs. Robinson enters the room just as Mr. Robinson is telling Ben to sow his wild oats before settling down. As Ben becomes acutely uncomfortable and quickly moves to leave, Mrs. Robinson calls out that she hopes to see him soon.

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Director Nichols gives us little time to digest what has happened. Ben, stilted and rigid but clearly aroused, calls up Mrs. Robinson from the Taft hotel and invites her for a drink. She quickly suggests that he get a room. They go separately to a very ordinary, slightly dingy hotel room; the perfect physical setting to convey the tawdry nature of the affair. Ben becomes anxious and guilt-ridden, bangs his head against the wall and says he cannot do this. Mrs. Robinson suspects, correctly, that Ben is a virgin. Subsequent scenes in the hotel room tell us that Ben has learned what to do but is not completely sure of what is happening to him. Then in the most important scene in the film in regard to our focus on Mrs. Robinson’s dynamics, Ben, now cock-sure of himself in bed and no longer afraid of Mrs. Robinson, insists that they do more than have sex. They need to talk. Now the cat is cornered by the hunter as Ben drags out of her that she and her husband sleep in separate bedrooms. Why did they get married? Because they had too! She was pregnant. Where did they do it, he asks, pulling an embarrassed confession out of her. In her husband’s car. It was a Ford. Ben makes fun of her. A Ford? How could she do it for the first time in a Ford. Behind the relentless pursuer is a lonely, unhappy woman, trapped in a loveless marriage. In the midst of the argument that follows Benjamin calls Mrs. Robinson a “broken down alcoholic” and she says she can understand why he finds her so “disgusting.” Mrs. Robinson’s dynamics Mrs. Robinson is in a loveless, sexless marriage. She is bitterly unhappy and sexually frustrated. She turns to Benjamin, approximately the same age she and her boyfriend were when Mrs. Robinson became pregnant, and in the vernacular of the times, had to get married. In the 1960s that was still a major source of shame. But in this sexual relationship with a young man, unlike the first time, by using the mental mechanism of activity over passivity, she is the master of the sex rather than the victim, whose life was inalterably changed for the worst by her sexual behavior. At the end of the film, after Benjamin runs off with her daughter, Mrs. Robinson is old, unhappy and unfulfilled.

Tea and Sympathy

Directed by Vincente Minnelli, this 1956 film, which although dated in some respects, remains a powerful expression of the travails of adolescent development in the supercharged macho environment of an all boys boarding school and the sensitive, and ultimately life-changing concern of the only woman on the scene.

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The film, which stars Deborah Kerr of From Here to Eternity (1953) fame and John Kerr from South Pacific (1958), opens with the camera on a splendid tea set as the credits roll. As the movie progresses we learn that the title expresses the expected role of a headmaster’s wife. She is not to be too involved but is expected to provide the boys with tea and sympathy on Sunday afternoons. Returning to his tenth class reunion Tom visits his old dorm room that is above the apartment in which the headmaster, Bill Reynolds, and his wife, Laura, lived. There as he remembers his life a decade ago the story is told in a flashback as he calmly muses on his very difficult past. As 17-year-old Tom Robinson Lee looks out his window at his headmaster’s wife in the garden below, he sings a love song. The song is obviously intended for Laura. Tom charges into the garden and offers to help Laura with her planting. As they talk we learn that Tom had a garden when he was a child. His parents divorced when he was 5 years old. He was born to keep them together and he failed, the first big failure of his life. Tom’s father took him away from his mother when he was 5 and he never saw her again. Playing the good headmaster’s wife, Laura invites Tom to tea. She mentions his singing and he tells her that he was singing about the joys of love. Once again being forward and clearly telling us, and Laura, his intentions, Tom tells Laura that he, as a member of the dance committee, is to be her escort to the dance on Saturday night. She commiserates with him about losing the bet. Oh no, he immediately replies, he won! The plot thickens as Tom tells Laura that he is going to play a woman in the upcoming school play—and that he has to wear a dress. She offers to help prepare the dress for him and we observe Tom in a skirt as she pins it up. This is no manly man. Indeed, his masculinity is severely questioned throughout the film. We learn more about his background. Tom does not know any girls to ask to the dance because he spent his life in boarding schools and camps after his parents’ divorce. His father was rarely around. We then see the boys and the headmaster talking about girls and taking a magazine quiz measuring masculinity. They are sure that Tom would fail the masculinity test and call him “sister boy.” We get a glimpse into Laura’s sexual frustration when she suggests to her husband that they go away together. He rejects her suggestion summarily. He has weekend plans with the boys. Laura’s concern for Tom grows when she sees “sister boy” smeared on his door. Tom’s father, played by Edward Andrews, arrives to see him play tennis. All of the regular guys are rooting for Tom’s opponent and father is dismayed. He wants his son to be one of the regular guys. Indeed, he sent him to the school to be with his former roommate, Bill Reynolds, to toughen him up.

