It's Graduation Day! I think this movie is seducing me. You're trying to seduce me. Aren't you?

Rating: 8/10 (17 June 2013)

The movie has this great 1960's Hollywood New Wave feel to it. This is a coming of age movie that works for me. A lot of coming of age movies seem to try to make their character innocent, but they never actually are. They do a bunch of irresponsible stuff and at the end of the day a lot of people call them "innocent and lost", but it just feels like an excuse to sympathize for being an idiot. However I do sympathize for this character, Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman). It seemed like he was forced into a pool and not allowed to come back up. The theme of an innocent and confused youth who is exploited, misdirected, seduced and betrayed by a corrupt older generation was well understood by film audiences and captured the spirit of the times. One of the film's posters proclaimed the difficult coming-of-age for college graduate. Directed by Mike Nichols, the film is based on the 1963 novel The Graduate by Charles Webb. The movie opens to one of the best songs of the 1960's, Simon & Garfunkel - The Sound of Silence. This is one of the best songs I've ever listened to. I think the soundtrack pretty much made Simon & Garfunkel from nearly unknown folk singers, to legends of the music industry. You can also hear an earlier version of Mrs. Robinson in the movie. The song as it appears in the film is different from the familiar hit single version, as only the chorus of the song appears late in the film and with slightly different lyrics. It was only later on that Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel re-recorded the song by employing additional lyrics to form the hit single. It's kinda funny that the original song was call 'Mrs. Roosevelt'. It would really be funny to see Eleanor Roosevelt have an affair with a younger man. The Sound of Silence song work for the film as it really fit in with the plot regarding the lack of communication between the controlling parents and the young adults. Anyways, Benjamin Braddock has just arrive back home, after years in College. Dustin Hoffman played the part of the awkward post-graduate student perfectly. I can't see Mike Nichols first choice, Robert Redford in this role. Dustin is kind of awkward that works, he isn't to an abnormal extent creep, he more just describes the entire situation to the woman. Unsure of himself, by being uncomfortable and anxious, and force to hear others decide for him what he will do with his future. Benjamin Braddock soon find himself, seduce by an older woman, Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft) and find himself tempt into an affair. Anne Bancroft is a cougar on the prowl, really to pounce on her prey. She was really pretty in the room. Even though her character is sympathetic, it doesn't change the fact that her character is a vindictive sexual predator. Just the line 'You've known me nearly all your life." Is just disturbing. Mrs. Robinson wanting to bang a kid she watched grow up? That's gross, and just a step below Woody Allen marrying his stepdaughter. She was marry too, so not only is she wanting to date a younger man, she watch when he was kid, but she's also cheating on her husband. It is pure flesh, but she is nice about it. It is just natural, pragmatic and not that romantic-idealistic. She's still the Queen of all Milfs. Her personal life isn't the only thing she's opening. Some people might hate the fact, that the two main characters are two of the most shallow, childish characters. Mrs. Robinson can be especially hateful without any specific motivation, while Benjamin is bit spineless. I do love Dustin Hoffman in the role, but he was way too old for this part. He was playing a 20 year old, and he himself was 30 at the time. Also Anne Bancroft was only 35 during the time of filming. It also kinda funny that the actress Katharine Ross who played Anne Bancroft's daughter Elaine was only 8 years younger than her 35 and 27, miscasting. Katherine Ross looks lovely as Elaine, but she's barely one-dimensional and looks like a girl who would never go for a guy like Dustin Hoffman in a million years. She only went with him, because of her over controlling parents. Anyways, Benjamin soon fall in love with Elaine, and is in a dilemma. Should be continue to live with people telling what to do with his life like Mrs. Robinson or should he set his own future with a girl like Elaine? Find out, by watching it. The ending is up to question, if these two would work out. It leaves a deep interpretation of risky love. This is a classic film: tightly written, intelligent, funny, wonderfully acted, with a great climax with the church, so to speak. You will get seduce into watching the film by how brilliant it is.