Customer Reviews

The Graduate (Special Edition)

5 star:		(78)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

The Graduate is a great film and I grow to love it more with each viewing. Everything is nearly perfect about it. The script, Mike Nichols' direction, the performances of Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft and Katherine Ross, the music of Simon and Garfunkel. It's funny yet dramatic, moving and profound all at the same time. A very enjoyable film all around. Dustin Hoffman has rarely been better than in The Graduate, although he has certainly given many other fine performances (Midnight Cowboy, Rain Man, Kramer Vs. Kramer). However, even more than those pictures, Hoffman will always be remembered for The Graduate and his portrayal of an awkward young man trying to get a hold on his life.

Also worth noting in particular is the direction of Mike Nichols. He truly gives the film a unique visual style to make it an experience rather than just a comedy/drama. Note the opening credits with Hoffman on an airport moving sidewalk set to the tune of Simon and Garfunkel's "The Sound of Silence". Nichols' uses cuts very interestingly in several scenes such as the scene where Benjamin jumps up on his raft in the pool, and lands in bed with Mrs. Robinson. He also uses zooms to great effect throughout the film. Nichols' Best Director Oscar for this film was well-deserved. I think that Hoffman's performance should have won also, as well as the screenplay by Calder Willingham and Buck Henry.

One other thing that I must mention is that The Graduate absolutely must been seen in its original aspect ratio! If you're not watching a widescreen version, then you're not watching The Graduate. The film was shot in the Panavision process with an aspect ratio of 2.35:1. Mike Nichols makes wonderful use of the 2.35:1 frame, so the film will be absolutely botched in pan and scan. If you watch The Graduate in full-screen pan and scan, you're really, really missing out. The visual impact of the film will be irreparably damaged.

The DVD is adequate, but this film deserves much better. The disc is labeled a special edition, but it's really too skimpy to be that. At very least you're getting a widescreen version of the film. However, the transfer is not enhanced for 16:9 televisions. What we need is a fully remastered 16:9 transfer which would be immensely beneficial. The picture quality is fair, but could be so much better. It's really stunning what difference a brand new remastered 16:9 transfer can make for an older film like this. Just look at the new DVD of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. The film also deserves better supplemental materials. A better documentary and a commentary by the filmmakers would be great. A seperate commentary by Dustin Hoffman would be even better. I'm convinced that someday The Graduate will receive a worthy DVD edition, and I will wait until then to purchase it.

The Graduate has become a classic film, one that makes all those `top 100 film' lists. It stars a young Dustin Hoffman as Benjamin Braddock, a young man from a wealthy family, who has just graduated from college. He is in limbo, unsure of what to do with his time and where life will lead him. The Robinson's are his parents' best friends and it is their daughter Elaine (Katharine Ross) who Ben's parents have earmarked as a partner for their son. However Mrs Robinson (played by a brilliantly predatory Anne Bancroft) has other plans and is set on seducing the naïve young man. When Elaine returns from college, Ben falls for her and ends his relationship with her mother. Predictably Mrs Robinson reacts with hostility and sets out to ruin both his relationship with her daughter and his life.

Simon and Garfunkle provide the music in their inimitable style and the title song, Mrs Robinson, was a huge hit for them. Director Mike Nichols managed, in this film, to capture the feel and mood of the 60's flawlessly and he deservedly won an Oscar for his work. The DVD itself has few extras, a documentary by the director, interview with Hoffman, some trailers and the usual subtitles. The picture and sound quality are good, what you would expect from the format. This is a film that has stood the test of time and is still worth watching today.

This movie is a classic example of how good films were even as recent as the 1960's. The plot itself is not so original (young man has an affair with older married woman), however the movie is done in such an artistic way that the affair itself is put in the backseat for most of the film. If this movie were to be remade today, it would have been very sexualy charged and raunchy will the majority of the content focusing on the actual affair itself. However because this movie was made during a time when true quality and craftsmanship was appreciated, the themes are delicate and subtle. It really makes you use your imagination and look deeper into the storyline, rather than just the obvious. The backdrop (Southern & Northern California), the wonderful musical score (Simon & Garfunkel) and great cast made this movie very worthwhile to see as well. If you enjoy movies made with thought and care behind it, you should definitely check this one out!