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In a local restaurant we meet Ellie, to put it nicely, the town easy woman that the boys go to for sex. Father remembers the “Ellie” of his time and suggests that his son should follow in his footsteps. Laura’s concern for Tom intensifies as she overhears her husband and Tom’s Dad discussing Tom’s behavior and lack of friends. Mr. Lee is humiliated and urges his friend to toughen up his son. Becoming more forthright in her interest in Tom, Laura angrily tells the men that Tom is a regular guy. He just has different interests than the other boys. When they are alone, Bill Reynolds berates his wife for protecting Tom. She is not to get involved. Laura tells her husband that Tom has never had a home and now he has one in this house with her. We get our first hint, but nothing more at this point, of Laura’s reason for her interest in Tom—he is the same age as her first husband, 17, when they married. Boys at that age are so uncertain. They don’t know if they are boys or men, she explains to her unfortunately typical, insensitive, husband. Laura tries to set Tom up with a date for the dance. He takes that as a rejection and runs off. Tom is also rejected by his roommate, Al; the only boy who is kind to him. Al’s father insists that he cannot room with Tom any longer. Laura urges Al to stay with Tom. If Al leaves it will finish Tom at the school. Further revealing her understanding of Tom, Laura tells Al that Tom is in love, but not with whom. She urges Al to talk to Tom. As he, the only male who is remotely sensitive to Tom’s plight, strongly resists her request to talk to his roommate, Laura realizes that she, like Tom, is alone and unloved. Bill Reynolds tries to mend fences with his wife by bringing her a book of poetry that she wanted. He explodes when he discovers that she already has the book. It was a gift from Tom. As he tears up Tom’s gift Laura urges her husband not to turn away from her. Tenderly she tells him “We don’t touch anymore.” There is no quiet time together anymore. Laura is clearly starved for sex and affection. Laura identifies with Tom. Both are neglected and misunderstood. Laura overhears Tom making a date with Ellie. She is horrified and tries to stop him by insisting that he was committed to take her to the dance. Laura tells Tom that this is her anniversary, not of her marriage to Bill, but to her first husband. The reason for the intensity of Laura’s interest in Tom is finally revealed. Tom will be 18 tomorrow. He is the same age as her husband when he was killed in the war. He was killed for being “conspicuously brave.” Like Tom, he was brave, but dead, because of trying to prove to others that he was not a coward. He was kind, gentle and lonely. Laura was sorry that he died trying to prove that he was a man. How futile, how unnecessary, how tragic! Tom dares to ask about Laura’s interest in him. He knows that her husband is jealous and hates him. Sensing the intense attraction to each other, Tom kisses Laura and runs off to spend the night with Ellie.

