The Graduate 40th Anniversary DVD Review
Posted by Leonard Hayhurst on 09.27.2007
An all-time classic gets a deluxe DVD treatment
THE CAST
Dustin Hoffman: Benjamin Braddock
Anne Bancroft: Mrs. Robinson
Katherine Ross: Elaine Robinson
Murray Hamilton: Mr. Robinson
Williams Daniels: Mr. Braddock
Elizabeth Wilson: Mrs. Braddock
Buck Henry: Room Clerk
Norman Fell: Mr. McCleerly
Brian Avery: Carl Smith
Alice Ghostly: Mrs. Singleman
Walter Brooke: Mr. McGuire
(Richard Dreyfuss and Mike Farrell have uncredited cameos)
TECH SPECS
The film is presented in 2.35:1 visual ratio with audio in 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround. Alternate audio is available in English mono and French mono. Subtitles are in English and Spanish. The film is in color and runs 106 minutes. It was released in 1967. The rating is PG, but it would probably get a PG-13 today. It’s a good transfer for a forty-year-old film, but the Simon and Garfunkle songs are too loud in the back channels and sound too crisp from the rest of the audio. It sounds like you’ve muted the TV and have your CD player blaring.
THE MOVIE
Benjamin Braddock is a recent college graduate who has no idea what he’s going to do with his life now. He falls into an affair with the wife of his father’s partner, Mrs. Robinson. Mrs. Robinson is just using Ben for sex, while he’s yearning for something more. He finds it in Mrs. Robinson’s daughter, Elaine. Ben is forced to confess the affair and lose Elaine, but he trails her back to Berkley in order to win her back.
The Graduate is considered an all time classic and its value is two fold. It serves as a time capsule of a certain period in American history where the generation gap was never more prominent and youth were never more despondent and aimless. Yet at the same time it also explores universal themes of human connection and relationships. The character of Ben is one that anyone fresh from college today can empathize with. He is fearful of the future with no real clue as how to conduct himself as an adult in the ‘real world.’ As Ben says to his father while in the pool, he’s just drifting. Why is he drifting? Because it’s comfortable to do so. Personally, I am five years removed from college and can relate to Ben’s emotional status and confusion on what direction his life should take. The fear of trying and failing can be paralyzing, so you drift and don’t rock at the boat. This is one reason why Mrs. Robinson so easily manipulates Ben as she represents a strong outside force that tells him what to do and how to do it. Meeting Elaine snaps Ben out of his malaise, because he has found a kindred soul who he sees a part of himself in and reflects back that everything might not be perfect and set, but it’s ok. Most couples get together because of the need to connect one’s life to that of another. A shared hell is better than a hell alone. The final shot of Ben and Elaine on the bus has them going through a myriad of emotions on their faces from joy to fear to confusion to relief to a sheer dread of the unknown and a realization of what they just did. They’ve achieved their goal, but what now?
The film also stands as one that bridged the gap between the traditional Hollywood studio film and the grittier, avant-garde, controversial cinema of the seventies. Not only does the movie deal with taboo subjects, but its visual language and overall production was something raw and new. Director Mike Nichols was still wet behind the ears as a film director, but his shot choices, compositions and editing are some of the most bold and creative since Citizen Kane, which had a novice director at the helm too. Nichols rightfully won the Academy Award for best director that year, although The Graduate was shut out in the other major categories. From the iconic shot between Mrs. Robinson’s legs, to Ben’s horrendous yet funny escapade in the scuba suit, to the turning point scene of Ben trying to get Mrs. Robinson to open up to him in bed while turning the lights on and off Nichols approaches every individual scene with a keen directorial eye that pulls individual elements in to make a whole. The direction at the same time is showy, yet subtle. The viewer is very distinctly aware that they are watching a movie, yet these obvious stylistic touches perfectly fit the built world of the film.
