Much has been written about Mike Nichols' landmark 1967 "Kafka Komedy" The Graduate, the story of a recently graduated college student's affair with woman twice his age. It, along with Arthur Penn's Bonnie & Clyde, Stanley Kubrick's 2001, A Space Odyssey, and Dennis Hopper's Easy Rider ushered in the salad days of American cinema known as the "New Hollywood". It brought to the forefront a new kind of movie star in Dustin Hoffman and solidified Mike Nichols as the domestic comedy auteur of his generation after the earlier success of his crass 1966 hit Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf.
Mike Nichols originally wanted Doris Day to play the ravishing Mrs.Robinson who couldn't see herself "rolling around in the sheets with someone half my age." He also wanted Robert Redford to play to lead Benjamin Braddock but decided against it because Redford looked too good for the part. Nichols eventually settled for Anne Bancroft as Mrs.Robinson and an unknown by the name of Dustin Hoffman for the role of Ben. The choice of Hoffman as Ben was a controversial one at the time, it was a gamble going with the normal looking, jewish Hoffman over the more telegenic, WASPish Redford. It changed the dynamic from the 1963 novel by Charles Webb, from northeastern WASP's to Los Angeles Jews.
The Graduate is one of my favorite films because it shows the indecision of people in their late teens and early 20's and the unrealistic expectations laid upon them by their elders and authority figures in their lives. Ben is a young man at the crossroads, a recent college graduate who just wants to relax for a while before making a decision on what to do with the rest of his life. He is bombarded by every adult in his life with advice on his future. He just wants to be left alone. Into his life come's Mrs. Robinson, a sultry forty-something friend of his parents. She is unhappy in her marriage and is looking for an escape. She see's Ben at his graduation party and seduces him into driving her home. She is persistent in her lust after Ben, who is quite scared of the encounter. Finally he caves into meeting her at a hotel for a tryst. He is as awkward and indiscreet as you can be for an affair. This is only the start of the trouble for young Ben. He ends up taking Mrs. Robinson's back from college daughter Elaine (Katherine Ross) out on a date even though Mrs.Robinson demands he doesn't. He ends up taking Elaine to a topless bar and embarrasses he so much she runs out. He ends up explaining to her why he acted that way and by the end of the night they are getting along smoothly. One day Ben goes to pick up Elaine for a date and is surprised to find Mrs.Robinson in the car. She tells Elaine of the affair and she is absolutely furious with Ben and goes back to Berkeley. Ben ends up following her to Berkeley and manages to incessantly follow her everywhere. He finds out she is seeing another guy but still follows her around. Mr.Robinson comes to visit Ben and notify Ben that he knows of the affair and that he and the Mrs are getting a divorce. He also finds out Elaine is getting married in a few days. He leaves Berkeley and drives around in his Alfa-Romero in search of the church where she is getting married. Will he get there in time?
Beautifully shot by Cinematographer Robert Surtees and featuring a killer soundtrack by Simon and Garfunkel, The Graduate is a film that is timeless and demands to be seen by anyone in love with film.
