Thank You Mr. Nichols

Rating: 10/10 (11 January 2007)

Thank you, Mike Nichols, for giving us "The Graduate," because it, along with the superb "Bonnie and Clyde," finally blew the cobwebs off of the Hollywood film and gave movie audiences something immediate and relevant. Because of the audacity of directors like Nichols and Penn (and Peckinpah and Hopper and Schlesinger and Kubrick) the 1960s are now known as the decade that ushered in a movie renaissance when they could have been known instead as the decade that gave us "My Fair Lady" and "Cleopatra."
"The Graduate" just has a different feel to it as compared to many of its contemporaries that's hard to explain if you can't see it. Like "Bonnie and Clyde," it's about restless characters, and the movie feels restless too. It's quick, jittery, fast paced. The camera moves and does original things. Actors seem to be occupying real three-dimensional space rather than manufactured studio sets. And then there's that fantastic Simon and Garfunkel score, the first time a pop soundtrack was so integral a part of a film narrative (and its marketing). While studios were still trying to churn out big-budget, ponderous Biblical and historical epics, or antiquated musicals that felt like products made especially for grandma and grandpa, "The Graduate" feels like a product aimed squarely at the youth market, and reassures young people that film has something to say to them. And let's not forget that the movie also introduced audiences to Dustin Hoffman, who would be such a major player in said film renaissance in the upcoming decade.
Grade: A+