A romp from the sixties

Rating: Null/10 (4 February 2004)

Watching a movie you last saw 36 years ago can be a disconcerting experience; disconcerting because so little of it is familiar. However I can remember how I felt about this one  emotional memories seem to be recorded in stone  and my reaction today is to a large extent the same as it was in 1968. `The Graduate' was and is no more than a pleasant light-hearted romp through the pretensions of the US upper middle classes via one of their bored (and rather boring) children. Of course back in 1968 I empathised with Benjamin, now I rather see Mrs Robinson's point of view. Neglected by her spouse, battling a drink problem, her beauty fading but her sex drive unabated, she just does what comes naturally. Seducing Benjamin is like shooting fish in a barrel, but Mrs R is not the sporting type. The relationship is both doomed and deeply authentic.
The second relationship between Benjamin and Elaine is not so well established despite Ben's stalker-like pursuit. Elaine, though prettily depicted by Katharine Ross, is an ill-defined character and it's never clear what she sees in Ben. Perhaps the final scene in the back of the Santa Monica bus is the give-away  she really isn't sure why she's run away from her wedding to the hearty medical student and Ben is starting to wonder whether his feverish pursuit of Elaine was a good idea either. They've kicked over the traces and gone for `liberation' (very 60s) but what next? A mortgage and a job for Ben in plastics or more likely with IBM (or if he were really lucky, a precursor of Microsoft) and a divorce after Elaine realises she has fallen into the same matrimonial prison as her mother?
The odd camera angles and heavy symbolism look a bit hackneyed nearly 40 years on, but the comedy is not too ponderous and the film has a crisp feel to it. The better comedy is in the first half and things flag towards the end but Nichols wisely kept it to 95 minutes. The director was greatly assisted by two stellar performances, Anne Bancroft as Mrs Robinson of course, and Dustin Hoffman, who was just perfect as Benjamin the priggish bore, who finishes up causing an amazing amount of emotional damage through `self fulfilment.' As for the music, well, it's a great LP, but it doesn't always work well in the movie  the excellent lyrics clash with the banalities of the script - the characters are seriously banal people.
Well, here's to the sixties, Mrs Robinson, and Jesus knows they won't come again.