Highly Overrated But Still Good

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Young Benjamin Braddock (Dusting Hoffman) has just graduated from college, but now he doesn't seem to know what to do with his life. His parents are not of much help, being more interested in climbing the social ladder and having him help them along as the perfect, dutiful son.Enter Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft), an old family friend, with whom Ben begins an affair to relieve some of his inner anxiety. Later on he also meets Mrs. Robinson's daughter, Elaine (Katharine Ross).The Graduate could be seen as a romantic comedy. The plot itself, if a bit heavy, especially for its time, is lighthearted enough and the character archetypes on display are such that the jokes practically write themselves. Yet a dark undercurrent floats just beneath the surface, transforming the whole thing into a scathing satire. The song The Sound of Silence, by Simon & Garfunkel, is often played over central scenes, almost functioning as the theme for the whole film. And anyone who has ever heard the song knows that it's rather dark in its message, despite the light melody. "Hello darkness, my old friend" indeed.What this film is trying to talk about is being trapped in a circle from which you cannot escape. Ben's character gets progressively worse as the movie goes on, but you cannot really blame him, not entirely. You can see from his parents and from Mrs. Robinson and her husband that he's merely imitating the sins of the last generation. It's easy to see that he and Elaine could very easily end up just as shallow and empty as their parents. It wouldn't take much. And that's the horror behind the usual rom-com antics.A peculiar film. It requires you to look underneath the surface, to question the events that are taking place. And for that it needs to be praised.

The one reason that I ended up watching this film is because it was one of those films that always seems to come back again and again. Well, not quite because these days it is pretty dated. In fact I didn't realise that it was as old as it was, and here we see a really, really young Dustin Hoffman playing the role that basically made him a star. The problem was that I really didn't think all that much of this film. Okay, while I didn't hate it, I simply cannot give it a higher rating than I have. The film is about a young man, Ben, who returns from college to Los Angeles with top marks, and of course all of his family friends are so proud of him. Within a short time he discovers that one of his parent's friends is trying to seduce him, and after some hesitation, he decides to get involved. The catch comes about when her daughter also returns and his parents convince him to take her out on a date, much to the horror of her mother. Anyway, after him pursuing her to no end, they finally elope and the film ends. I can sort of see where the comedy in this film lies, however a part of me finds that what is happening is so unrealistic, at least looking at it from this day and age. For instance, he tries do make the first date as bad as possible, only to change his mind, and suddenly it is all okay. As for him constantly pursing her, there is something call harassment. This film is certainly dated when it comes to the content, though a part of me felt that half way through the creators pretty much reached a mental block, and simply did not know how to proceed. Sure, Ben is clearly a smart guy, and at the beginning of the film quite naive, but by the end his behaviour really doesn't seem to make his character all that flattering, and why they didn't end up calling the police when he crashed the wedding, and why Elaine even ran off with him is beyond me. In a way this film is one of those coming of age films, but it is also set at that time when many of us are really unsure where we are going in our life. For most of our lives we are guided, though we do make the occasional choices, such as what to study, however once we have finished university all of a sudden the world has opened up and many of us can be lost. Yet this is also about entering the world of the adult, the world where the innocence of our youths is suddenly destroyed upon the realisation that the people that we grew up with have a much darker side. Mind you, we are looking at the wealthier upper classes, but still, many of us in the middle class go through this angst as well. Still, I didn't find this film all that funny. Well, I could see where it was funny, particularly the scene where he is wandering through the hotel with his date to discover that everybody knows who he is, except they believe that he is somebody different. Then there is his naivety with regards to the affair, and that curiosity which suddenly turns him into a man in the know. He certainly does change, but as I mentioned, the film pretty much degenerates as we get near the end.

