Seducingly Excellent

Rating: 9/10 (26 September 2017)

The Graduate is a 1967 film directed by Mike Nichols and stars Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, and Katharine Ross. The film is distributed by Metro Goldwyn Mayer, being labeled as a Dramatic Comedy. I was aware of the film's presence in cinema before watching it. But after watching it, I wanted to document my observations and opinions just for you.
The Graduate is the story of Benjamin Braddock (played by Dustin Hoffman) fresh out of College who doesn't know what do with his future other than for life to carry him away. After his Graduation party, he becomes seduced by Mrs. Robinson (played by Anne Bancroft) and they start dating. Ben's father then asks him to date the Robinson's daughter, Elaine (played by Katharine Ross) whom Ben is now attracted to and proceeds to do as such. Ben soon gets caught up in troubling affairs and antics throughout in a world not quite as promising as it seemed.
Dustin Hoffman's "break-out" performance as Ben Braddock is an excellent audience surrogate, being confused, nervous, and trying to keep his cool through the first half of the film. Plus his character development is great and woven into the progressing story perfectly, who runs in complete circles in the game of life. Anne Bancroft's performance as Mrs. Robinson steals every scene she is present. She has almost total dominance throughout entire scenes, being the perfect blend of sexy and dangerous. Katharine Ross delivers a very good performance as Elaine, showing very convincing emotions when needed. Though I think her character is slightly underwritten as I would have liked to see more of her.
I liked a lot about The Graduate (well, that's an understatement). Every single shot never ceases to amaze me with it's composition, movement, length, sound design, and more. I also loved the lighting of each scene, serving as both a metaphor and carefully crafted filmmaking. The film is realistically dark seeing as it envelopes Ben in this newly found adult world, giving new meaning to the term "Dark Comedy". The Soundtrack by Simon & Garfunkel really set the tone and elevate scenes in which it is present. Plus, the songs are enjoyable by themselves, even without context.
The Graduate's themes are about adulthood, relationships, and society. Ever since you or anyone turns into an adult, life turns a complete 180 degrees and that can be troublesome for most. But The Graduate makes this turn of events both surreal and grounded, showing this world feeling manufactured and weird, but also with a sense of realism to follow. The lesson I got from the film is that you need to plan things rather than life giving you a rude awakening very quickly.
I believe this movie has something for everyone. General audiences can appreciate the depth and the film in general. And people who like cinema outside of watching it will get a surprisingly deep story. And since the film is PG-13, I believe the film is worthy of the rating showing adult themes and even imagery. But I would recommend this movie to anyone mature enough to understand it's themes. I believe this is the same tier of comedy the Coen Brothers and other legendary comedies set decades later.
Overall, I give The Graduate a... 9/10