Overrated

Rating: 7/10 (24 December 2002)

I don't know if critics have a different sense of humor, but I really don't know how some films are classified "comedies." Take this film. There were two or three laughing-out-loud scenes, but that's it. At best it's a drama that, as a few others have pointed out, starts off brilliantly but fades out about a third of the way through. The problem is the ending, and what led to it, was inexplicable and cliched. Ben and Elaine had just a date, half of it probably wasted by Ben's cruel behaviors, before he decided he wants to get married. Despite Mrs. Robinson's warning against his going out with her daughter, I don't see how Ben's feeling for the her just dropped out of the picture. Well, actually, the moral is that when the man finds what he can have, he can and should go after it.
That's the bigger problem with "The Graduate." I don't like being a morality cop but this films suddenly turned Mrs. Robinson out to be the villain, whereas Ben's role in the destruction of the Robinsons' family left no dirt on him. Elaine was also apparently not very mature - she easily agrees to marriage proposals.
It just seems obvious this movie was made in a different era. Doing basically the same things, the woman is the villain, the man the hero. He gets the girl, she the blame.
So is this one of the best films ever? Unless you're one of those Christian Coalition people, I'd say no.