Dustin Hoffman was an unknown that didn’t fit the mold of the standard Hollywood leading man, but that makes him perfect for Ben. Hoffman so well embodies the nebbish, awkward youth that the persona has followed him today even despite his varied and accomplished career. Ben really at his core is an unlikable character, but Hoffman manages to invest him with tangible qualities of realism that draws sympathy from the viewer. Bancroft gives a tour de force performance as Mrs. Robinson that isn’t as showy as it could have been. Every move is calculated. Every statement uttered is with surgical precision. One wonders how many times Mrs. Robinson has snared a fly like Benjamin in her web. Robinson has brief moments of vulnerability, such as when she’s standing soaking wet in her upstairs hallway when Ben confesses the affair, but we never truly get inside her. Of course, this is all by design as no one can truly know Mrs. Robinson as she does not even know herself. She disappears in the second half of the movie until she reappears as a preening villain out of some James Bond movie. She calls the cops on Ben with the relaxed matter of fact attitude as if she were ordering a pizza. She is not a woman to be spurned that is for sure. Ross often gets lost in the shuffle of the two stronger performances, but she’s a good fit for Elaine. She’s a blank, pretty slate but at the same time she exudes similar qualities to Ben in the performance of her character while also coming across as more intelligent and self assured. Even in her emotional outbursts there is a measure of restraint that one can easily imagine is the result of what must have been a very closeted upbringing considering her parents. The rest of the supporting cast is superb as everyone mines what little comedy nuggets they can from their bit parts. Murray Hamilton gives a very underrated performance as Mr. Robinson, which most clearly can be seen when he confronts Ben in his apartment. His line delivery and the way he and Hoffman play off of each other is perfect. William Daniels and Norman Fell are always brilliant and it’s neat to see screenwriter Buck Henry in a bit part as a hotel clerk.
Calder Willingham is given credit on the screenplay with Henry, but Henry wrote the bulk of what was used in the movie and he gets the most accolades and comments on the film. There are a lot of Henry touches evident in the film with the droll wit and uncomfortable situations exploited for comedic purposes. He also has a knack for being so subtly subversive and perverse that when you catch a certain element you feel like the dirty one for reading something into it. Ben using a cross as a weapon and then barring the doors with it at the church in the end came under fire from various religious organizations at the time, but in the movie it’s such a logical thing for him to do and there is no attention called to it. While the movie eschews scenes on drugs and the Vietnam War, there is still underlining commentary on the social mores and state of affairs for youths at the time. The strongest statements are the ones that aren’t beat over your head.
EXTRAS
Audio commentary with Dustin Hoffman and Katherine Ross: Hoffman and Ross talk like old friends that haven’t seen each other in awhile with a mix of comfort and awkwardness. That’s probably true to life though. There is a bit of coldness here as Hoffman dominates the conversation with very matter of fact relation of his memories of the shoot and individual scenes. Ross steps up a bit once her character enters the movie and they get a bit warmer with each other. This is duller than it should be, but still relates a ton of useful information and making of stories. Ross reveals that she screen tested with Hoffman and Charles Grodin. Hoffman reveals that Gene Hackman was originally Mr. Robinson, but was let go and he took Bonnie and Clyde.
Commentary with Mike Nichols and Steven Soderburgh: Soderburgh serves as interviewer of Nichols. One gets the sense Nichols wouldn’t talk much by himself or interacting with Hoffman and Ross, so this was a good move. Soderburgh asks a lot of in-depth questions on the background of Nichols and the film along with the brass tacks of filmmaking. Nichols reveals all the little touches that play into what he calls “the statement of theme” in the descent of Ben and him drowning in objects and the cult of objects while other people turn him into an object. A great dissection of the film that will increase a viewer’s understanding of Nichols’ intentions and sheer genius as a filmmaker in this instance.