The Graduate is a 1967 film directed by Mike Nichols and stars Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, and Katharine Ross. The film is distributed by Metro Goldwyn Mayer, being labeled as a Dramatic Comedy. I was aware of the film's presence in cinema before watching it. But after watching it, I wanted to document my observations and opinions just for you.The Graduate is the story of Benjamin Braddock (played by Dustin Hoffman) fresh out of College who doesn't know what do with his future other than for life to carry him away. After his Graduation party, he becomes seduced by Mrs. Robinson (played by Anne Bancroft) and they start dating. Ben's father then asks him to date the Robinson's daughter, Elaine (played by Katharine Ross) whom Ben is now attracted to and proceeds to do as such. Ben soon gets caught up in troubling affairs and antics throughout in a world not quite as promising as it seemed. Dustin Hoffman's "break-out" performance as Ben Braddock is an excellent audience surrogate, being confused, nervous, and trying to keep his cool through the first half of the film. Plus his character development is great and woven into the progressing story perfectly, who runs in complete circles in the game of life. Anne Bancroft's performance as Mrs. Robinson steals every scene she is present. She has almost total dominance throughout entire scenes, being the perfect blend of sexy and dangerous. Katharine Ross delivers a very good performance as Elaine, showing very convincing emotions when needed. Though I think her character is slightly underwritten as I would have liked to see more of her. I liked a lot about The Graduate (well, that's an understatement). Every single shot never ceases to amaze me with it's composition, movement, length, sound design, and more. I also loved the lighting of each scene, serving as both a metaphor and carefully crafted filmmaking. The film is realistically dark seeing as it envelopes Ben in this newly found adult world, giving new meaning to the term "Dark Comedy". The Soundtrack by Simon & Garfunkel really set the tone and elevate scenes in which it is present. Plus, the songs are enjoyable by themselves, even without context. The Graduate's themes are about adulthood, relationships, and society. Ever since you or anyone turns into an adult, life turns a complete 180 degrees and that can be troublesome for most. But The Graduate makes this turn of events both surreal and grounded, showing this world feeling manufactured and weird, but also with a sense of realism to follow. The lesson I got from the film is that you need to plan things rather than life giving you a rude awakening very quickly.I believe this movie has something for everyone. General audiences can appreciate the depth and the film in general. And people who like cinema outside of watching it will get a surprisingly deep story. And since the film is PG-13, I believe the film is worthy of the rating showing adult themes and even imagery. But I would recommend this movie to anyone mature enough to understand it's themes. I believe this is the same tier of comedy the Coen Brothers and other legendary comedies set decades later.Overall, I give The Graduate a... 9/10

(ABSENCE MAKEUP REVIEW) Similarly to Bonnie and Clyde, The Graduate is a film during the "New Hollywood" era. This meant defying the older ways of Hollywood by portraying often graphic scenes; and while The Graduate certainly doesn't go into the violent territory of Bonnie and Clyde, it's arguably equally mature. The film follows Benjamin, a recently graduated college student who's having difficultly realizing what he wants in life. His parents are well off middle-class folk, but he doesn't want that, and his friends constantly try to goad him into telling them what he plans to do in life, but he can't answer so he ignores them. Enter Mrs. Robinson and suddenly Benjamin is given a distraction from his responsibilities, which he hesitantly accepts after considering it for several days. The scene between Mrs. Robinson and Benjamin is not only humorous, but also the most "Old Hollywood" defiant. Robinson attempts to seduce Benjamin into having an affair with her, or to at least consider an arrangement between the two. The chemistry between Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft in this scene is fantastic, as Benjamin fumbles around trying to understand why the sexually more experienced Mrs. Robinson is attempting to woo him into her sheets. It's funny and racy, and way beyond what used to be depicted in older films. Something that's done masterfully is how the relationship between the two begins to grow stale for Benjamin, with some great editing to tie it all together. One part in particular stands out, where Benjamin is putting on a shirt and entering his house after leaving the pool, and a match cut is made where we see Benjamin entering a hotel room where he lies on the bed and Mrs. Robinson begins to undress him. It shows how he's trying to balance his normal activities with their affair, and the look on his face as Mrs. Robinson unbuttons his shirt shows how uninterested he is with his partner. It's a great example of show, don't tell. Eventually Benjamin finds that he's interested in a new woman, Elaine, Mrs. Robinson's daughter. Things escalate from there till we reach the climax, but the thing I want to focus on is the maturity of the story. While The Graduate is a comedy, it depicts its characters and situations with grace, and doesn't push the funny moments too much where things begin to feel unrealistic, which is a difficult medium to reach. Later on, Benjamin is accused of rape; a serious accusation, and the movie handles it as such. It isn't utilized as a segue into a joke, nor is it presented as humorous. It shows that the screen writer knew when to be serious, and it pays off with a very real and human response from the actor portraying the character. There's a certain finesse to it that I think should be applauded. Overall, The Graduate is a smart and funny film that tells a mature story without relying on the comedy too heavily. It was definitely a trail blazer for the industry.