Few films have defined a generation as The Graduate did. The alienation, the nonconformity, the intergenerational romance, the blissful Simon and Garfunkel soundtrack--they all served to lob a cultural grenade smack into the middle of 1967 America, ultimately making the film the third most profitable up to that time. Seen from a later perspective, its radical chicness has dimmed a bit, yet it's still a joy to see Dustin Hoffman's bemused Benjamin and Anne Bancroft's deliciously decadent, sardonic Mrs. Robinson. The script by Buck Henry and Calder Willingham is still offbeat and dryly funny, and Mike Nichols, who won an Oscar for his direction, has just the right, light touch. --Anne Hurley

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Better the second time around

I had just graduated myself from High School, and actually had a crush of Kat Ross, for a long time afterwards

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REALLY..

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Great Dvd, Amazing Classic Movie. If you don't like it, stick to reading books or playing video games, movies are not for you.

A timeless masterpiece that speaks to an entire generation

Mike Nichols' THE GRADUATE (1967), brilliantly written by Buck Henry and Calder Willingham, is a timeless film masterpiece that speaks profoundly to me. In 1967 I was in the middle of high school and 16 years old. In only two years, I would face Viet Nam or the working world or college. And if I chose college, where would it be and what would my major be? I was a confused and depressed virgin with no real girlfriend.

Dustin Hoffman plays Benjamin Braddock, who is seduced (actually mindf---ed by a chain-smoking middle-aged friend named Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft at her best). But Benjamin is really in love with Mrs. Robinson's college student daughter, Elaine (Katharine Ross). All three actors got Oscar nominations, the script was also nominated, and Nichols won Best Director. This is an amazing work of art that speaks to an entire generation, just as REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE (1955) spoke to an earlier generation. That it was partly filmed at both UC Berkeley and USC, two of my college alma maters, is only another plus.

What is amazing about THE GRADUATE is that it is totally free of things that might date it, like sex and drug love-ins, love beads, and hippies. Watching it for the first time in fifteen years, on widescreen DVD, I was stunned by the performances, every perfect line of dialogue, and very stylish cinematography by Robert Surtees. We are in a shallow upper class Southern California world, with the camera shooting underwater in a swimming pool, through aquariums, and in mirrored surfaces. Surtees and Nichols constantly do interesting things with the Panavision canvas, like beautiful soft lighting and backgrounds in focus while foregrounds are fuzzy. They love playing with darkness.

The dazzling editing is by Sam O'Steen, who later worked with Polanski on CHINATOWN (1974). He has fun with the big seduction scene and quick cutting, as well as the legendary cut from swimming pool mattress to Mrs. Robinson's bed. Contrasts are always inspired. Surtees, O'Steen, and Nichols are a dream team to match the dazzling performances.

I am reviewing THE GRADUATE at 40 DVD, which includes two audio commentaries (one with Hoffman and Ross, the other with Nichols and director Steven Soderbergh); fellow directors and other industry figures talking about how influential the movie remains for them; Buck Henry talking about the screenplay and other items; Hoffman chatting about how he got the lead role in a movie conceived in terms of all blonde, blue-eyed WASPS like in the Charles Webb novel; and the impossible-to-overstate importance of Simon and Garfunkel's incomparable song score. (They get a separate CD here with complete versions of songs done piecemeal in the film.)

For those who care, the movie is NOT in anamorphic widescreen, but looks great in regular 2.35 widescreen with beautiful color and matchless compositions. THE GRADUATE at 40 is a wonderful addition to my DVD collection, possibly a favorite movie of all time in what it has to say about the 1960's and the formative years of everyone my age, and a definite must-see in this lovely new DVD edition from 20th Century Fox Home Video.