Not the film it was

Rating: Null/10 (23 September 2001)

There is plenty to like in The Graduate. From the masterful technical work - great camera and editing, even by the standards of cinema 35 years later - to the wonderfully ambiguous ending.
However, there's plenty to not like too. I don't personally connect with Hoffman's performance. I can't imagine how anyone ever did for that matter (odd considering how good he usually is.) Which of course would be of top-most importance in order for the film to work. I found the dialogue to very stilted too. Possibly a difference in the era it was made in, but I don't recall feeling the same way about other films of the day. The Simon & Garfunkel soundtrack didn't fire on all cylinders either. Not really S&Gs fault. The single most ineffective element of this was the repeated use of 'Scarsborough Fair' in rapid successive reprise. 'Mrs. Robinson' is used similarly, but works as it appears to have been recorded (not the version you will find on "The best of S&G" and be familiar with) not only for the film (of course, hence the specific reference) but for the specific sequence of Benjamin rushing from L.A. to Berkley to Santa Barbara. 'Scarsborough Fair' in contrast seems lazily added back to back... to back. If I'm going to hear it three times in the film, I would hope it was spread through the film. Sadly, not the case.
The thing which stood out most for me is definitely a societal difference from then to today. In the same fashion that "Taming of the Shrew" doesn't work in a modern context and seems misogynist, I found that "The Graduate" was a film wherein the main character was a stalker who was given an inappropriate and ineffective attempt at making him sympathetic. Where that once worked to the point of being Oscar worthy, it now comes across in a flaccid manner.