The Graduate Is One Of The Most Influential Movies Of The 1960s. Mike Nichols’ 1967 Classic Has Great Performances, A Brilliant Soundtrack And A Story About Growing Up, Expectations And Not Knowing What You Really Want From Life.
The Graduate is one of those movies that feels different from almost everything else from its era. It is funny, awkward, romantic and sometimes uncomfortable, but underneath all of that is a story about a young man who has no idea what he is supposed to do with his life.
Dustin Hoffman stars as Benjamin Braddock, a recent college graduate who returns home after finishing school. Everyone around Benjamin seems to have expectations for him, but Benjamin himself does not seem particularly interested in following the path that has been laid out for him.
That uncertainty becomes even more complicated when Benjamin begins an affair with Mrs. Robinson, played by Anne Bancroft. She is the wife of his father’s business partner and significantly older than Benjamin. Their relationship is secretive, complicated and obviously destined to create problems.
Anne Bancroft is fantastic as Mrs. Robinson. She could have easily been played as nothing more than a stereotypical seductress, but Bancroft gives the character much more depth. There is a sadness and frustration underneath her confidence, and that makes her relationship with Benjamin much more interesting.
Then Benjamin meets Elaine Robinson, Mrs. Robinson’s daughter, played by Katharine Ross. Benjamin quickly becomes interested in Elaine, but their relationship is complicated by the secret he is keeping from her and by Mrs. Robinson’s determination to keep them apart.
The plot becomes a strange mixture of romance, family conflict and one young man’s attempt to figure out what he actually wants. Benjamin spends much of the movie drifting from one situation to another, and that aimlessness is really the point. He has graduated from college, but he has not figured out what comes next.
Mike Nichols directed the film, and his style is one of the reasons The Graduate still feels so modern. He uses unusual camera angles, editing and visual compositions to put the audience inside Benjamin’s uncertain state of mind. The movie looks like a traditional Hollywood production at times, but then suddenly does something completely unexpected.
The soundtrack is another huge part of the movie’s identity. Simon & Garfunkel songs including “The Sound Of Silence,” “Mrs. Robinson” and “Scarborough Fair” became inseparable from the film. The music gives the movie a feeling of loneliness and uncertainty that perfectly matches Benjamin’s character.
Dustin Hoffman is also a major reason the movie works. Benjamin is not your typical confident Hollywood leading man. He is awkward, confused and often completely overwhelmed by the people around him. Hoffman makes those qualities believable without turning Benjamin into an unlikeable character.
There is also plenty of humor throughout the movie. Some of the funniest moments come from Benjamin’s inability to communicate with his parents and the adults around him. Everyone seems to know what he should be doing with his life except Benjamin himself.
The famous pool scenes capture that feeling perfectly. Benjamin spends hours floating around, doing almost nothing, while his parents and their friends assume that he is simply enjoying life. In reality, he is completely lost. That image of someone surrounded by comfort while feeling totally directionless is one of the movie’s most memorable ideas.
The film also captures something that still makes sense today. Finishing school is supposed to feel like the beginning of adulthood, but sometimes it just creates a completely different set of questions. What career should you choose? Who should you marry? What kind of person are you supposed to become? The Graduate understands how overwhelming those questions can be.
The relationship between Benjamin and Elaine eventually pushes the story into its most famous sequence. Without spoiling every detail, the final act is one of the most recognizable endings in American cinema. What makes it especially interesting is that even after Benjamin gets what he wants, the movie leaves us wondering what happens next.
For me, that ambiguity is one of the reasons The Graduate remains so fascinating. It does not wrap everything up with a perfect Hollywood ending. Instead, it leaves Benjamin and Elaine sitting together with the realization that they have made a huge decision and now have to figure out what comes after it.
The Graduate is a true classic because it captured something about its generation while also telling a story that never really becomes outdated. The performances from Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft and Katharine Ross are excellent, Mike Nichols’ direction is outstanding and the Simon & Garfunkel soundtrack is unforgettable. More than fifty years later, it remains a funny, strange and incredibly memorable film about trying to figure out who you are when everyone else already seems to have a plan for you.
