American Cinema Par Excellence

Rating: 10/10 (15 June 2003)

The Graduate is undoubtedly one of the greatest films ever made. It is a film that works on a myriad of levels; as a comedy; as social commentary; as a coming of age film; as a satire about American family life; and as a pure entertainment. The photography by Robert Surtees is visionary, it gives the film the precise look it needs to set the tone for the story and at times precedes the boldness of underexposure that cinematographers would delve into only a few years later. The script by Buck Henry is marvelous and serves as all great scripts as both a foundation and springboard for great possibility. In other words the nuances, the quirks, the subtleties that lend a film of the magnitude and resonance of The Graduate its distinctness always belong to the people that bring it to life, namely the actors and the director, but the screenwriter gives us the body. The casting is one of those sort of conundrums or quirks of fate that all great works seem to have. Initially, as the producer of this film talks about they were shooting for a more typical all-American cast particularly in the case of Benjamin Braddock the track star, but looking back at it now with 20/20 who can imagine anyone else playing the role of Benjamin the way Dustin Hoffman played it. This illustrates that sometimes a project takes on this whole life-force. I'm not saying that the film was destined to succeed, there is no doubt that the film is a testament to the hard fought genius of artists like Mike Nichols, Robert Surtees, Buck Henry, Dustin Hoffman and Anne Banecroft. With that said there are these things, these curiosities, these chips that seem to fall into place, a perfect alignment of the stars. But at the end of the day to me the most beautiful thing about the film is the story. You have these two products (in Elaine and Benjamin) of the so-called all-American family who had Mrs. Robinson not interrupted would have no doubt married each other, it had been set up from the beginning. Note that when Ben comes over to the Robinson house to pick Elaine up Mr. Robinson says, "It's about time you got around to this Braddock," and that Ben's parents are persistent in nagging their son to take Elaine Robinson out. Perhaps things are not so different in America after all. If Mrs. Robinson hadn't intervened then there would have been nothing unique about the story. But of course she does, she wants something for herself, to take something that her daughter might have had and to possess it for herself, in a sad way it is her last attempt at trying to reach out and connect with someone, and after it is over it is too late for her, she is dead. In the end despite the brief road block of Elaine being married off to Carl Smith, Benjamin's back-up since Benjamin was deemed by Elaine's parents to be inadequate, they have set things back on course, but not before shaking them up, and doing it their way. But then we have the ominous and somewhat ambiguous ending where both characters get on the bus and go through different emotions, but not at the same time, portending the all too often uneven ebb and flow of a husband and wife. In the end these two characters must accept that in spite of all their kicking, scratching, world-shaking and hell-raising there is only so far they can go, they can only be so different. They are still going to get married, they have taken a slight detour, only to realize in the end that perhaps there is only one road.