Thought out scene by scene

Rating: Null/10 (25 March 1999)

I don't know about anybody else but I love it when you are watching a film and you can clearly see the time and thought that has gone into individual scenes. I also love it when you watch a film several times and each new viewing brings out something that you have not noticed before. The Graduate is clearly a film which falls into these two areas.
Watching it now it is hard to appreciate how original and groundbreaking the movie would have been in 1967. However, it does stand up amazingly well to today's slickly made films. It is an film full of ideas, both about the story and the way the scenes are shot. For that reason alone it is up there with the best Hollywood can offer nowadays. The cast give a perfect performance right down to the most minor part, the writing and screenplay keep the story flowing at just the right pace and the direction in each scene is flawless. There are too many classic moments to pick out just one for particular attention, but the scene where Ben tells his parent s about marrying Elaine then leaves as the toast pops up is fantastic.
Yes, it is a film about the confusion of youth about love and loss of innocence, you can read into it on many different levels, but when all is said and done it is a damn fine entertaining film.