Highly influential and challenging film that helped usher in the New Hollywood age

Rating: 9/10 (13 April 2014)

The Graduate was one of the first films from the late 1960's that indicated the changing face of American cinema. While it was a Hollywood film, it displayed a huge influence of the European New Wave. Not only this but it also tapped into the concerns of the counter-culture, with its story about the generation gap from a youth-oriented perspective. As it turned out, it was a huge commercial success and led in a large part to the brief but significant age of New Hollywood, a time when the American studios systematically turned out challenging, left-field movies. The story has a young man, Benjamin, arrive back into the folds of the family home from college after graduating. Immediately he finds himself lost and alienated by what's expected of him by the older generation. One of his parent's friends Mrs. Robinson soon ensnares him into a sexual relationship, one that is emotionless but which becomes extremely acrimonious when Benjamin falls in love with Elaine, Mrs. Robinson's daughter.
Aside from the reasons I mentioned above, The Graduate was important for the idea of having a romantic leading man as unconventional as Dustin Hoffman. His slightly nerdy and nervous persona was quite different from the character from the novel on which the film was based but he was a perfect choice in the role and several less obvious lead actors would rise to the top in his wake. In this movie he takes centre stage alongside Anne Bancroft (Mrs. Robinson) in a generational gap relationship that also was far from the norm. Bancroft is also extremely good here in a role where much goes unsaid, which requires very good acting. The timing of the release coincided with a period where youth generation were questioning the values of their elders like never before as a result of issues such as the Vietnam War. In this way Benjamin is an identification figure in that he is consistently used and instructed by his elders. This leads to an ending where the young rebels do what is right for them. But it's hardly a typical Hollywood ending, as after the elation of their act of defiance the camera stays on the couple and catches their uncertainty once their euphoria has died down. It's a European influenced ambiguous ending that shows that the young, like their elders, don't have all the answers either. Likewise, the film is ambiguous in other ways in that the lead character himself isn't really all that good a guy. He may be coerced into having sex with Mrs. Robinson but he chooses to carry on with this potentially devastating affair. Also, his pursuit of Elaine borders on the behaviour of a stalker. And it isn't in fairness ever really that obvious what Elaine, played by the gorgeous Katharine Ross, actually sees in Hoffman's rather strange Benjamin. In fact, it's a movie where it's quite easy to see everybody's point-of-view. We understand everyone's motivations, including the poor Mr. Robinson who has to endure Benjamin firing into both his wife and his daughter. For this reason, it left me with more questions than answers at the end and I couldn't 100% go along with Benjamin's elation.
But what elevates The Graduate to true greatness for me is that it combines all these interesting aspects and brings them to the screen in such an alluring way. The camera-work is beautiful throughout and often very inventive, with some neat editing tricks where scenes interconnect excellently. Sometimes it's even done for comic effect, like the diver scene, but the cinematography composition often highlights themes like alienation and entrapment. The photography, though gorgeous, isn't just for show. And to top things off, we have a marvellous folk-rock score from Simon & Garfunkel which has become so famous it can be easy to forget just how good it is in the first place. In particular, the stunning Sound of Silence resonates and is just perfect for this film.