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Predictably Tom’s meeting with Ellie is a disaster, so much so that after she kisses him he rushes into the kitchen looking for a knife to commit suicide. When father learns about Tom’s visit to Ellie he is immensely pleased until he learns from Bill that his son tried to kill himself during the liaison. Enraged at what happened, Laura blames her husband and the other boys and men for pushing Tom to this point. Forcefully confronting her husband with his stupid behavior—and lack of interest in her—she tells him, “Last night I wished he had proved it with me.” Once again, she asks her husband why he won’t let her love him. Bill walks out. Searching for Tom, Laura goes to his room and finds a half-written suicide note. Suspecting where he is, Laura drives to a wooden glen in the country and asks why Tom went to Ellie. He wasn’t in love with her. Laura asks why Tom kissed her, adding that it was the nicest kiss she ever had from anyone (obviously meaning both of her husbands)! Tom is convinced that he is gay. “After last night did you think that I could ever,” his voice trails off. Laura gets up to leave but turns around and offers Tom her hand. She utters the famous words, “Years from now when you talk about this, and you will, be kind.” She kisses him and since this is 1956 the scene ends. The flashback over, Tom knocks on Bill Reynolds door and finds the man disheveled and lonely, the garden outside their apartment, her garden, full of weeds, symbolizing his barren life. Bill doesn’t know where his former wife is but while busy on the phone talking about school grades he mentions that Laura left behind a letter for Tom that she never mailed. In Laura’s voice we learn she was so pleased to have learned that Tom was married and a successful author. She read the book that described their relationship but gently chided him for not telling the truth. There are always consequences to actions and she made a choice—Tom over her husband. The wife always kept her affection for the boy in her heart.

Laura’s dynamics Laura strongly identifies with Tom. She was married at his age and lost the husband she loved soon after. There is no indication that Laura had any children. Tom represents both the husband that she lost and the son that she never had. If she had given birth to a son soon after marriage the boy would have been about Tom’s age. They are drawn together by mutual need. Laura is sexually frustrated. Her husband never touches her anymore. In addition, she is completely aware that Tom is in love—with her. I would prefer to use the word infatuation, but Laura uses the word love and responds in what she considers to be a loving manner that re-creates her sexual experiences with her young, long-dead husband.

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The issues that propel midlife development are not directly addressed in the film. However, her husband is acting like a midlife male who is having difficulty with sexual performance (and this was long before Viagra). The urgency to create something better for herself appears to be a determining factor in Laura’s decision to leave her husband rather than her sexual relationship with Tom. Chronic unhappiness and comparisons between her first husband and the now aging, unresponsive Bill Reynolds are a more plausible reason. Mrs. Robinson chose to stay. Laura decides to leave.

Adolescent infatuation

At this point we need to take a necessary detour into the psychoanalytic developmental theory of adolescence. Tom is portrayed as being in love with Laura. In fact, she uses that specific word to describe his interest in her. A most accurate term for his interest is infatuation. Here’s a synopsis of the reasons why, and how, normal adolescent infatuations promote healthy sexual development. During mid-adolescence (approximately 14–17) following the acceptance of the physically and sexually mature body there is a gradual turn toward heterosexuality. When one’s affection is returned by a peer of the same age, the result is one of life’s greatest experiences. A necessary prerequisite to, but quite different from mature love, infatuation furthers developmental progression by loosening the emotional ties to the original loved ones, father and mother, and provides vital experience with loving and sexual feelings in a non-incestuous relationship. In a sense, the adolescent falls in love with the idealized parent of childhood, characteristics of whom are unconsciously projected onto the boyfriend or girlfriend. The ability to engage in a number of infatuations is a sign of strength and resilience because despite the pain involved when they end, each relationship leads to greater individuation and maturity (Colarusso, 1992). But what about crushes on teachers or movie stars? Many a teenage boy’s room is plastered with pictures of movie stars or Playboy bunnies. These are safe infatuations, even though the object of sexual interest is an adult, because the chances of actually meeting or becoming involved with a movie star or a Playboy bunny are slim to none. The relationships are confined to masturbatory fantasies where they belong. As we know from professional experience and the media, some adults actually do become inappropriately involved with teenagers as they attempt to work through their own midlife issues. Indeed, that is the subject of this paper. Why, Mrs. Robinson? What in the world possessed you?

