Directed by Mike Nichols
Starring Anne Bancroft, Dustin Hoffman, Katharine Ross,William Daniels, Murray Hamilton and Elizabeth Wilson
I can recall my college days vividly. Without a doubt, going to college qualifies as the single biggest mistake of my life. Sure, it wasn't all bad. I wound up with a couple friends that I still have, I worked a couple of fun jobs and I was in a city that had some pretty damn good restaurants. Overall, though, it was 4 1/2 years that I want back in the worst way. I spent $20,000 on a degree that I'll never use, majoring in something that I didn't care all that much about and wondering why everyone else seemed so sure about where they were headed with their overpriced pieces of paper. And now I'm way happier running factory equipment for eight hours a day. So...stay in school, kids!
As a disaffected college graduate, you'd think that this movie would be tailor-made for me. I'd seen and enjoyed director Mike Nichols' previous film, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and this came just a year later. Nichols was pretty much on top of the world at this time, being at the helm of the top-grossing movie in consecutive years, a record that must have given him J.J. Abrams power in 1967. So with a subject matter that I can relate to and a skilled director, I was ready to be entertained...and I couldn't connect with this movie at all. My contrarian gland is acting up again.
Our lead character in The Graduate is Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman, who sounds remarkably like Jimmy Stewart in his first major film role), recent college graduate who seems unsure about what comes next in life. To an annoying degree. The character is nigh insufferable from the first time we meet him, complaining to his parents about his graduation party. It is at said grad party that the viewer is also introduced to our other main character, Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft), family friend who insists that Benjamin drive her home. If you're at least mildly familiar with film history, you know what comes next, as the nervous Benjamin is put upon by Mrs. Robinson in a scene that contains some pretty legendary dialogue.
Make no mistake, Mrs. Robinson is the best thing about this movie. Bancroft plays the role to perfection, underacting the early scenes where she lays out her interest in Benjamin and bringing the audience along for the ride. Of course, Benjamin eventually decides to take her up on the offer, renting a hotel room every night under an assumed name and wasting his summer away at his parents' backyard pool by day and shagging Mrs. Robinson by night. Eventually, Mrs. Robinson lets it slip that she has been trapped in a loveless marriage for a long time, a result of getting pregnant in college and giving up her own dreams. I was really expecting the story to stick with the Benjamin-Mrs. Robinson dynamic from this point forward, but unfortunately the good stuff is about to end.
So what leads to the movie diving off a cliff? Well, the other key adults in Benjamin's life - from his own parents (William "Mr. Feeny" Daniels and Elizabeth Wilson) to Mr. Robinson (Murray "Mayor of Shark City" Hamilton) - are attempting to set him up with the Robinson daughter, Elaine (Katharine Ross). Mrs. Robinson expressly forbids this, but we know how Pandora's Box stories usually end. Reluctantly, Benjamin takes Elaine out on a date that starts out awkwardly but gains momentum as it goes along. Not quite the kind of momentum that merits what comes from this point on, but momentum nonetheless. This leads to Benjamin's affair with Mrs. Robinson being found out by all parties, blowing up all of the main relationships the film has established.
This is also where Benjamin enters full "creep" mode. He becomes borderline obsessed with Elaine, following her back to school and going so far as to propose marriage after the initial argument scene. Mrs. Robinson essentially disappears from the film bar a couple scarce appearances at this point. Our substitution is loads of melodrama as Benjamin attempts to woo Katharine, first away from a lie that her mother told about the affair and later from a rival love interest. How does that end up? Fun experiment: type "canceled wedding" into an IMDB plot keywords search and see how many titles pop up.
A film doesn't wind up with a 50+ year legacy and a spot in the National Film Registry without some good qualities, and The Graduate has plenty. The performances are all top notch, and the direction by Nichols is unconventional and skillful. The movie contains several long takes rife with dialogue, and the actors do a grand job popping out the lines in quick succession. This movie also gives me an excuse to go on another side diatribe about something missing from today's films - thought-out soundtracks from a single musical artist rather than a typical film score. In the case of The Graduate, it's the music of Simon and Garfunkel, which serve as bumpers for all of the main plot points. These songs combined with the artful editing elevate the material, keeping my interest even when I thought the movie went from a fascinating coming-of-age story to a disaster.
This is another example of a frustrating movie in "30 Flicks with Lick." The first half was great; I wanted the entire film to continue exploring the relationship between Benjamin and Mrs. Robinson. Along the way, we could find out more about both characters' respective backgrounds and grow to like them better. However, once Benjamin's pursuit of Elaine becomes central to the plot it loses all believability, with all of the characters becoming cartoons. I didn't care about them in the slightest at a certain point, and it's a shame, because there's a lot of talent involved in bringing them to life. No matter how good an actor is, it can't make up for what they're scripted to do and say.
Rating time: ** out of ****. There are some iconic lines and scenes in The Graduate. It would be a mistake to say that they go to waste, but the second half of this movie doesn't do them justice. If you're looking for a movie that really defines The Sound of Silence, though, take a look at this:
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