At first director Mike Nichols and producer Lawrence Turman wanted a muscular leading man, someone you'd expect to play a young man having an affair with an older married woman. After many auditions and a lot of script rewrites, it became glaringly obvious that the actor best suited for the role would not fit in with the stereotype (established by novel author Charles Webb as tall, blond, blue-eyed) at all; they decided to go with a virtually unknown off-Broadway actor by the name of Dustin Hoffman. In an interview (captured on the 25th Anniversary version of the videotape, and probably also on a DVD somewhere), Turman said that he'd seen Hoffman on the stage a few years before, playing a "crippled German transvestite," and that it was difficult to believe that he wasn't "at least two of those things." An actor of great range even then, Hoffman put his all into the making of The Graduate, and the result is a delightfully dark, humorously emotional film that helped to create the era of the late 1960's.

The movie is not simply about sex, as I've heard from a lot of people. It's about high expectations, about alienation, and about confusion. Benjamin Braddock (Hoffman) is a recent college graduate returning home for the summer before going on to what everyone is convinced will be a wonderfully successful career. He is shy, a bit withdrawn, and reluctant to speak of the future. His parents (the father played by William Daniels, later to be the voice of Kit on "Knight Rider" and also the teacher/mentor on "Boy Meets World") are fairly well-to-do and seem to find it intolerable that Ben is no longer as ambitious as (perhaps) he once was. One night after a party, Ben's father's business partner's wife (Anne Bancroft, the infamous Mrs. Robinson) makes a series of subtle passes at Ben, the last of which finds her up in her bedroom, standing nude in front of him (tastefully done onscreen, with only one or two frame-length glimpses of her body). She makes it clear that, if he wants it, he can have it - and after many half-hearted refusals he eventually begins to take her up on it.

There are many surreal moments in the movie, much thanks to the choices of direction and editing. My favorite is an absolutely brilliant shot in which Ben is seen leaping upward from the swimming pool, and the scene changes so that he is suddenly in bed, jumping onto a covered-up Mrs. Robinson. There are many other similar shots, made all the more powerful by the musical soundtrack by Simon & Garfunkel ("Scarborough Fair," "Mrs. Robinson," "April Come She Will," and others, some of which repeat one too many times in the movie). One strong scene between Ben and Mrs. Robinson (I don't think we ever learn her first name) occurs mostly in a dark hotel room, the only light shining in from the window. In this scene Ben is trying to actually have a conversation with his lover of the past several months. It becomes clear that they know almost nothing about one another, and that that is the way the trapped-in-marriage Mrs. Robinson seems to prefer it. When confronted with the possibility of Ben asking her daughter Elaine (played by the gorgeous Katharine Ross) out, Ben promises he will not date her - leaving no doubt that he'll be breaking this promise in the very next scene.

There is scarcely a moment in which Ben shows a fondness for Mrs. Robinson, apart from a feeble attempt or two to make conversation. Conversely, his early scenes with Elaine are the ones in which he shows tenderness. He moves swiftly from indifference toward her to self-loathing toward himself for putting her in an uncomfortable situation (which must be seen to be believed) in an attempt to consciously thumb his nose at both of their families. Katharine Ross offers a performance of beautifully complex emotion, particularly in the last scene we see of her before she leaves for Berkeley. (If I say anything more I'll reveal too much, so we'll just leave it at that for now.)

Many other scenes are worthy of praise. The zoo scene (image: two monkeys sitting together, one alone)... the eviction scene (Norman Fell as a landlord, sort of a brimming-with-anger version of Mr. Roper from "Three's Company")... the hotel desk clerk scene early on in the movie (Graduate screenwriter Buck Henry as the clerk)... all these scenes and more help to paint an intense - but often funny - picture of a young man who finds himself in the midst of an affair with an alcoholic family friend. If you've seen clips from the final section of The Graduate, don't let that stop you; knowing how the movie ends will not deter from the richly poetic, sometimes disturbing experience of the film. Oh, and I read Leonard Maltin's write-up of this movie, which states that Mike Farrell appears in a hotel sequence, and Richard Dreyfuss in a Berkeley sequence, but I failed to spot either of them... so keep your eyes open.

If you're a fan of Dustin Hoffman or Anne Bancroft, or if you just want to know what all the fuss was about, rent The Graduate. Watch it all in one sitting. It's a rare film that moves you to hope such an illicit secret as the affair in this movie NOT be found out by the other characters. I'm not sure what to make of that...


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older