Review: The Graduate
Directed by: Mike Nichols
Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, and Katharine Ross
This movie shows the first large role of Dustin Hoffman’s career, as an awkward graduate from college (played by Hoffman) who has no clue what to do with his life. All this takes a turn for the… well, odd… when he has an affair with the wife of his dad’s business partner (you might recognize the all too famous line “Mrs. Robinson, you’re trying to seduce me… Aren’t you?”). Eventually, he falls in love. With Mrs. Robinson (Bancroft)’s daughter (Ross).
It’s kind of hard to figure out if this movie is a drama or a comedy at points, but, whatever it is, it has some of the best direction that I’ve seen in quite a while. Mike Nichols (who has been famous for movies like Carnal Knowledge, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, and most recently, Charlie Wilson’s War) makes some spectacular choices with his direction, at one point doing something that most directors wouldn’t dare ever do, and that is filming two of his leads walking on a sidewalk from the OTHER side of the street, making it at points hard to even see them because of the other pedestrians on the sidewalk. In other words, it’s no surprise that Nichols won the Oscar that year for Best Director.
Also, this movie has what may just be the greatest use of montage that I’ve seen for quite a while. All of these montages are to the great music of Simon and Garfunkel. From the opening scene to The Sound of Silence to the many scenes with Scarborough Fair, these montages are scenes that you should definitely watch for.
Onto the acting, for Hoffman’s first leading role, he does quite the spectacular job. During his initial audition, it was said that he fumbled through all his lines, and acted very awkwardly, thus causing him to walk out after his audition “knowing” that he didn’t get the part, at least, until he learned that awkwardness was what Nichols wanted for the character, and ended up casting him. And, his awkwardness shows. And it works.
The other main lead, Anne Bancroft, also does a great performance as the somwhat troubled Mrs. Robinson. Some of the scenes around an hour into the movie shows how great an actor she is, by showing her sadness and yet staying completely somber (you’ll know what I mean).
So, this is overall a very well made movie, and the only thing that I thought was wrong with it was that after about 40 minutes or so, the movie seems to go a bit slowly for about 20 minutes. This may just be my imagination, and lack of sleep, but, either way, this is definitely a movie that’s worth seeing!
Rating: 8/10
Keep on watching!
R.S.
Picture from http://www.hollywoodteenmovies.com/TheGraduate.jpg
November 3rd, 2009 at 10:19 am
The movie The Graduate changed in many ways the direction in my life. There is a line where a man says “Plastics, my boy, we want you to go into plastics” – or something to that effect. Well I changed all my studies from the sciences and the maths into the Arts and Humanities!!!! And I stayed in this area until I did my MBA!!!
November 3rd, 2009 at 12:14 pm
Hey, Rob. Saw this film when it came out. The most intriguing part of the story and the most dramatic scene for me is Dusitn Hoffman’s clamoring on the windows of the church loft as Katherine Ross is getting married off.
Enjoyed your piece and interpretation of the directing techniques of Nichols.
G. Fellini Feeney