**Spoiler Alert**
**Spoiler Alert**

The Graduate was a unique movie for its time because of when it was made, who the actors were, and how America itself was changing. The movie made during the Vietnam War, and agitators are mentioned a couple of times during the film. Anti-war demonstrations were being conducted on college campuses all around the United States, especially at Berkeley, the university highlighted through much of the film.

It however must be said that the movie only touches upon this fact, the analysis of the movie goes into deeper historical context than just the war which was going on at the time the movie was filmed. So much culture was changing in America at that time. Some things that stand out in the movie are the generational gap, between the older people and the younger ones. The older more mature people whose lives are already defined, such as Ben's Parents represent an older America who represents old values, traditions, good morals and an old time America in which the father was the main provider for the family and knew what best for the family. The younger generation thought that the older was naïve, didn't understand them, and didn't get what was really going on.

The older generation had a defined family setting, the nuclear family, again traditional that was to be seen as the best parts of that, however we can see that as Elain's father is divorcing her mother that this area in America is beginning to fail and more and more marriages are falling apart ending in divorce. Perhaps alluding to the "Free love" that was espoused during that period in history, to break the bonds of matrimony and live free, and just "shack up".

This "Free love" might be able to possibly extend to Mrs. Robinson, the women whom seduced Ben. Women seducing men was unheard of during that time, let alone a woman of this age difference, yet so many things can be taken from the se4duction itself that lets us know how America is changing. Take a look at the naivety of Ben, as he drives her home, get out of his car, accompanies her to the door, goes inside, gets a drink, head up to her bedroom, helps her dress off, and all this time, not up until, the very end has he any idea whatsoever that she wants to seduce him. The seduction by women was unheard of in society, let alone a movie and repeated small brief flashes of her breast was unheard of at the time as well. The movie makers where testing the waters, and telling the ratings boards that America isn't this Naïve, that they can handle brief nudity in films and that they shouldn't have the belief that the culture isn't changing between the older and the younger, because it is.

Even after the seduction by Mrs. Robinson Ben is still in the precarious situation of not knowing what he wants to be, though he does know what he don't want to be, and that is like his parents and the people of his parents' generation. The movie plays upon this as that they are not above their own faults; Mrs. Robinson has a long lived love affair with Ben, all the while cheating on her own husband with a boy half her age. Totally unheard of and still a very great fault portrayed by her that the older generation might not be so traditional in values after all, so who are they to tell the younger generation how to live, how to act, and what to say, especially so after they have succumbed to their own form of evil?

However upon further inspection of Ben's character we can see that he thought of Mrs. Robinson as his only way out. One of the early scenes Mrs. Robinson throws Ben's car keys in the fish tank. This could represent several things. Firstly that Mr's Robinson was the key to what he wanted and the freedom he so much thought he deserved. He was just like a fish in the fish tank, caught in an area with very little move room and a go nowhere but in circles attitude unsure of what was happening or which way to go. We see this played out again as he is in a diving suit in the pool, he tries to come back up but his parents just push him right back down. Mrs. Robinson could be seen as his way out from a trapped existence, and she was the "key" to doing so.

All in this entire movie is about a transitional change from a more conservative culture to a more liberal one. This stance is repeated many times throughout the course of the film. It plays upon the fact that love can be used for ill or for gain. The differences between right and wrong is not always clear, and that lust and love are two different things, and while the movie challenges us to think about it in terms of a changing America in an antiwar type of culture, it still manages to entertain and tell us things about the human condition in that we are all human and just as likely to fail as to win and the winds of cultural change will blow no matter how hard you hold out.

I have prime TV yeah I constantly find movies they want me to pay for

Recently, I watched The Graduate. Of course, I've seen it before, and more than once. I remember very well the first time. It was 1968, and I was a sophomore at UCLA, and they screened it in the dormitory. But tonight was the first time I watched it since becoming a filmmaker. And I have to say that the greatness of the film jumped out at me as strongly as ever. And there are lots of things that make it great: the dialogue, the humor, the music. But, foremost is the likeableness of Benjamin played by Dustin Hoffman, who is a most unusual protagonist for being so quirky and perennially adolescent. You like him and sympathize with him because, like Holden Caulfield in Catcher in the Rye, he seems like a pure soul in a corrupt world.

