The Graduate

I've never really been much of a "classic" movie buff. (I've never even seen Casablanca!) But I've recently had the desire to check out some more famous older films. So the other night, The Graduate was on.

I figured that's a pretty classic movie. It's got big name actors...it's been spoofed in a lot in other productions...the two hallmarks of a classic movie, right? Movies from Shrek to Wayne's World to Bee Movie have references to The Graduate. If you don't believe me, go here to see a list of references. From the seduction scene to the wedding scene, its a pretty classic film.

I wont worry about spoilers in this review, because I suspect I'm one of the last people to see this movie. But in case you haven't seen it, Dustin Hoffman plays Benjamin, a young man who has recently graduated, has come home, but doesn't really know what he wants to do with his life. He begins an affair with his father's partner's wife, Mrs. Robinson, played by Anne Bancroft. Complicating things, he begins to fall in love with the Robinsons' daughter, Elaine.

Surprisingly enough, this complicated premise make for a comedy. All these years, I had assumed this movie was a drama, and this misconception almost ruined it for me because as I began watching it with that presupposition, I was thinking what a cheesy movie it was. But as a comedy, the cheesiness is part of its charm. Hoffman is just as awkward as ever, which is what makes him so lovable in all his films. The quick flashes from Bancroft's naked body to Hoffman's frightened face would be almost ridiculous in a drama. And that's what the feeling is, that its trying to be a drama, but it's so ridiculous that you have to laugh. And the fact that that's what they're trying to do, makes it understandably a classic. At the end, Benjamin interrupts Elaine's wedding, and they run off together. At first, an oversimplification of the situation. But in that lingering final scene, as a look of doubt passes over Hoffman's face, it's really a very serious moment.

A couple of interesting bits of trivia - in the scene where Elaine comes to Benjamen's apartment and screams, causing the other tenants to come see what's happening - the young man who says "shall I get the cops? I'll call the cops..." is a young Richard Dreyfus. Another interesting fact is that Hoffman and Bancroft are only 6 years apart in real life.

And here's something that's kinda funny - In Hoffman's and Bancroft's first encounter in the hotel room, Bancroft didn't know that Hoffman was going to grab her breast. Hoffman decided off-screen to do it, because it reminded him of schoolboys trying to nonchalantly grab girls' breasts in the hall by pretending to put their jackets on. When Hoffman did it onscreen, the director, Mike Nichols, laughed out loud off-screen. Hoffman began to laugh as well, so rather than stop the scene, he turned away from the camera and walked to the wall. Hoffman banged his head on the wall, trying to stop laughing, and Nichols thought it was so funny, he left it in.

The final surprise is that it's rated PG. While the PG13 rating did not exist in 1967, parents nowadays might want to equate it to a PG13 movie due to the nudity, however brief (and ridiculous!) it might be.