Here's to you, Anne Bancroft!

Rating: 10/10 (2 July 2005)

Anne Bancroft's recent passing brings "The Graduate" back into our minds. It was of course one of my parents' generations favorite movies. Some people may just think of it as a story about young Ben Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) stuck in a weird relationship with the much older Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft), but it really is more than that. It embodies America's move away from the innocent, prudish mindset that had held sway for so long. Obviously, Ben is learning about sex from Mrs. Robinson, and then gets interested in her daughter Elaine (Katharine Ross). The movie also makes an interesting use of telling us things without anyone talking: in one scene, Ben unbuttons his shirt, which says as much as any words could have. As IMDb.com noted, none of the adults had first names, a reference to the ubiquitous generation gap. Anyway, 1967 was certainly the year in which American movies made a giant step into the new mold, with "The Graduate", "Bonnie and Clyde" and "In the Heat of the Night" (some people might also include "To Sir with Love" and "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner"). "Sound of Silence" may have been "The Graduate"'s theme song, but the movie itself will never go silent.
Oh, and one more thing. It appears that two "Bewitched" cast members appeared in "The Graduate": Alice Ghostley (Esmerelda) and Marion Lorne (Aunt Clara). Although they never appeared together in any "Bewitched" episodes on account of Lorne dying before Ghostley joined the cast, I now have to imagine Esmerelda and Aunt Clara telling Samantha of a strange young man's relationship with an older woman. Well...