The first part of the movie concerning his affair with Mrs. Robinson holds your attention, first for being what it is, and second because they infused so much great humor into it. But, the second part of the film concerning his pursuit of Elaine is gripping to the max. I don't see how anyone, seeing it for the first time, could turn it off. You just have to find out what happens. And that, which I call "full immersion" is the real litmus test for success in filmmaking. Because: if the film takes you out of your own life and immerses you fully in another, that's the ultimate achievement in filmmaking.

But, the key to it in this case is the chemistry between Dustin Hoffman and Katherine Ross. She contributed every bit as much as he did, and I don't think she has been credited as much. Despite everything, Elaine was still passionately drawn to Benjamin, and that came through loud and clear long before she screamed his name in the church. She, Katherine Ross, sold it. She really was every bit as good an actor as he was.

And as a result, when he was speeding to Santa Barbara to stop her from marrying the other guy, it was undistractable. It was great filmmaking and something to aspire to.

First of all, we must remember that this film is NOT simply about a sordid affair between 21 year old Ben and much older Mrs. Robinson. What this film is about is stated in the first line of the film, by the pilot of the plane: "We are about to begin our descent into Los Angeles". And by descent, director Mike Nichols meant that descent into the PLASTIC, decadent, consumer-oriented society of LA in the 1960's (although the film would still be valid for today).
The film is about Ben (Dustin Hoffman) returning from the East Coast (college) back into the world of artificial, plastic people, and plastic realities, plastic hopes and plastic dreams. (Check out the first cut on Frank Zappa's "Absolutely Free" - called "Plastic people" - produced at the same time as the film).
Ben states in the first full scene after the intro, that he is concerned about his future. He says, "I don't know, I wanted to be . . . different". That is, a real person, not the plastic people that make up the parents and the Robinsons and the others at Ben's party.
If you watch carefully, Nichols has made what is essentially a black and white film (the colors of plastic). All throughout the first act, black and white themes of plasticity predominate. The Robinson's house, is black and white on the outside as well as on the inside, with the tacky black and white plastic bar stools, Mrs. Robinson dressed in black, etc. Yet outside the picture window (during the famous seduction scene), everything is green and alive, in direct contrast to the plasticity of the world inside, the world which Ben so desperately wishes to escape. The only time that there is any real color during Act I is when Mrs. R. invites Ben into Elaine's room to see her portrait. There is a soft pink glow superimposed over the black and white plasticity of the Robinson house.
This black and white motif is continued in practically all the important scenes: Ben's room at his parent's house is wall-papered in black and white, with black stripes representing the bars of the cage within which Ben has found himself trapped. The room at the Taft hotel is in black and white; Ben in the diving gear is black and white.; Nichols is forcing upon the audience this concept of PLASTICITY of the society. Only when Ben first takes Elaine outmon a date is there any real sense of color, since she is the first REAL (non-plastic) person he has met. But black and white continues to dominate the first act until the end when we get the famous camera shot of Mrs. Robinson, soaking wet, dressed in black, standing in the corner of two white walls, saying "Goodbye, Benjamin". Act I constitutes Ben finding that there is a way out of this plastic world - but only through Elaine.
Act Two constitutes the montage sequence, so masterfully done by Nichols with Simon and Garfunkel's "Scarborough Fair" background. Here color predominates as Ben carefully watches Elaine and begins to formulate his plan for escape - to escape with Elaine.
Act III, the finale, is, like most sonatas, in presto agitato. It is Ben's desperate attempt to get to Elaine before she has a chance to get married to the "ape-man" (see the zoo scene) Carl. When Ben finally reaches the Church, guess what?, it too is in stark black and white, again representing the values of Ben's parents and friends. (Also, we never get the first names of the parents or the Robinsons).
This is a film that explores the desperation of a young man attempting to escape from a phony and plastic life, but who almost gets drowned in that false-ness (the affair with Mrs. R.). The film is a classic: timeless, relevant, and naked in its message. If you have not seen it, DO SO! If you have seen it, watch it again; you'll be amazed at how well Mike Nichols incorporates the black/white/plastic theme on so many different levels. I could go on and on, so get the film (with the commentaries). You will not be disappointed.