Students of the Graduate: Various filmmakers talk about the impressions and inspirations they took from the film including Harold Ramis, Marc Forster, Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton and David O. Russell. We then segue to how director Mike Nichols got attached to the project and what he brought to it. Producer Lawrence Turman, critics Owen Gleiberman, David Ansen and Vivian Sobchack and film professor Bruce Block speak on this. Turman discovered Nichols as a theater director, but Nichols really experimented with what could be expressed with the visual media of film. Buck Henry speaks on adapting the screenplay from the novel by Charles Webb. The casting of Hoffman, Ross and Bancroft is touched upon. Oddly, Doris Day was considered for Mrs. Robinson. It’s revealed that at the time Hoffman was 29 and Bancroft was 35, making them only 6 years apart. Also oddly, Henry Rollins shows up to sing the praises of Ross and the famous ‘plastics’ scene. That goes into a discussion of the themes of the film including the generation gap and the status of youths in the late sixties. The Simon and Garfunkle soundtrack is expounded upon as it relates to the themes. It was one of the first films to use preexisting pop songs on its soundtrack. Individual scenes are discussed in the wedding sequence and when Ben confesses to Elaine in her bedroom of the affair.
The Seduction: A similar featurette to the above with most of the same participants. The seduction of Mrs. Robinson on Benjamin at the start of the movie is examined thoroughly. The scene overall had a jungle motif. The camera point of view is linked tightly with Benjamin. “Mrs. Robinson, you’re trying to seduce me” and the shot between her legs has become iconic. The affair is tracked as Benjamin is desperate for more of a connection, while Mrs. Robinson sees him as merely another object to possess. Elaine offers him his first real emotional connection.
One on One with Dustin Hoffman: This is an interview from 1992. Hoffman talks about his first big break on Broadway and how that led to landing The Graduate. Hoffman refused to sign the option contract that would require him to do six movies if he was picked for The Graduate. Hoffman thought he tested poorly, but his stammering and nervousness was just what Nichols wanted. Reading with the Ross also threw him because Ross was so beautiful. Nichols began focusing on her and Hoffman felt like Nichols had the hots for her and didn’t care for him at all. Hoffman spent hours in the makeup chair getting worked on and felt demeaned by it. Hoffman then goes into elements of how various scenes in the film came about in his working with Nichols. Hoffman states that he had an idea for a sequel he ran by Nichols where Ben and Elaine would still be married, but that Ben would be having an affair with his son’s girlfriend. That’s a very interesting idea. The featurette is a very intriguing and candid account of events by Hoffman who doesn’t sugarcoat anything and is very self-effacing.
The Graduate at 25: the above interview was taken from this. Hoffman talks about opening night when he ran into columnist Rady Harris. She told him that things would never be the same for him after this point and she was right. This then goes into another featurette on the making of the film with Katherine Ross, Turman and Henry chiming in. Scenes from the film are interspersed. This goes over the same ground as the above featurettes and feels dated now being 15 years old when this DVD set is supposed to be celebrating the 40th anniversary. Henry has a great line about the first time he saw Hoffman on stage, “he was playing a crippled German transvestite and watching him it was hard to believe he wasn’t at least one or two of those three things.” A scene from The Player is shown of Henry pitching a Graduate sequel to Tim Robbins.
Also included are the original theatrical trailer and a general MGM Academy Awards trailer. The original trailer pretty much gives you the whole movie in two minutes. A second disc is a cd sampler of Simon and Garfunkle songs from the soundtrack including “The Sound of Silence,” “Mrs. Robinson,” “Scarborough Fair/Canticle” and “April Come She Will.”
The 411: The Graduate should be required viewing for all college graduates and middle aged people in personal crisis. Looking past the deep, complex themes the movie exists on a pure aesthetic level as a visual and acting treat for true film fans. The bonus cd sampler is fluff, but the other extras give great background and analysis in compliment to the film itself. One of the most accomplished and creative examples of post-golden era Hollywood filmmaking is given the best packaging possible here.
