The Graduate Is A Classic

Rating: 10/10 (9 September 2012)

The Graduate is a comedy-drama film directed by Mike Nichols.It is based on the novel,The Graduate by Charles Webb. The screenplay was by Buck Henry and Calder Willingham. The film tells the story of Benjamin Braddock,played by Dustin Hoffman, a recent university graduate with no well-defined aim in life, who is seduced by an older woman, Mrs. Robinson,portrayed by Anne Bancroft, and then proceeds to fall in love with her daughter Elaine,played by Katharine Ross.
Mentally adrift the summer after graduating from college, suburbanite Benjamin Braddock would rather float in his parents' pool than follow adult advice about his future. But the exhortation of family friend Mr. Robinson to seize every possible opportunity inspires Ben to accept an offer of sex from icily feline Mrs. Robinson. The affair and the pool are all well and good until Ben is pushed to go out with the Robinsons' daughter Elaine and he falls in love with her. Mrs. Robinson sabotages the relationship and an understandably disgusted Elaine runs back to college. Determined not to let Elaine get away, Ben follows her to school and then disrupts her family-sanctioned wedding. None too happy about her pre-determined destiny, Elaine flees with Ben -- but to what?
This film at once reflected the generation gap and also widened it, giving youths a clear voice, indigenous music, all adults portrayed as villains, and a sympathetic anti-hero, played to perfection by Dustin Hoffman in a career-making turn. Also,it remains relevant at present especially with new graduates who experience post-college burnout feeling as exposed in this film.Also,it provides a comedy of tragedy in which a man's youthful idealism is dealt its inevitable deathblow.That is why it is a classic.