The Graduate was one of the iconic films of the 1960s. It captured the youthful angst and the rebellion against the older generation that would mark the decade. That was portrayed through Dustin Hoffman as Benjamin Braddock and his relationship with Elaine Robinson (Katharine Ross).

One of the themes is laid out right at the start. Benjamin returns home after graduating from college. He sits in bed looking lost when his father comes in. Ben tells his dad he doesn’t know what to do with his future, he just wants it to be different. Ben represents the Baby Boomers who were born after World War II. They had a new level of affluence never seen in the world. They were supposed to go to college and do better than their parents. Many in the 60s generation however were not satisfied with that. They did not want to do what their parents expected of them. The absurdity of the situation is shown when Ben talks to one of his parents’ friends who tells him he should get involved with plastics because they were going to change the world. That sounds ridiculous and it’s meant to be. Things go to another level when another one of his parents’ acquaintances Mrs. Robinson(Anne Bancroft) seduces him. Both were meant to call the times a farce.

The Graduate really captured a time and place in American society. Someone who’s not as aware of those issues can still enjoy the film as an eccentric and romantic love story, but there is so much more to it.
C

Not family friendly due to language and sexual situations.
Some have said that “The Graduate” is a reflection of the times and of young Americans of the day – lazy, self-absorbed rich kids doing whatever they want. I don’t know that I completely agree with the assessment, but I can see the point. I would note, however, that that judgment is not greatly different from how many see today’s millennials.
As for the movie, great cinematography, story flow, and music. I thought Ann Bancroft was amazing and made Mrs. Robinson come alive. Katharine Ross was little weak in her part. Dustin Hoffman played Ben well, but I found a lot of his character’s actions to be annoying. It’s the fault of the writer and/or director but why does he constantly repeat what the other person says as a question? Elaine: I don’t understand what’s happening. Ben: Are you confused? Well, duh. What else can that statement mean? And the ending is completely unbelievable. I felt the same way when it first came out, and it is even more unbelievable now. The same is true of the sequences in which they fall in love. They go from barely interested to in love in just a few scenes. Ben’s infatuation with Elaine, as it would have been called in the 60s, would today be called obsession, and his following her would probably be stalking. The times do change.

I saw this back when it first came out and being that much younger then I didn't appreciate it as much. I needed something uplifting and funny tonight so I made a good choice. I didn't remember the details but I did remember the affair between Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft which was acted so well by the both of them and really a hoot that had me laughing out loud hysterically tonight to see such an innocent, inexperienced young boy with an older woman whose husband had apparently abandoned her sexually for some time, and the way she went about seducing him. The rest of the story may be quite unrealistic but Simon and Garfunkel's tune carries the movie to fruition with a smile on your face.

This is the second time I've seen The Graduate. The first time I watched The Graduate, I honestly found it boring and uncomfortable. Then, as months went by, I thought that maybe I was being too harsh, so I decided to watch it again today, and my opinions still haven't changed. The only good thing I have to say about this film is that Anne Bancroft and Simon & Garfunkel kept me from being bored. However, the rest of the movie just dragged on for way too long. Also, I was not too fond of Mrs. Robinson's character. Frankly, she wouldn't have gotten away with this today. She'd be charged for attempted r*pe and sexual assault. I still feel so conflicted about her because she's trapped in this sexist and conventional life and couldn't do what she wanted to do (studying to be an artist). However, I can't get with the fact that she (an older woman) tries to coerce a young man (who looks like he could be her son) into sleeping with her. This doesn't mean I blame Anne for playing the character because I did find her quite intriguing as a villainous character. She acted her butt off in that role. I suggest looking at some of her other movies in her catalog if you enjoyed watching her in The Graduate because she was an incredible actress with fantastic talent. For example, she's incredibly powerful in The Miracle Worker.

I get that The Graduate was made when the sexual revolution started, and movies and TV wanted to push some boundaries to get people to pay attention. However, if Mike Nichols made this movie today, it would be dragged by young people and social media for some inappropriate scenes shown in the film.