I somehow managed not to see this movie until 2004, and I am very glad not to have missed it. What I found most surprising about the film is that it had a very quirky sense of humour, and that its lessons were not quite so "feel-good" or "Hollywood." I couldn't believe it won an Academy Award, because I thought those were reserved for good movies that were, nevertheless, still mainstream. The initial scene where Mrs. Robinson "makes herself available" to Ben will show the viewer what I'm talking about here. It's weird, creepy, and hillarious.
The opening sequence on the airplane and in the airport perfectly set the stage for Ben being a character who "goes with the flow," letting everything around him dictate the direction in which he takes his life, without hitting one over the head with exposition. The way this ties into the ending is also brilliant and subtle, but I would be remiss if I spoiled it for anyone who hasn't seen the movie yet.
Anne Bancroft and Dustin Hoffman's performances are perfect, and the cinematography was good enough for me, someone who usually only cares about the script and story of a movie, to notice.

The DVD version of this movie will delight true fans because it contains lenghty interviews with the stars Dustin Hoffman and Katharine Ross, and screenwriter Buck Henry. They recount the making of the movie, the critical decisions that Mike Nichols made and most of all they reminiessed about making the movie itself.

I have watched this movie many many times and has not grown tired of it, if any, I have grown to apprreciate it even more. I think it has an enduring quality because it is a well made movie and as some reviewers have pointed out, we can all relate to Ben Braddock's lost, lonely and indecisive phase in our youths no matter if it was in a lesser or greater degree. And folks, let's face, the soundtrack is a Bomb.

The movie is also an excercise in style and technique, although according to Henry, some came by accident as the actors and the director sort of fumbled around when they didn't know quite how to create a certain scene. I love the part when Dustin Hoffman eagerly kisses Anne Bancroft with smoke still in her mouth.

Some reviewers complained that this movie didn't reflect the turbulent times and places that was happening then. But in a way doesn't Ben's own ambivalence towards his future and his ultimate courage to go against all odds and fight for what he wants reflect this? To lodge this particular complaint about this movie is really missing the point.

This movie will last and will appeal to any generation. I first saw this movie in junior high back in the early 80's and I thought what a neat movie it was. I was mostly impress by the cinematography and I loved the neat ending, but as you watched the movie with age, you grow to appreciate it in different levels, that's why I think this movie will endure many generations of movie lovers and DVD collectors.

Get the DVD, it will make a nice addition to your collection and when you're feeling reflective on a nice gloomy day, pop it on and enjoy.

Heaven loves you more than you can say, hey, hey, hey. Some of the best music of the 60s, by Simon and Garfunkle, makes up the sound track for this iconic movie with Dustin Hoffman (looking impossibly young), Ann Bancroft (looking incredibly wicked and sexy), and Katherine Ross (looking incredibly innocent). Mike Nichols directed this film that highlights all that was good and bad about the 60s.
Who among us will forget Hoffman standing at the bottom of the swimming pool in scuba gear during the party at which one of his father's business friends has just poked him repeatedly on the chest and said, "I have one word for you, Benjamin. Plastics."
Coerce your teenage kids into re-watching this film with you. It'll give them a better sense of how it was back then than anything you could try to explain.

This is one of the defining films of my generation, and of course I saw it when it came out in 1967. Seeing it again after all these years I was struck by both how funny it is and by the brittle, cynical and brilliant performance by Anne Bancroft as Mrs. Robinson. She is flawless in a part that might easily lend itself to overacting. Instead she is subtle, controlled, focused, and authentic in a way that is both sexy and chilling with just a hint of ironic humor. The maternal way she has with the virginal Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman in a breakout role) emphasizes the creepy, almost incestuous nature of their sterile affair.

Mike Nichols has directed a number of sexual/relationship comedies, including Carnal Knowledge (1971), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), Nora Ephron's Heartburn (1986) and Carrie Fisher's Postcards from the Edge (1990). Nichols's films typically feature talented and charismatic actors and actresses who explore in a deceptively humorous manner the dark side of human nature. The humor usually has an edgy quality while the taboo elements are somehow resolved into happy endings as in a musical comedy. Nichols likes to work with material from another medium and make it his own. Typically, The Graduate is adapted from the novel by Charles Webb. Nichols also likes to feature cutting edge popular music in the score. What we hear in the background and played over the opening credits is Simon and Garfunkel's "Sounds of Silence." Of course Paul Simon wrote the song "Mrs. Robinson" for this movie, but what I didn't realized until now is his "It's all happening at the zoo" was probably inspired in part by the zoo scene in this film.

