The Graduate

The Graduate, unlike most of the films trumpeted through the ages, is one that lived up to the promise and surpassed it; this quirky and altogether morose comedy/drama is certainly a film that succeeds in aiming to eviscerate adult expectations of young people as well as give the young the idea of rebellion. A must-see relic of the dawn of New Hollywood.

Hoffman is a revelation; his quirky, completely uncomfortable Benjamin like Rain Man in his social awkwardness and reaction to others. This is the film that set Hoffman off toward stardom, and in his delightfully out-of-place performance the actor cemented his place in film history. Katharine Ross and Anne Bancroft play Elaine Robinson and her mother respectively, with Ross in particular standing out as the innocent Elaine, manipulated and forced around by Ben’s philandering and her mother’s seduction. Bancroft is what most people will remember about the film though, the actresses’ dark looks forcing through the screen and presenting a woman with no qualms about taking advantage of a younger man or her own daughter.

What few female co-stars there are pepper the film with a realistic bent, Benjamin’s mother (played by Elizabeth Wilson) is almost the antithesis of Mrs. Robinson; a woman who is happy with her life and anxious that her son continue along the path she has set for him. The only significant co-stars appear to be Ben’s father and Elaine’s father, played respectively by William Daniels and Murray Hamilton. Ben’s father has Ben’s life planned out for him, and Daniels conveys that sense of expectation and forceful parenting that many young people will find uncomfortable to watch. Hamilton conveys the image of a man damaged beyond repair by the affair between Ben and his wife, and the scenes in which he encounters Ben are at turns comedic and tragic.

Mike Nichols peppers his film with unforgettable quotes, trail-blazing visuals and direction, presenting in effect a movie entirely compromised of New Hollywood motifs and themes. Nichols expertly subverts Hollywood archetypes of film-making with The Graduate; such a sexually frank movie, with daring presentations of seduction and adultery, would doubtless have been nipped in the bud ten years beforehand. What Nichols helped achieve was the next step in Hollywood movie-making; that of an unafraid director who sees no problem with sensitive subject matter nor pioneering filming techniques. “Are you trying to seduce me, Mrs. Robinson?” – there is no person on Earth interested in films that does not know that quote, and besides this, the film features many comedic and sardonic lines of dialogue, peppering the film with a sense of humour that many people would not expect.

The soundtrack, to me at least, is a failing of the film, only a slight one mind. Simon and Garfunkel were, at the time of production, a popular band, and commissioning them to make the soundtrack is an idea that has carried forth onto modern times. It’s a great idea, but as with newer films like Juno, Nichols elected to repeat the songs over and over, and as a result the effect of the music is somewhat lost amongst the endless repetition of “Scarborough Fair”, “Mrs. Robinson” and “The Sound of Silence” in particular. California seldom seems to have been presented onscreen with such understated emphasis – from the Golden Gate Bridge to Berkeley University, Nichols evokes a sense of space and time, and the interesting fades and angles that the cameras take throughout the movie permeate through the narrative to suggest that at the time, Nichols was a true innovator of visual film.

Much has been said about The Graduate, not all of it true. It comes heartily recommended from me as a movie that speaks to the young, telling not only of the dangers of temptation but also of becoming the person others want you to be, and not the person you want to be.

8/10