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The Graduate

The Graduate

List Price: $14.95
Your Price: $11.21
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: So good!!!
Review: What can I say? One of the best movies of the 1960s. Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) just came back from college and is a little worried about his future. Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft) seduces Braddock and convinces him to have an affair with her. But later, Braddock falls in love with Robinson's daughter, Elaine (Katharine Ross), instead. Mike Nichols won the Oscar for Best Director. The fact is that this film lost the Best Picture Oscar to "In the Heat of the Night" in 1967 is probably the biggest disappointment just like "Doctor Zhivago" lost to "The Sound Of Music" in 1965. The picture and sound quality from the DVD are decent and the few extras are superb including the documentary and the "Interview with Dustin Hoffman". Excellent!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "Would you like me to seduce you?" ~ Mrs. Robinson.
Review: "The Graduate" tells the story of a young man named Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman), who has just graduated from college and has come home. Benjamin doesn't know yet what he wants to do for the rest of his life. His parents, Mr. and Mrs. Braddock (William Daniels and Elizabeth Wilson), want Benjamin to go to grad school, but he's not sure if he wants to go. His life eruptly changes when an older friend of his family's, Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft), tries to seduce him. Mrs. Robinson is the wife of Mr. Robinson (Murray Hamilton), who likes Benjamin until he finds out that Benjamin has been sleeping with his wife, and is the mother of Elaine Robinson (Katherine Ross), who is Benjamin's age. Benjamin's parents try to set him up with Elaine, even though Benjamin is already sleeping with her mother. Mrs. Robinson refuses to let Benjamin take her daughter out, but he does anyway. When Benjamin falls in love with Elaine, Mrs. Robinson finds out and forbides Elaine to see him anymore and even tries to get her to marry another man! Now Benjamin must end his affair with Mrs. Robinson and win back Elaine before it's too late.

Dustin Hoffman is charming, and superb in his role of Benjamin Braddock. Anne Bancroft is also superb as the sexy, sedusive wife. Kathrine Ross, William Daniels, Murray Hamilton, and Elizabeth Wilson are also wonderful in their co-starring roles. "The Graduate" is hilarious and poignant at the same time. The Simon and Garfunkel soundtrack only makes the film more enjoyable and fits in just right with the story. The directing by Mike Nichols is awesome and the storyline and dialouge are great. The DVD is okay, but it could have added a few more extras. The only bonus material this DVD includes are an exclusive interview with Dustin Hoffman and a behind-the-scenes making documentary. The DVD is available in wide screen format.

I highly recommend "The Graduate".

Score:
100/100
A+

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Its graduation time!!
Review: Needless to say this was a wonderful video. Everybody loves Ann Bancroft- with her naughty self.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the Greats
Review: This film changed the formula of how films were made, breaking taboos and using, oh my goodness, serious pop music as the soundtrack. A bit dated for today's audience, this film still retains the art that made it more than entertainment.

Back in the days when it was more common for students to skip grades, Benjamin was set up as the brilliant prodigal son, graduating from college early and ready to conquer the world. However, Benjamin was his own lost generation. The world of hippies, flower power and the generational yearning to change the world was happening all around Benjamin, and he was caught in the molasses of upper-middle-class America. His parents and all their friends expected Benjamin to get a job in business somewhere, and follow in path of his parents and their friends. This conflict is the essence of the movie.

Throughout the movie Dustin Hoffman is reminded of how he feels trapped in a world he did not make. The monkeys in the zoo, pounding the glass in the window of the church, even at the very end, looking through the glass in the back of the bus, the entire movie is a constant reminder that Benjamin is trapped, even if the trap is in his own mind.

Anne Bancroft plays the Mrs. Robinson of the Simon and Garfunkel song. Extremely manipulative of her daughter and Dustin, she is the character that Dustin Hoffman must overcome. Elaine Robinson, who Benjamin finds he is in love with and wants to marry, is played by the beautiful Katharine Ross. Katharine has already fallen into the path laid by her parents, but through her relationship with Dustin she finds that she is intrigued by a world of which Dustin has only given her a glimpse.

The cast includes numerous other names that are very recognizable today, including a very young Richard Dreyfuss. Adding the artistic beauty of the cinematography, the incredible acting by not only the lead actors but all the supporting actors, and the score by Simon and Garfunkel, this movie was virtually an instant classic that has served as an example for dozens of artistic movies through the present day. At least one copy of this movie is a must-have for any afficianado of artistic movies.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: only turning 21?
Review: Why was Benjamin JUST turning 21 at the time of his college graduation? Most people have have been, at the youngest, turning 22 at this time. Did I miss a line about him skipping a grade, perhaps?

