The Graduate (1967) - #800

This is not a review of The Graduate, it's merely a placeholder until the Criterion Collection edition is released in February 2016. I commit to coming back here at that time to take a more extensive look at the movie and all the extras... or if I get a review copy for Criterion Cast, I'll post a link to that article here.

For now, I just finished watching the film on Netflix, where it's due to expire in just a few days. This is actually the first time I've ever seen the film unedited and without commercial interruptions, as all my previous viewings were on TV and presumably censored just a bit. I'm looking forward to seeing it again in a couple months, with the benefit of a 4K transfer (which will be a major upgrade from the streaming version I just saw) and a royal mother lode of supplements, several of which are new and exclusive to Criterion. All of that will provide plenty of incentive for me to give the film more extended consideration, but for the moment, here are a few quick thoughts.

Of course The Graduate is a milestone of American cinema that really shook things up in Hollywood in 1967-68, and I can't deny the power of several iconic scenes and quite a few laugh out loud moments, as well as some fine camera work that really did involve the audience in the scenes in ways that probably took many viewers by surprise. The swimming pool sequences look like they will be very appealing in HD, and I'll enjoy a fuller sound mix of the compelling and now nostalgic Simon and Garfunkel songs, though a bit more variety would have been nice. "Sounds of Silence" and "Scarborough Fair" both get beaten into our heads just a little too much. Coming right off this most recent watch, I enjoyed the tense dynamic between Benjamin (Dustin Hoffman) and Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft), but I was never really convinced by the quick turnaround of her daughter Elaine's feelings toward Ben. She had every right to hold him in contempt, and his stalker's obsessive perseverance should have been another warning sign to her, no matter how cute his grin or supple and tan his trim physique. So the ending, despite its cheery anarchy and audacious overturning of the conventional marriage tableau that should have (and would have, in ordinary films) wrapped things up so tidy-like, left me feeling skeptical and manipulated. I could laugh along with it today easily enough, accepting it as a whimsical fantasy and a cheeky rejection of middle-class mores that sought to drive a permanent wedge between the youthful free spirits, but it's hard not to see it as a cop-out feel good happy finale of a different sort, the kind of abruptly convenient twist that would become a lot more common in the years that followed.

Next: Week End