A 10. I love this movie

Rating: 10/10 (16 March 2011)

I saw the Graduate when it came out and I was about 21, so lucky me. To this day, when I watch it, each scene is so perfectly crafted to evoke a variety of emotions, from anxiety to outrageous laughter to tenderness, etc.
The cast was perfect. Hoffman looking dazed and confused at the beginning to becoming a man about town to a man in love chasing his woman. Katherine Ross was the ideal mid-60s young woman, beautiful, long hair although the false eyelashes are a little jarring in 2011. Her walking across campus with boots was a familiar image from back then. I recall a Life magazine photo of young woman that Ross remind me of. It was classic look. How could Ben not, you know, go for it? That scene at the end of their first date when they are at her door and she's reaching into the bag to get a french fry, then Ben walks away out of camera range and tosses the empty, crumpled bad back at her was one of those tender moments. I know it doesn't sound romantic.
Ann Bancroft is a joy to watch in every scene she's in, the way she can get a waiter when Benjamin fumbles his attempts, taking off an earring to answer the phone in the bar, rubbing a spot off her top while she's undressing in the hotel room, turning on the stereo to a blast of music while 'seducing' Benjamin in the sun porch, smoking and just that sexy way Ann Bancroft is. Her boozy husband is a hoot. Ben's parents are also great in their oblivious way.
I know the plot by heart and I don't try to analyze it much as I just enjoy watching the actors perform the way I enjoy a singer sing. It's artistry. Although the situations may be unusual, it seemed like we knew all of these types of people in our own lives.
I've been smitten and driven long distances for love and although I wasn't seduced by my father's partner's wife, I had friends that did stuff like that or saw single mother's of friends that looked like they didn't stay home alone Saturday nights. I've seen parents like Ben's too.
The movie captured something familiar yet normally experienced privately and took us on a ride as though we were living it.