Not As Good As They Say

Rating: 5/10 (5 March 2005)

I was born the year The Graduate was released, but only watched it for the first time yesterday. I had heard all the praise, the hype, and academic analysis of why The Graduate was one of the greatest films ever made. I already knew about the Robinson affair, and even about the importance of "plastics". So clearly this film was influential. Otherwise, how could I know so much about it without actually watching it? I also kept seeing The Graduate toward the top of the IMDb's 50 Most Popular Comedies, which kept reminding me that I must watch this film one day. Not with the same anticipation I look forward to each new Star Wars installment, but definitely with interest and high expectations.
So I finally watched it, 37 years after it was released, and instantly recognized that it's not a very good film.
On the positive side, the casting is excellent, and the acting superb. Dustin Hoffman's uncomfortable awkwardness at the beginning is genuinely funny, and holds your attention. And let's face it, who doesn't want to watch him be seduced by Anne Bancroft? But after a while this humor becomes nothing more than comic relief in an otherwise dreadful film that lacks a real story, and somehow manages to simultaneously trudge along like a dirge, while developing the story by introducing major changes almost instantly. For example, we watch the main character Benjamin stand, sit, lie down, stare and think about things that are never revealed to us for minutes on end, wondering when the story will ever get moving again. Then he suddenly meets a girl and decides he loves and wants to marry her after just one date. Realism clearly wasn't a goal here.
Furthermore, the lead character, Benjamin, has no goals, interests, ambitions, or purpose. He's not fun, or intentionally funny. He doesn't exhibit any talent, and not much knowledge for a "graduate". He's a man without a personality, and when the film was over I was still trying to figure out what an older woman and her daughter could possibly have liked or loved about this character. Benjamin is a boring person.
So what was the appeal of The Graduate? I suspect it was a sign of the times in 1967 that shocking audiences with a young man-older woman affair and dysfunctional families would result in strong sales and praise, much like "All in the Family" would do for television four years later. But "All in the Family" was really funny, and focused. Each week it made important points in a highly entertaining way, then the episode was over. The Graduate seems to make only one point: We are going to show you some social taboos you've never seen before, on the pretext of a deeper story about a young man who is disillusioned by America's growing fascination with the material world.
In fact, it's really just a vehicle for showing a young man having an affair with an older married woman, in 1967. That's all it really is. And in the 21st century, that ain't nothing' new.
To make matters worse, The Graduate has the most annoying soundtrack of any film I've seen. It is merely repetition of the same few Simon & Garfunkel songs. During one particularly tedious section of the film, the song "Are You Going To Scarborough Fair" is played not once, not twice, not even three times in a row. It is played four times in a row! And this is a traditional English song about a town in England, not the WASP suburbs of California. Indeed, the lyrics throughout the film have absolutely nothing to do with the story, aside from mentioning "Mrs. Robinson" in the title track. This is an example of great songs being thrown together to create an awful soundtrack.
Director Mike Nichols won an Oscar, presumably for using some clever camera angles and transitions here and there. Yet I would think the primary job of a director is not to use innovative visual tricks, but to ensure that the finished product tells a good story in a compelling manner, keeping the audience's attention, entertaining them throughout, and leaving them with thoughts and emotions to deal with after the film has ended. When The Graduate ended, my only emotion was relief that this film was finally over.
So with all due respect to a great cast, and to the warm legacy The Graduate has enjoyed, I cannot recommend watching this film unless you are mainly interested in the nostalgia. 5/10 (almost entirely for Hoffman's performance).