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The Last Picture Show

This iconic 1971 film was directed by Peter Bogdanovich and was based on a semi-autobiographical 1966 novel of the same name by Larry McMurtry. It stars a host of well-known actors of today at the start of their careers. It is a bit jarring to see how young and beautiful they were more than 40 years ago. The film starred Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd in her film debut, Eileen Brennan, Ben Johnson, Ellen Burstyn, Cloris Leachman, Randy Quaid in his film debut and John Hillerman. The Last Picture Show was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and four nominations for acting. Cloris Leachman, the focus of our attention, won Best Supporting Actress for her marvelous transformation from depressed, sexually frustrated middle-aged housewife to vibrant lover—and back again. This movie has been called a coming of age film, and it is. However, our main interest will be the relationship between high school senior, Sonny Crawford (Timothy Bottoms) and middle-aged coach’s wife, Ruth Popper (Cloris Leachman). The film opens with a very bleak view of a small, grimy town in the panhandle of Texas named Anahene. The decrepit movie theater is shown along with the town pool hall and diner. The bleakness of the scene, and the lives of those who live here, is also conveyed by the moody, black and white photography. In football crazy Texas it is a disaster when the high school football team loses and co-captains Sonny Crawford (Bottoms) and Duane Jackson (Bridges) get an earful as they walk around town. The boys are best buddies who live together in a rooming house and drive around in an old beat-up truck. Sonny has a father but they are estranged and remain so throughout the film. There is no indication that he has a relationship with his mother. He is a very sensitive, obviously needy young man. His family dynamics appear to be a significant factor in why he ends up in a sexual and emotional relationship with a middle-aged woman who happens to be his coach’s wife. Oedipal themes are obvious as Sonny beds the wife of this substitute father. The only sense we get of the coach’s personality occurs during a scene when he talks to the boys crudely about their masturbation as they run laps. His lack of interest in his wife is very apparent when he asks Sonny to drive her to a doctor’s appointment. The boy reluctantly agrees when told he will get out of civics class. Sonny drives to the coach’s run-down house to pick up Ruth for her doctor’s appointment. She is depressed and listless. When Ruth comes out of the office she is crying. Sonny is comforting. When they arrive home he opens the car door for Ruth but she just sits there, her face a mask. After thanking him she invites him in for a soda. Ruth brightens up when Sonny hesitantly says yes but after getting him a Dr. Pepper she sobs.

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Attempting to hide his discomfort Sonny suggests that Ruth will be glad when basketball season is over. The coach mustn’t be home much these days. Ruth glares at the mention of her husband’s name. The first step in Ruth’s plan to seduce Sonny has occurred. At a Christmas party attended by most of the characters in the film Ruth asks Sonny to help her take out the trash. She asks if he has a girlfriend. Outside, alone, as they dump the trash, Ruth kisses him. Sonny does not hesitate to respond. The scene ends when Ruth asks Sonny if he will drive her to the clinic again. Anticipating what may follow, Sonny gives Ruth an enthusiastic response, “You bet!” Here is another vulnerable young man, emotionally needy but full of roaring hormones. He becomes a ready participant in the seduction and does not realize the long-term consequences of his behavior. We next see Sonny and Ruth at her house. They have returned from a clinic visit. Ruth looks bright and alive. Her hair shines and so does her facial expression. Her transformation is magical. They kiss and then both nervously undress. Once under the covers Sonny takes off his underpants and climbs on top of her. As he rhythmically moves the camera focuses on Ruth’s face showing deep satisfaction, tears and smiles. She tells him that she is scared. “I thought that I could never do this again.” A subplot in the film is the attitude of the town boys, and adults, toward the retarded Billy, who spends his time sweeping the street. Unlike the others, Sonny is kind and caring to Billy although he did go along when the boys took Billy to the town whore to lose his virginity. Later he is severely reproached by the owner of the pool hall, his emotional father in the film, Sam the Lion (Ben Johnson); for allowing the boys to treat Billy so badly. Ben is one of the few caring, stable persons in Sonny’s life. The boy relies on him heavily for guidance and support. Do you recall the scene in The Graduate, when after having sex a number of times, Benjamin insists on knowing about Mrs. Robinson’s background? A similar thing happens here. After sex Ruth is smiling and very happy. Sonny is inquisitive and naked as Ruth tenderly fusses with his hair. He insists that Ruth tell him why she married the coach. From her answer it is clear that she hadn’t given it much thought at the time they were dating. Ruth was 20 and he was handsome and popular. There weren’t many choices in Anerena. “What would he do if he found us?” Sonny asks. “Shoot us” Ruth says with a big smile. So once again, we have the unhappy middle-aged woman who is locked into a loveless, sexless marriage who turns in her desperation to a teenage boy for sex, companionship and love. After Sonny and Duane go on a weekend bender to Mexico they return to learn that Sam died of a stroke. He left the pool hall to Sonny. Sonny is devastated. At Sam’s funeral Sonny takes over Sam’s roll as Billy’s protector.

