A brilliant depiction of personal alienation

Rating: 8/10 (9 September 2018)

Most of the kind of flicks like the Graduate, which rely on showing the alienation of a main character to society, cross the line towards the cringeworthy, creating an unpleasant and uneasy feeling for the audience. The Graduate, however, manages to depict this alienation in such a relatable fashion that there is no real cringe to speak of.
Dustin Hoffman deserves a lot of credit for his role in the film. He was reportedly the same kind of person as his character ( Ben Braddock ) and it definitely shows that he was born to play this role. His nervously having to wait for two different generations of people before going through a door, or his lack of attempting to 'Call' to a waiter while instead just pointing behind his back, it all shows that this is a person that is uneasy and alienated to the society he lives in. This could have easily been cringeworthy, but Hoffman's acting feels so raw and the screenplay feels so realistic that one can only stare in awe at how accurate this depiction is. Ben starts out as the gullible alienated schoolboy but evolves towards a determined human being towards the end of the film, resulting in a great display of character development. Anne Bancroft as Mrs Robinson, Murray Hamilton as Mr. Robinson and in a bit lesser terms Katharine Ross as Elaine are also performing to the best of their abilities which in turn makes the acting in The Graduate one of its many strengths.
It is a motion picture filled with subtle and artsy metaphors and symbolisms, and a lot of fantastic visual storytelling. Examples of this are the shot of him before the fish tank, which symbolizes his jumbled view of life at that point. Not yet knowing what his purpose is, and what he strives to be. Another example is the famous under the legs shot with Ben in the background which shows us exactly how hard to refuse the seduction must have been for his already quite compliant character ( At that point ). Or the fantastic scene near the end which shows us a camera position in the distance that Hoffman is running to the entire time, which tells the story in visual terms that he is running but not getting any closer, and only when the camera zooms out and a certain building is revealed on the left side of the screen we suddenly see that this was merely a diversion and that his goal was indeed nearby the whole time. Due to this fantastic visual storytelling, the audience will start to create quite a sympathetic feel for the protagonist since this subtly tells us what his inner struggles are.
The Graduate appreciates the audience's intelligence, and doesn't use any more dialogue than is necessary. It isn't ham fisted, and it features a lot of montage scenes which focus solely on the facial expressions of its brilliant cast of characters to tell the story, while using brilliant photography, cinematography, innovative camera angles & shot variety to truly immersive the audience into its environment. Instead of an orchestral original score by an acclaimed film composer, The Graduate cast Simon & Garfunkel as the musical additions to the film, and their songs perfectly capture what Ben is going through throughout the film. Many scenes include Ben reflecting on his life while Simon & Garfunkel's fantastic iconic music plays, and it fits perfectly with the narrative.
The greatest scene has to be the superb final one, namely when they are on the bus itself. While Simon & Garfunkel's fitting ( Because the scene has no dialogue ) Sound of Silence plays, our main characters are seen in joy after disrupting Elaine's wedding and making it towards the bus which will make them live happily ever after. That is, if director Mike Nichols cut the scene short for about 20 seconds. The smiles slowly disappear and some 20 seconds long our characters monotonously stare in front of themselves which symbolizes the fact that both characters know what they are getting into and know that their path ahead will be difficult. And it is this sense of self awareness that makes this film stand out so much from your average coming of age film. It could have easily ended 20 seconds earlier with both characters smiling and riding off into the sunset, but Nichols left on a stunningly realistic ambiguous note with both characters realizing they have obstacles to overcome, and can not yet live happily ever after. In a slight complaint, for such a subtle film the depiction of the parents as indoctrinating monsters is slightly overdone and lacks obvious subtlety, yet it still helps the narrative forward.
It is the kind of film that relies heavily on human emotions & uses a lot of facial expressions and visual storytelling to create this emotion. It has brilliant acting, a great screenplay, a great score by Simon & Garfunkel, great cinematography, and above all fantastic direction, which all creates a succesful study on society alienation and overcoming indoctrination.