The Graduate

Rating:
Summary: Perfectly clear
Review: Wes Anderson (director of "Rushmore" and "The Royal Tenenbaums") has said that when he and Owen Wilson hit a block in one of their scripts, they (consciously or not) steal something from "The Graduate". Magically, everything gets back on track. Being a huge fan of Anderson and Wilson's work, I figured I'd give "The Graduate" another try. My first viewing left me underwhelmed. Amused, but underwhelmed. But seeing it again, with freshly graduated eyes, it's a different story. The film is damn near perfect.

The first act can be off-putting. It was to me. Less concerned with reality than with tone, it comes off as little more than self-obsessed parody, enamored with its own jokes ("Plastics!" has become stale with time) and the angst of its protagonist. And with the benefit of hindsight, Dustin Hoffman's clipped monotonic speech makes it appear like he's playing a younger version of Raymond Babbitt than the newly graduated Benjamin Braddock. Thankfully, things relax when Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft) comes on the scene, and the film can get down to brass tacks.

Benjamin and Mrs. Robinson's seduction scene is a wonder of comic awkwardness. While she's in total control and full of ennui, he's sweating and stumbling while trying to hatch an escape route. But he stays. And the next sequence, their inevitable coupling, is ludicrous on several levels. First, it revels in the cheeky double entendres paranoiacally swirling around Ben's head (Buck Henry, as a hotel desk clerk, asks innocently, "Are you here for an *affair*, sir?"; "Wood?" asks Ben of Mrs. Robinson, gauging her preference of clothes hangers, instead of making a pass, as she nearly assumes). Second, it is underscored by Simon and Garfunkel's 'Sounds of Silence'. The song choice is ludicrous because its dulcet tones would seem to have nothing to do with detached copulation. But read the lyrics. Is this not Ben's voice, trying to scream above the "ten thousand people, maybe more... talking without speaking... hearing without listening"? In his affair with Mrs. Robinson, Ben is searching for his voice (in the wrong place, as we shall soon see).

The bulk of the second act is concerned with Ben meeting and then being rejected by Elaine, Mrs. Robinson's daughter. The first hour, so nearly perfect in its satire and depiction of Californian malaise, left doubts in me that the second hour could live up to it. Thankfully, and an equal part of the credit should go to Katharine Ross as Dustin Hoffman, it does. Hoffman relaxes around Ross, putting on a cloak of easy charisma and charm, allowing the honest emotions of his love to shine through. Ross, for her part, is always open and receptive to Ben, and even gives back as much as she gets. Their knee-jerk fall into love is made sensible by the obvious chemistry between the actors. The act is scored, again paradoxically perfectly, by another S&G songs, 'Scarborough Fair'. With its constant wish of "then she'll be a true love of mine", it too captures the mood of the sequence perfectly.

In act three, Ben tries to redeem himself after all his mistakes. And thanks to the care the filmmakers took in setting him up, you can't help but feel for Ben as he runs through the streets of Santa Barbara looking for Elaine's wedding. 'Mrs. Robinson', the third major S&G song used, works here mainly for its ambiguity. Which one of Ben's women does its titular character represent? Doesn't matter, really. Just follow the bouncy beat, hum "coo coo ca-choo", and long for the innocent days when Joe DiMaggio held the gaze of a nation's lonely eyes.

Many have hypothesized that "The Graduate" is about the sixties' youth rebellion. But in the end, and in the beginning if you look close enough, it's not about rebellion, but conformity on one's own terms. Ben determines to botch the date his parents set him up on. But eventually he ends up on a bus with that very same girl, she in her wedding dress, he with a ripped jacket. He has just stolen her away from a button-down fiancee, and their future together appears to be filled with laughter. Until, and this happens in a quick moment, the laughter subsides, and they realize they barely know each other. It's not groundbreaking for me to say that this scene runs the emotional gamut from exhilaration to anxiety in just the expressions on the actors' faces. But it's worth mentioning one more time for those who've missed it.

I didn't expect it to be, but "The Graduate" is still fresh today, more than thirty years after its first release. And it's also about a lot more than adultery, post-graduate misery, and romantic love. It has much critical to say about the generation from whence it sprang. I suspect Mike Nichols, whose direction is whimsical and witty without ever being overbearing, and Buck Henry/Calder Willingham, whose screenplay abounds with sharp jokes and sharper observations about human nature, deserve a lot of the credit. Regardless, "The Graduate" is one of those rare films whose appeal and importance hasn't lessened over time; in fact, on both counts, it may have increased.

Rating:
Summary: A truly landmark film
Review: This classic masterpiece starring Dustin Hoffman is a must have for your movie library.

Rating:
Summary: always relevant no matter what year you graduated!
Review: This movie put Dustin Hoffman on the map -- it is the tale of Ben (Hoffman) and his uncertainty about what to do with his post-collegiate future (despite his neighbor's advice that the future is in plastics.) At his graduation party, he meets up with longtime family friend Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft) who proceeds to seduce him ("I think you're the most attractive of my parents' friends, Mrs. Robinson.") They have a secret affair for quite some time.

Then, Ben's parents think it would be nice if he dates Elaine, that nice Mrs. Robinson's daughter! They set up the date, paying no attention to Ben's wishes against it. He acts like a complete jerk during the date so Elaine won't like him, then ends up falling for her anyway. This ends up with him proposing to her later, even when she has decided to marry someone else. The wedding scene is dramatic, and has been parodied on everything from Wayne's World 2 to The Simpsons.

