The Graduate

Mike Nichols, USA, 1967, 105 minutes

If you're coming to this movie, odds are you are an undergraduate (apologies Alumni!). Listen up, then. What you will read in the next few hundred words will be important.

The Graduate follows young college graduate Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) as he spends his summer following a successful school career deciding what to do next. He is surrounded by his parents who are busy showing him off and others who want to impart their own egocentric "post-graduation advice", and is sick of it in a hurry. In an attempt to escape the party put on for him, he drives family friend Mrs Robinson (Anne Bancroft) back to her house - who propositions him. What follows is a confused and unfulfilling affair until Braddock realises the woman he wants a relationship with - Mrs Robinson's daughter, Elaine (Katharine Ross). To Mrs Robinson's chagrin, a relationship begins, but with what we know is the "skeleton [cougar?] in the closet". As the truth unfolds (and Elaine flees the mess), Benjamin is left with a struggle to regain Elaine.

The Graduate is cinematically excellent - with great acting, superb direction and camerawork and a killer soundtrack (thank you Simon and Garfunkel). It is thematically excellent too - you will all, one day, be faced with the confusing void following graduation (although most of us won't have the affair). Consider this compulsory viewing. Remember, you can always resit exams - they come along once a year. Filmsoc can't show this again for at least 3 years. The decision is made for you - see you down there.

Review by Niko Ovenden
Written for EUFS Programme Autumn 2007