A Classic to Rewatch: The Graduate
Aug. 3rd, 2008 10:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
franceslievensMike Nichols' 1967 film The Graduate instantly launched the career of the then unknown Dustin Hoffman. As Benjamin Braddock he not only landed in a promiscuous love affair with Mrs Robinson, but also in an instantly successful film.
Asking Dustin Hoffman to play the part of what in the book was described as a surfer type (blonde, blue eyed, tall and buff guy), was a gamble. Who would still believe this story of seduction and soul search? Some forty years later Hoffman still does a tremendous job. His Benjamin Braddock is the perfect outcast in a Californian family. He graduates, but doesn't know where to go in life. The detachment with which he delivers his lines and the determination to go after the girl he loves, reminds of a (much) later Rain Man. They fit with the character though. Who wouldn't react stiff and confused when the wife of your father's business partner is clearly trying to seduce you? And who wouldn't be even more confused when your lust drives you into this woman's arms?
So the film becomes a coming-of-age-story. The young man learns about the ways of life in the arms of an older woman, and he specifically learns about human nature. Everyone wants things for free, but no-one wants to give something without asking a high price for it. Mrs Robinson forbids Benjamin to date or even meet her daughter. Of course from that point on everything goes terribly wrong.
The photography in the film has become iconic. Every shot and camera angle is well thought through. Never do you get a jumbled shot. Cutting this masterpiece down to television screen size (as was very common during the eighties) would be impossible.
Some shots and scenes have become icons of their time: Dustin Hoffman seen through the raised leg of Anne Bancroft; Hoffman again, letting himself fall onto his air bed in the pool, but landing on Anne Bancroft in bed in their hotel room. Every detail is just right – even the songs by Simon and Garfunkel.
My first viewing (some 10 years ago), I thought the songs jarred the experience of the film. I guess this was caused by my knowledge of those songs. In my ears they sounded more harmless than what I saw on screen. It didn't fit. Watching again everything did indeed fit. The Graduate had become an instant classic in 1967, and 40 years later it can still wear this name with pride.
Asking Dustin Hoffman to play the part of what in the book was described as a surfer type (blonde, blue eyed, tall and buff guy), was a gamble. Who would still believe this story of seduction and soul search? Some forty years later Hoffman still does a tremendous job. His Benjamin Braddock is the perfect outcast in a Californian family. He graduates, but doesn't know where to go in life. The detachment with which he delivers his lines and the determination to go after the girl he loves, reminds of a (much) later Rain Man. They fit with the character though. Who wouldn't react stiff and confused when the wife of your father's business partner is clearly trying to seduce you? And who wouldn't be even more confused when your lust drives you into this woman's arms?
So the film becomes a coming-of-age-story. The young man learns about the ways of life in the arms of an older woman, and he specifically learns about human nature. Everyone wants things for free, but no-one wants to give something without asking a high price for it. Mrs Robinson forbids Benjamin to date or even meet her daughter. Of course from that point on everything goes terribly wrong.
The photography in the film has become iconic. Every shot and camera angle is well thought through. Never do you get a jumbled shot. Cutting this masterpiece down to television screen size (as was very common during the eighties) would be impossible.
Some shots and scenes have become icons of their time: Dustin Hoffman seen through the raised leg of Anne Bancroft; Hoffman again, letting himself fall onto his air bed in the pool, but landing on Anne Bancroft in bed in their hotel room. Every detail is just right – even the songs by Simon and Garfunkel.
My first viewing (some 10 years ago), I thought the songs jarred the experience of the film. I guess this was caused by my knowledge of those songs. In my ears they sounded more harmless than what I saw on screen. It didn't fit. Watching again everything did indeed fit. The Graduate had become an instant classic in 1967, and 40 years later it can still wear this name with pride.