The writing is hilarious, and Hoffman's delivery is great - upon seeing Elaine's finacee approaching them, he gives the sarcastic praise: "He's a good walker!" I love Ben's mom's over-the-top scream of delight when Ben announces he is getting married -- though he hasn't actually asked Elaine yet. And in the scene at the zoo, when Ben is left alone watching Elaine walk off with her fiancee, the camera cuts from the actors to a pair of monkeys grooming each other, and then to a lonesome gorilla. (I think they were trying to be dramatic but I found it funny.)

The Simon & Garfunkel soundtrack is great, and the acting is superb. Ben's father is played by William Daniels, also known as the voice of KIT on the 80s show "Knight Rider" and Mr. Feeny on "Boy Meets World". Ben's landlord at a boarding house is Norma Fell, Three's Company's 'Mr. Roper' (does he always play a landlord?). A great film!

Rating:
Summary: "Would You Like Me To Seduce You?"
Review: I knew the basic story of "The Graduate" even before I saw it. Well, actually I knew about Benjamin and Mrs. Robinson's relationship, as does everyone by now; I just didn't know how it ended.

When we first meet him, Benjamin Braddock(Hoffman), having just returned home after finishing college, is trying to steal some time for himself away from his graduation party so that he can figure out what to do with his life next. Who should come knocking but Mrs. Robinson (Bancroft), who with the question, "Would you like me to seduce you?", proceeds to put him in the most uncomfortable position he's ever been in his life, literally and figuratively. After Benjamin tries unsuccessfully to first have an intellectual conversation with Mrs. Robinson and then to break off the affair, his parents decide to set him up for his first date with the Robinsons' daughter, Elaine. Mrs. Robinson expresses her disapproval and threatens to tell all if he dates Elaine a second time. Ben finally goes to Berkeley, where Elaine is attending college, and convinces her to marry him on the spot---right up to the day when she's scheduled to marry someone else The final climatic scene would be parodied and reproduced some twenty-seven years later in "Wayne's World 2."

I took note especially of the cinematography in this movie. In particular, whenever "The Sounds of Silence" or "Scarborough Fair" is heard, the images on the screen become surreal: images of reality mixed with what is going on inside Benjamin's imagination. The effect takes hold of you and makes you feel what he's feeling. And I know for sure that I won't ever listen to Simon and Garfunkel the same way again.

Rating:
Summary: Hello Darkness My Old Friend...............
Review: I have said this rarely to any film ,but the Graduate is a PERFECT movie!!!!!!! Dustin Hoffman is excellent, I love Anne Bancroft in the film, Kathren Ross shimmers, and Mike Nichols shares his visions. Any serious movie buff NEEDS to see the Graduate. Take notes...it's that good!!!!! Also fun to see Dustin Hoffman's interview on the dvd (a must buy)!

Rating:
Summary: Still an interesting flick...
Review: "I have one word for you: Plastics."

That's what this movie is all about. People are plastic, marriages are plastic, relationships are plastic. Nothing is real - it's all a sham and a fake and nothing is how it appears to be.

And then Benjamin discovers reality when he falls in love.

The other message is this: The wages of sin are very, very messy.

The acting is wonderful and all the characters play their part to perfection. I enjoyed this movie but I wouldn't watch it twice. The 1960s screenwriting and cinematography is not my style and the movie went pretty slow in places. But it's good for one viewing and does give you a lot to think about.

Rating:
Summary: Audio Commentary
Review: I own the LD version of this movie. It was put out by Criterion, which continues to do a wonderful job re-releasing classics on the DVD format (check out their "Joan of Arc"). And, yes, I have listened to the informative, witty and incisive audio commentary a numbe of times. It was not Mike Nichols who gave the audio commentary. It was UCLA film professor, Howard Suber.

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding movie, crummy DVD
Review: This movie was groundbreaking when released, and it is now a classic. The screenplay by Buck Henry is great, Mike Nichols did an outstanding job directing, and all the key parts were cast and acted perfectly. The great Simon & Garfunkel music helped to make the film what it became. AFI ranked it #7 on its list of the top 100 American movies, and I agree. I think it is that good. I saw it on TV when I was teenager, and have rented it or seen it on TV several times since then. It has always been one of my favorite films. I even read the novel by Charles Webb (to which the movie stayed pretty close).

Unfortunately, this DVD does not do it justice. The main problem is the audio. The sound track is just ever so slightly out of sync with the picture throughout the entire film. In one scene, when Benjamin's mother confronts him about his nocturnal activities, the problem is extremely noticeable. The sound is mixed badly throughout, especially during the second half of the film, when Benjamin starts seeing Elaine (Katherine Ross). Crucial dialog is drowned out by sound effects. By the end, you have to crank up the volume on your TV to wake-up-the-neighbors levels just to hear what the characters are saying. This is inexcusable. I also note, from an earlier review, that the laserdisk version had a director's commentary, so why doesn't the DVD?

Some day, they'll put out a good DVD version of the movie, until then we'll have to be content with VHS and Turner Classic Movies.

Rating:
Summary: Lack of director's commentary
Review: I agree with Daniel that the lack of the director's commentary on this DVD is lamentable.

Nichols' commentary track some years ago for the Laser Disc edition is, to my mind, the very best audio commentary ever made.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing!
Review: Perhaps, this movie is in top three of all time favorites. Great play, great music, great characters, and yeah, plastics!!