Creative, compelling & classic

Rating: 8/10 (12 May 2013)

You've gotta love The Graduate. Even after 44 years, it's still relevant, highly watchable, funny, a titchy bit avant-garde, and boasts a top notch, flawless script. Dustin Hoffman as Ben does a bang up job playing the hapless graduate who desperately wants to escape his boring, careerist fate (as predetermined by his parents and society at large). He exudes 'sullen-youth-ness', boredom-with-life, naiveté, awkwardness and an (almost) 'aspergers' style of speech which are amusing and poignant. Despite all the drama that unfolds; the seduction followed by the 'coming-of-age' sex with an older woman, the falling in love with a fresh, vibrant young woman, The Graduate is, ultimately, a film about ennui; that dull, thudding, inexorable grind we face upon leaving school and being forced to 'decide what to do' for the rest of our sad, pathetic , predictable lives. Career paths being far more restrictive in the '60s, the sense of doom and pointlessness that Ben feels is exacerbated and he portrays it so very well. The friend of his parents who says, "I have one word for you Ben...plastics", sums up the soulless, futile, and arid future that Ben fears is his destiny.
The Graduate experiments successfully with some creative cinematography including unusual camera angles, and interesting switches from one milieu to another e.g. Ben jumping into the swimming pool but ending up on the bed with Mrs Robinson. The swimming pool scene where Ben must walk under water in his birthday present - an old fashioned diving suit- is especially memorable and provides a convincing metaphor for the restrictiveness, loneliness and entrapment that he fears is to be his fate. There is nothing 'awkward' or dated about this classic film, it holds one's attention from start to finish. The ending steers clear of that typical 'happily ever after' Hollywood schmaltz and, in subtle tones presents us with 'ennui in a nutshell' as Ben and Elaine exchange smiles, then worried looks, and then expressions devoid of all emotion. There is nothing I would change about The Graduate, it's a classic and always will be.