The Graduate (1967)
Average Rating: 8.1/10
Reviews Counted: 49
Fresh: 43 | Rotten: 6
The music, the performances, the precision in capturing the post-college malaise -- The Graduate's coming-of-age story is indeed one for the ages.
Average Rating: 6.6/10
Critic Reviews: 10
Fresh: 7 | Rotten: 3
The music, the performances, the precision in capturing the post-college malaise -- The Graduate's coming-of-age story is indeed one for the ages.
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Average Rating: 3.7/5
User Ratings: 155,797
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Movie Info
"One word: plastics." "Are you here for an affair?" These lines and others became cultural touchstones, as 1960s youth rebellion seeped into the California upper middle-class in Mike Nichols' landmark hit. Mentally adrift the summer after graduating from college, suburbanite Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) would rather float in his parents' pool than follow adult advice about his future. But the exhortation of family friend Mr. Robinson (Murray Hamilton) to seize every possible opportunity
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Cast
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Dustin Hoffman
Benjamin Braddock -
Anne Bancroft
Mrs. Robinson -
Katharine Ross
Elaine Robinson -
William Daniels
Mr. Braddock -
Elizabeth Wilson
Mrs. Braddock -
Murray Hamilton
Mr. Robinson -
Brian Avery
Carl Smith -
Norman Fell
Mr. McLeeiry -
Walter Brooke
Mr. Maguire -
Alice Ghostley
Mrs. Singleman -
Elisabeth Fraser
Second Lady -
Marion Lorne
Miss DeWitt -
Buck Henry
Hotel Clerk -
Eddra Gale
Woman on Bus -
Harry Holcombe
Minister -
Jonathan Hole
Mr. DeWitt -
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Richard Dreyfuss
Hotel resident (uncredi... -
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All Critics (49) | Top Critics (10) | Fresh (51) | Rotten (6) | DVD (28)
The emotional elevation of the film is due in no small measure to the extraordinarily engaging performances of Anne Bancroft as the wife-mother-mistress, Dustin Hoffman as the lumbering Lancelot, and Katherine Ross as his fair Elaine.
It's consistently fleet and funny, even as it probes the heady abandon and looming hangover that typified the decade of discontent.
The screenplay, which begins as genuine comedy, soon degenerates into spurious melodrama.
Top CriticThe film itself is very broken-backed, partly because Anne Bancroft's performance as the mother carries so much more weight than Katharine Ross' as the daughter, partly because Nichols couldn't decide whether he was making a social satire or a farce.
Makes you feel a little tearful and choked-up while it is making you laugh yourself raw.
A delightful, satirical comedy-drama.
Mike Nichols and veteran cinematographer Robert Surtees threw out the DGA playbook for The Graduate.
Influential coming-of-age sex comedy.
A safe and calculated popular landmark film.
Here's to you, Mrs Robinson.
Rather a shame it's so often mistaken for a statement about something beyond the milk-fed adolescent blues.
to understand just how relevant The Graduate is four decades after its initial release, all you need do is watch it in a roomful of college students
Mike Nichols' seminal film at once reflected the generation gap and also widened it, giving youths a clear voice, indigenous music, villains (all adults), and a sympathtic anti-hero, played to perfection by Dustin Hoffman in a career-making turn.
The Graduate 40th Anniversary Editon reminds us of Dustin Hoffman's great talent.
Nichols manipulates each frame so that viewers can vicariously experience every wince and twinge of the young man's discomfort.
I couldn't get past the fact what a tool Benjamin Braddock was.
The film remains a classic and deserves its new lease on life via HD DVD. (French Import HD DVD Edition)
...plastics, an apt description for the artificial people and attitudes around him.
Nichols takes an ad hoc approach to comic irony and the movie seems to have been enshrined by American audiences because each moment in isolation "works," no matter that they tend to cancel each other out.
Audience Reviews for The Graduate
Super Reviewer
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- Mr. Braddock: Ben, this whole idea sounds pretty half baked.
- Benjamin Braddock: No, it's not. It's completely baked.
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- Benjamin Braddock: Listen to me. What happened between Mrs. Robinson and me was nothing. It didn't mean anything. We might just as well have been shaking hands.
- Mr. Robinson: Shaking hands? Well, that's not saying much for my wife, is it?
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- Mr. Maguire: Plastics.
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- Mrs. Robinson: Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me.
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- Mrs. Robinson: Just because you happen to be inadequate.
- Benjamin Braddock: Inadequate!
- Mrs. Robinson: Well I guess I...
- Benjamin Braddock: DON'T MOVE!
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- Benjamin Braddock: Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me. Aren't you?
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Foreign Titles
- Die Reifeprüfung (DE)
- The Graduate (1967) (UK)
"The Graduate" is absolutely effective in what it intends to do. Everything is cohesively crafted: strong thematic foundation, solid character development, sharp writing, and thought-provoking symbolism. Entertaining, provocative, and strangely disturbing, "The Graduate" immerses audiences into a young boy's world that's trying to make the best out of his life.