DVDs in Review

The Graduate (Mike Nichols, 1967)

Title: The Graduate (Mike Nichols, 1967)

Release date: September 13 2010

Certificate: 15

Format: Blu-ray

RRP: £24.99

Rating: 5/5

Reviewed by Dave Lancaster

‘The Graduate’ is one of those summer films. It seems to emit hope, wild enthusiasm, lust and the feeling of having lots of time to kill. It’s a shining example of what could be done during the haphazard period of 60s American cinema.

Now fondly remembered as the film that propelled Dustin Hoffman to stardom and made Simon & Garfunkel the soundtrack for a generation, ‘The Graduate’ has a surprising amount of grit to its gloss after repeated viewing.

Hoffman is Benjamin Braddock, the undersexed eponymous graduate with no direction, who is pressured by his concerned parents into asking out local girl Elaine (Katherine Ross of ‘Butch and Sundance’) only to be seduced by her vampish mother Mrs Robinson (an unforgettably domineering Anne Bancroft).

Regardless of its whirlwind plot and emotions spilling across its colourful palate, ‘The Graduate’ is a fantastic film that gets by without becoming too explicit or dramatic. Hoffman is terrific as the frustrated graduate, hindered by his own lack of experience in anything, prompting him to grow up too fast.

Director Mike Nichols (who bagged an Oscar for his work) knows when (and how) to make seduction uncomfortable and perfectly illustrates frustration and wild energy via his inventive style.

For example, one crucial scene sees Hoffman sprinting to get to location against the clock – Nichols films him head on, running towards the camera but filmed from afar with a telephoto lens obscuring the depth of the image. It’s as if he’s running as fast as he can and getting nowhere just as the audience has really started to root for him and Benjamin finally knows what he wants.

In a sense, this film is about struggling to attain goals but in the kind of existential ‘Big Chill’ or ‘Breaking Away’ style via an ensemble – this dissects national confusion and certainly and expertly places it into a bizarre love triangle. This great film has been given a splendid package on Blu-ray from The Studio Canal Collection. Be sure to pick up a copy.