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After graduation Sonny loses another emotional anchor when his buddy, Duane, decides to leave town. Having graduated and been dumped by his girlfriend, there is nothing left for him in Anerena. One by one, Sonny’s stabilizing relationships are disappearing, making him more needy and vulnerable. We learn that it is all over town that Sonny is having an affair with Ruth Popper. At no point in the film do we hear whether the coach knows or cares about his wife’s relationship with the co-captain of his football team. Sonny’s vulnerability is exploited by Duane’s old girlfriend. With Duane gone, and her rich boyfriend from Wichita Falls married, she is alone and restless. Sonny is an easy target when she approaches him. At first he resists because he was on his way to meet Ruth. Then we see Ruth sitting alone in her house, waiting, waiting, for her lover who never comes. Duane joined the army and is leaving the next day. Sonny suggests that they go to the picture show. It is the last night that the theater will be open. With baseball and television no one goes to the movie anymore. This is just another sign of how Sonny’s life is changing. One by one all of his relationships and familiar anchors are disappearing before his eyes. After Duane leaves Sonny heads for the pool hall that Sam left him. It, like everything else in his life, is dark, empty and cold. As he lights the small stove in the corner we sense that neither it, nor anything else in his life, will keep him warm. Then comes the final crushing blow. Sonny approaches a group of men who are surrounding a body lying on the ground. It is Billy. He was sweeping in the middle of the street and was hit by a truck. The men callously wonder what “sweeper boy” was doing. Why would anyone sweep the street. Sonny screams at the men and carries Billy’s body to the sidewalk. In desperation Sonny drives to Ruth’s house. Without looking at her he begs for a cup of coffee. Ruth shakes as she pours the coffee and then suddenly, in a rage, throws the coffee pot against the wall. He should not have come. “I’ve rounded the corner.” Sonny tentatively reaches across the table to touch her hand. She smiles, puts his hand to her face, tears up and says “Never you mind.” She is as needy and desperate as he. The film ends as the camera slowly sweeps past the closed movie theater and pool hall.

Ruth’s Dynamics When we meet her Ruth is clinically depressed. She is lonely, has no children and an uncaring husband who is not having sex with her. Middle-aged and not very attractive, she has reason to be depressed. This is the story of a young girl from a poor small town who fell for the handsome high school jock and married him at age 20 against her mother’s

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advice. Desperate for attention, even from a teenage boy, she easily seduces Sonny, whose life is as bleak and empty as hers. Cloris Leachman won the Academy Award because she transforms herself from a clinically depressed women into a vibrant, attractive, sexual being— and back again. Because of her intense need for affection and love, Ruth overlooks the age difference between them, the impossibility of a future and the effect their affair would have on Sonny. The depth of her rage at Sonny for leaving her is quickly transformed into tender caring, more maternal than sexual, when he reaches for her hand. All they have is each other. AGE I grow old in the house of my body Wicker rockers tilt in my eyes Pink camellias grow in my hair Though I clip them and clip them They are whispering to my pleated breasts And my thighs, you are young, young, young. (Susan Fromberg Schaeffer, 1974, pp. 40–41)