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Plastics
Review: I've got one word for you, Benjamin. Plasitcs.
This movie doesn't need another review. It has stood the test of time and if it isn't in everyone's video collection, it needs to be. With one of the best wedding scenes and soundtrack the movie is great on every level.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A classic that hasn't lost its touch
Review: "The Graduate" is a love story. With that said, it's like no other love story you'll ever see. Dustin Hoffman plays Ben, a college kid who is seduced by a married woman and friend of his parents. Then he meets Elaine, the woman's daughter. He falls in love, and the next day faces a world where his seducer is out to get him, his love, Elaine, despises him, and he hasn't the foggiest idea what to do with the rest of his seemingly-charmed life. Except that suddenly he has a purpose, possibly the first in his twenty-one years: to win Elaine.
Every actor in this film is incredibly fabulous-and that is not at all an exaggeration. To rival the acting is the cinematography, which is imaginative, pleasing, and original. One day, perhaps, I'll be able to think of something in this film that could have been better; but it won't be anytime soon.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The opinion of a 23 year old college student
Review: I just watched the Graduate for the first time since I was told this film was a major inspiration for director Wes Andersen (Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, Royal Tenenbaums), whose films I love. I didn't realize until now what a wide influence this film has had. As I watched it I was reminded of so many later films that stole from it. So in that sense I can understand why it is considered a classic.

Stylistically, "The Graduate" scored big. The first scene where Mrs. Robinson tries to seduce Benjamin completely blew me away. The way the shots were framed by her leg, and the almost subliminal use of body shots made this the most erotic scene I've ever seen in a PG movie. And the film has many other interesting shots throughout.

I think the only noticeable thing I didn't like in the film was the character work. With the exception of the Dustin Hoffman character, all the others seemed too contrived to me. Maybe this is due to the generation gap, but I just couldn't believe how shallow they all were nor how their emotions could change from love to hate and back again so quickly.

The picture quality has been restored nicely on the DVD, though the sound quality seems dated, but that's to be expected.

I found this movie interesting and entertaining enough, but I didn't fall in love with it. Here are some of my favorite movies in case that helps you decide if we have similar movie tastes: Citizen Kane, Bicycle Thief, the Player, Shawshank Redemption, Fargo, Bottle Rocket, Waiting for Guffman, Big Lebowski, Office Space and Unforgiven to name a few.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I think you're trying to seduce me
Review: A delightfully wry comedy and possibly the first and last time Dustin Hoffman was cast as an attractive man. He is wonderfully droll as Benjamin Braddock, the 21-year old who spends his summer getting seduced by Mrs. Robinson, until he falls in love with Mrs. Robinson's daughter, Elaine. The conflicts between the generation gaps still ring painfully true by today's standards. The music by Simon and Garfunkle is great and almost on it's own make the filom worthwhile. But it is the wonderful script, acting, and direction that allowed this film to be voted number seven on the American Film Institute's top 100 films of all time.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Hilarious film that will have you falling for Katharine Ross
Review: This is one of those rare "classics", a film that towers above the rest. It was one of the first films to explore some racey issues, such as younger man/oder woman affairs.

We see Dustin Hoffman, a newly graduated kid on his way to college, moping around the house in the summer. He soon finds out that life can be a little more interesting in the mean time. Anne Bancroft(perfect for the role) plays the older woman who is, in fact, "trying to seduce" Hoffman. The two start a heated affair but one that contains very little conversation. At one hilarious point, Hoffman objects to the silence and says, "let's talk about art," seemingly upset by the fact that their affair contains very little deep conversations.

Things get downright comedic when Katherine Ross, portrayed as Elaine Robinson, daughter of Mrs. Robinson, shows up and decides she wants to date Hoffman's character, Ben Braddock. Ben , despite strict objections from the elder Robinson, falls for Elaine and becomes obsessed with her. Things get even more insane when Hoffman follows Elaine to her wedding...only he's not the groom.

This is a funny, sassy, witty, and tremendous film. It set the precedent for future films of the same genre. You'll love this movie.

FINAL NOTE: In The Graduate, we can clearly see signs of where Hoffman gets some of inspiration for later characters, such as his roles in Tootsie and Rain Man. Oh, and KATHERINE ROSS FLAT OUT HOT IN THIS FILM!!!!!


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