Dustin Hoffman's confused and drifting Benjamin, worried about his future and suffocated by his parents' generation, knocked everybody out in those days with his dead-panned, literal delivery of one-liners, some of which were written by Buck Henry, who plays the desk clerk at the rendezvous hotel. I especially loved Ben's answer when his father, enquiring about his Quixotic plan to marry Mrs. Robinson's daughter Elaine (Katharine Ross), asks, "Isn't this a half-baked idea?" In dead seriousness, Benjamin says, "No, sir. It's completely baked."

Memorable is Norman Fell (whom most of us recall from TV's long-running comedy, Three's Company) in a small part as the landlord of the Berkeley rooming house. He is of course a past master at dead-panning one-liners; in fact, he is a master at mute dead-panning. One of the funniest bits in the movie is when the camera catches his face as Elaine's father comes out of Ben's room spewing obscenities and insults at Ben.

What we loved about this movie was the youthful point of view; the wonderful chase scene at the end, a Hollywood staple made fresh; the sympathetic character of Benjamin with whom we could readily identify; the cliche-ridden and shallow parents being slyly made fun of; and the sense of getting what we want out of life and doing it our own way. This is a coming-of-ager and a romance and a social satire rolled into one, and a classic Hollywood movie that no afficionado would want to miss.

But see this for Anne Bancroft, a brilliant and perhaps underrated actress in one of her most memorable roles.

The movie "The Graduate" is a story that focuses on the life of Ben Braddock after his college graduation. The narrative takes you through evolutions in his life. He starts off by "dating" Mrs. Robinson who is a friend of his parents. He does this mainly because Mrs. Robinson tells him what to do and how to do it. She gives him a constant that he doesn't have to change or make decisions on. Mrs. Robinson is always in control and though she lets him think that he has the control she manipulates him. Despite Mrs. Robinson's wishes Ben starts to date Elaine and ends up falling for her which angers her mother. Mrs. Robinson doesn't think that Ben is good enough for Elaine and threatens to tell Elaine about their relationship if his liaison with Elaine continues. Because of this Ben tells Elaine and she is angry with him and her mother. She returns to Berkeley and after being pursued by Ben tells him that he mother told her that Ben had raped her. After discussion Elaine comes to realize that she has feelings for Ben and he didn't rape her mother. Elaine then decides that she might marry Ben. However, Mr. Robinson comes to Berkeley and tells Ben to stay away from his daughter. Elaine then leaves in the middle of the night to get married to some guy. Ben hunts them down and gets there after the wedding is over. Nevertheless, Elaine and Ben run out of the church and catch a bus. The closing seen shows their smiles fading and unhappiness settling in.
The relationships between the people are unrealistic. Especially the one between Elaine and Ben. In the beginning it's realistic because Elaine doesn't know about Ben's relationship to her mother. However, after Elaine learns about there relationship it makes no sense that she wants to talk to him let alone marry him. The story has them forgive and forget. He had an affair with her mother and ruined her parent's marriage and she ran away from her wedding to be with him. It doesn't make sense.
And the relationship between Ben and Mrs. Robinson...it's more realistic than his relationship with Elaine but is still makes no sense. Ben has just graduated from college and he gets into a relationship with a woman 20-30 yrs his senior. Again, it's strange.
The movie was very well done, however. The lighting and film shots add a certain feeling to the film. Also the music brought you in deeper. They give you a sense of hope and a strange sense of despair all at the same time. The songs fit wonderfully with the narrative. Casting was well done. However, Dustin Hoffman looked many years older than his counter part Katherine Ross. All in all it was an awesome movie. I recommend it to anyone.

A little bit dated, but overall, you gotta love this movie. Really brilliant, very anti-establishment, pretty radical especially considering when it came out in the late 1960's...

Enjoy!

All of the characters are cartoon figures. This is an 'intelligent, funny satire' only in the sense that 'Springtime for Hitler' was too. 'The Graduate' is a film
that appeals most to those who are too short for true satire.