Review of The Graduate (1967) by Nick O — 04 Apr 2011

The quintessential scene in "The Graduate" comes during one restless night in charter-minted Benjamin Braddock's summer affair with an emblematic older woman named Mrs. Robinson, played with fiery prowess by Anne Bancroft, whose booty calls reflect the existential crisis regularly gone through by college alumni. In that scene, Ben (played with true solemn by then-newcomer Dustin Hoffman) wakes Mrs. Robinson from her lusty haze to ask for a simple conversation before going between the sheets. And after noting the enormity of his own shame in only ten minutes of talking, Ben redirects his lover now to shut her yap.

It's this juggernaut first of rebellion, then of acceptance, and finally of contrition that gives "The Graduate" a sort of gravitational weight which pesters the conscience of a kid ready to give up on life before his has even really started. Mike Nichols' funny, albeit heart-wrenching, appraisal of the sticky sweet in coming of age captures the youthful rapidity of situations while still seeming bummed at the center. Ben is pressed all at once to mind the flow of things and pushed to butt his head for a spot at the table where all the cool kids are sitting. In the final shot we see Ben in the back of a halted municipal transport bus, fellow inductees decked in suits and ties and staring at him, waiting for him to speak, and damn his heart he instead has no choice but to stare out the back window at all the pretty horses he had to step over to get there.