The Graduate (1967)

When writing these reviews, I usually only put the year in brackets after the title if there has been more than one version made, to differentiate which production I am talking about.

As far as I know, there has only ever been one movie adaptation of Charles Webb’s book The Graduate, but let’s be honest, as soon as someone in Hollywood notices, that will change. It’ll be Teri Hatcher coming onto Frankie Muniz or someone.

I watched this film today because it’s Valentine’s Day, and this was the closest thing I could find to a romcom. (I’ve decided to start liking romcoms from now on)

I gotta say, although I’d never seen it before, The Graduate felt like a movie that I had already sat through many times, purely because it’s been so extensively satirised down the years.

Particularly the ending. When Dustin Hoffman pelts down that road towards the church, expending every drop of energy that he has to play the scene, I already had a pretty clear idea what the layout and architecture of the building would be, along with exactly how he was about to interact with it.

The Graduate is a film that starts out as a finely performed drama, before sliding slowly into comedy, and ultimately throwing it all aside for Hollywood fantasy. Benjamin has slept with Elaine’s mom, but being movieland he still gets the girl anyway. Now there's forgiveness in a relationship for you. All the same, I guess that’s the point at which this jumped the shark for me.

That’s not enough to make it a bad movie though. Films about introverts are always watchable, and Dustin Hoffman proves throughout this that he’s every bit the first rate actor that he’s so often parodied for.

The music too is outstanding. I don’t normally like to hear lyrics on a film’s soundtrack, because I think it’s a form of narration and breaks the fourth wall, but Simon & Garfunkel’s guitarry numbers convey so much of the title character’s loneliness and desperation that they imbue the film with an atmosphere all of its own.

Maybe I was wrong above when I suggested that this classic was in danger of suffering a remake. The original book did get a sequel recently…