Benjamin is really me (and you)

Rating: 10/10 (1 September 2003)

"The Graduate" is a timeless classic about the perils of growing up as experienced by one Benjamin Braddock, an accomplished graduate (a letter athlete AND newspaper editor) from a college back east stuck about what to do with the rest of his life. About the only things he manages to do is have assignations with the wife of his father's business partner and float around the pool at his parents' upper-middle class estate. "I'm just drifting in the pool," he assures his father, when the old man asks what's up. "It's comfortable just to drift."
We never really get an idea of what Benjamin's childhood was like, which might account for his reluctance to move on. We see glimpses of his bedroom, an aquarium, and some model planes tethered to the ceiling, but not much. Dustin Hoffman plays him for the most part as a cipher. This feels at first like a bit of a mistake. Who is he? Why should we care? But then it dawns on you, as it did on me the first time I saw it, just after I graduated from college: The guy is me! By making him a blank, Hoffman and director Mike Nichols invite the viewer to pour his (or her) own suppositions into this affable but conflicted character.
The supporting actors are also terrific, especially Anne Bancroft, who on repeat viewings is more the heart of the film than Hoffman in her heartless way. Every scene with her in it commands your attention, and it's a sign of advancing age when you watch more for her reactions than his. Murray Hamilton as Mr. Robinson has a couple of great scenes, and his last confrontation with Benjamin in his Berkeley apartment is right up there with Hamilton's final scene as Amity's mayor in "Jaws." Wish they made more use of him in Hollywood. I love William Daniels, too, who is both honestly affectionate and facile as Mr. Braddock, especially when he coaxes his son outdoors in his scuba suit for the film's ultimate "lost-in-a-big-world" metaphor, featuring Hoffman standing lonely in the center of a suburban swimming pool. It's a key image in explaining the crisis behind Ben's inertia, that he doesn't only NOT know what he's supposed to be doing with his life, but more importantly, why he should care. ["Knight Rider" fans should know upfront that Daniels didn't do double-duty as the voice of Benjamin's Alfa-Romeo.]
The whole feeling of late 1960s suburban culture is pretty immersive here, and put to fantastic use. As a child of the '70s, I can pick up on a lot of residue references. "The Newlywed Game" plays in the background TV as Benjamin appears to pick up Elaine Robinson for the first time, and Simon and Garfunkel are effectively sprinkled throughout. The cocktail music not by S&G that accompanies the famous "Are you trying to seduce me" scene is pretty great, too, an effective jaunty counterpoint to the tension between Benjamin and Mrs. Robinson that helps underscore the humor and render the moment a true cinematic classic.