PART THREE Some comparisons

It’s time to make some comparisons and draw some conclusions about these films and the women in them. Are there common themes that underlie their interest in the boys whose ages range from 15 to nearly 20? All three are all well into middle age and stuck in loveless, non-sexual relationships. Mrs. Robinson had to get married and Ruth married early out of fear of not finding a husband later in her 20s. They clearly were looking for sex and affection. Laura’s second marriage had quickly become loveless. But seeking out children as the solution to marital dissatisfaction and sexual frustration indicates the presence of much more significant frustration and psychopathology, as indicated by Freud’s explanation of the reasons why psychopathological behavior can occur at the time of the menopause without any dramatic changes in life circumstances. Each of the films approaches the subject of the detrimental effects of the sexual involvement on the boys obliquely, if at all; yet the effects are clear. Before considering specifics the obvious needs to be stated. The seduction of the boys who were under 18, no matter how much they were willing partners, was illegal and was child sexual abuse. More specifically, each of the boys was affected in the following ways. Benjamin, in The Graduate, lost his virginity to the mother of his true love

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rather than to her daughter. Sonny, in The Last Picture Show, was sexually experienced but at the end of the film is mired in an inappropriate relationship with a mother figure. Tom, in Tea and Sympathy, is the only one who benefits although he has to master the experience by writing about it. Becoming an Oedipal victor has its consequences, and they are not good ones. It is also interesting to observe how the presentation of the sexual relationships is treated depending on when the film was made. Tea and Sympathy was filmed in 1956, more than half a century ago. Its presentation is almost Victorian when compared to the more recent films in our survey. Laura and Tom do kiss once but the screen goes blank as she leads him away to have intercourse. Twelve years later in The Graduate we see Benjamin and Mrs. Robinson in bed together but there is no simulated sex. The Last Picture Show was filmed in 1971. The late 1960s and 1970s were a time of major change in the society as evidenced by the turmoil caused by Vietnam, Woodstock, the musical Hair and women’s lib to name just a few. In The Last Picture Show there is frontal female nudity in the swimming party scene and we see Ruth and Sonny, in bed, simulating intercourse. More recent films on this subject such as Y Tu Mamá También (2001) and The Reader (2008) are graphically explicit, including frontal male nudity, female nudity and simulated intercourse. Little is left to the imagination. In many ways, we, and our society, have lost our innocence as each of these boys did. Decide for yourself if we, and they, are better off for it.

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Goin, M. K. (1990). Emotional survival and the aging body. In R. Nemiroff & C. Colarusso (Eds.) New dimensions in adult development (pp. 518–531). New York: Basic Books. Guttman, D. (1987). Reclaimed powers: Toward a psychology of men and women in later life. New York: Basic Books. Logan, (dir.) J. & Adler, (prod.) B. (1958). South Pacific [Motion picture] United States: 20th Century Fox. Minnelli, (dir.) V. & Berman, (prod.) P. S. (1956). Tea and Sympathy [Motion picture] United States: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Montero, G. J., Montero, A. M. C. & Singman de Vogelfanger, L. (Eds.) (2013a). Updating Midlife. London: Kamac Books. Montero, G. J. (2013b). Elements for a metapsychology about midlife. In Montero, et al (2013) Updating midlife (pp. 129–148). London: Kamac Books. Nichols, (dir.) M., Levine, J. E. & Turman, (prod.) L. (1967). The Graduate [Motion picture] United States: Embassy Pictures United Artists. Schaeffer, S. F. (1974). Granite lady (pp. 40–41). New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Spitz, R. (1965). The first year of life, p. 5. New York: International Universities Press. Zinnemann, (dir.) F. & Adler, (prod.) B. (1953). From Here to Eternity [Motion picture] United States: Columbia Pictures.