The Graduate

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The Graduate
Promotional film poster
Directed by	Mike Nichols
Produced by	Joseph E. Levine Lawrence Turman
Written by	Screenplay: Calder Willingham Buck Henry Novel: Charles Webb
Starring	Anne Bancroft Dustin Hoffman Katharine Ross William Daniels Murray Hamilton
Music by	Score: Dave Grusin Songs: Paul Simon
Cinematography	Robert Surtees
Editing by	Sam O'Steen
Distributed by	Embassy Pictures (US) United Artists (non-US)
Release date(s)	December 21, 1967
Running time	105 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$3 million (est.)
Gross revenue	$104,397,102

The Graduate is a 1967 American comedy-drama film directed by Mike Nichols, based on the 1963 novel The Graduate by Charles Webb, who wrote it shortly after graduating from Williams College. The screenplay is by Calder Willingham and Buck Henry, who makes a cameo appearance as the hotel clerk. The film tells the story of Benjamin Braddock (played by Dustin Hoffman), a recent university graduate with no well-defined aim in life, who is seduced by an older woman, Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft), and then proceeds to fall in love with her daughter Elaine (Katharine Ross).

In 1996, The Graduate was selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". It ranked as the seventh greatest film of all time on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies and placed #18 on the list of highest-grossing films in the United States and Canada, adjusted for inflation.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Production 3.1 Filming 3.2 Music 4 Reception 5 Awards and honors 6 Stage adaptation 7 Possibility of sequel 8 Cultural references 9 Trivia 10 Notes 11 External links

[edit] Plot

Benjamin Braddock returns home, shortly after earning his bachelor's degree from an unnamed college in the northeast United States, to a party celebrating his graduation at his parents' house in Pasadena, a satellite city of Los Angeles. Benjamin is visibly uncomfortable at the party attended by his parents' friends. He remains aloof while his parents deliver accolades and neighborhood friends ask him about his future plans. One of the guests whispers in Benjamin's ear, "Plastics"(which means "you should work in plastics"). Benjamin escapes from each person who comes to congratulate him, exposing his seeming embarrassment at all the honors he had won at college. Mrs. Robinson, the wife of his father's law partner, asks Benjamin to drive her home, which he reluctantly does.

Arriving at her home, she pleads for Benjamin to come inside, saying that she does not like to enter a dark house. Once inside, she forces a drink on him, opens up about her private life, exposing herself to him and offering to have an affair with him. Flustered, he flees from her initial advances. A few days later Benjamin has a change of heart, and an affair between the two begins. Benjamin is clearly uncomfortable with sex, but he is drawn to the older, but still attractive, Mrs. Robinson. Their affair appears to last most of the summer.

Meanwhile Benjamin is hounded by his father to select a graduate school to attend. Benjamin, clearly not interested in pursuing his studies, shrugs off his father's wishes and spends his time lounging about and sleeping with Mrs. Robinson. Mr. Robinson (Murray Hamilton), unaware of his wife's affair, encourages Benjamin to call on his daughter, Elaine (Katharine Ross), and Benjamin's parents repeatedly encourage him to date her. During one liaison, Mrs. Robinson forces a promise from Ben to never date Elaine. Whether out of fear of Mrs. Robinson, or sensing that getting involved with the daughter of his lover could be disastrous, he tries to avoid it. Due to the other three parents' persistent intervention, he is essentially forced to date her. Therefore, he tries to ensure his date with her will be a disaster so she would not want to pursue courtship with him. He drives recklessly, practically ignoring Elaine, and then takes her to a strip club where she is openly humiliated and silently begins to cry. After she storms out of the establishment, he is overcome with guilt and pursues her, apologizes, and then kisses her. What follows is a courtship with the younger Robinson: exactly what Benjamin and Mrs. Robinson were trying to avoid.

From here, Benjamin's life falls apart. He confesses the affair to Elaine (under threat of exposure by Mrs. Robinson), and she angrily tells him to never see her again. Although he follows Elaine to UC Berkeley, where she is a student, he is barred from seeing Elaine any further. She proceeds to become engaged to another man (Brian Avery), one her parents find acceptable. However, Benjamin, believing (with some justification) that she loves him, refuses to give up hope, despite warnings and threats of arrest from Mr. Robinson, who has learned of his wife's affair.

Benjamin undertakes a desperate drive across a distance of many miles to somehow head off Elaine's wedding in Santa Barbara. He is forced to stop for directions, his car, an Alfa Romeo Spider, runs out of gas, and he is ultimately forced to run the final few blocks. He arrives just as the bride and groom are about to kiss, and stands looking down at the couple from an upper window. He fears for a moment that he is too late, but begins pounding on the glass anyway screaming "Elaine! Elaine!". This does not garner much response at first, but when Elaine gives the return cry "Ben!", mayhem ensues.

After a violent struggle with Elaine's parents and wedding guests (Ben armed only with a large cross), Ben and Elaine escape on a public bus. The escaping couple sits smiling at the back of the bus, the other passengers stare at them in mute disbelief. As the film ends, Ben's smile fades to an enigmatic, neutral, somewhat uncomfortable expression as he gazes forward into the bus. While Elaine looks at Ben's expression, she takes on a similar gaze.

[edit] Cast

• Dustin Hoffman as Benjamin Braddock
• Anne Bancroft as Mrs. Robinson
• Katharine Ross as Elaine Robinson
• William Daniels as Mr. Braddock
• Murray Hamilton as Mr. Robinson
• Elizabeth Wilson as Mrs. Braddock
• Buck Henry as Room Clerk
• Brian Avery as Carl Smith
• Norman Fell as Mr. McCleery
• Marion Lorne as Singleman party guest
• Alice Ghostly as Singleman party guest

Uncredited:

• Mike Farrell as a bellhop at the hotel
• Richard Dreyfuss as Boarding House Resident
• Ben Murphy as the shaving student in the fraternity house
• Kevin Tighe as Carter, Carl Smith's fraternity brother

[edit] Production

[edit] Filming

Many of the exterior shots of Benjamin on the campus were actually filmed on the brick campus of USC in Los Angeles, as the UC Berkeley campus features buildings with gray granite exteriors. Other scenes were filmed on the Berkeley campus, on Durant Avenue in Berkeley, and on Telegraph Avenue.

The Taft Hotel scenes were filmed at the famed Ambassador Hotel, the same hotel in which U.S. Senator and Presidential candidate Robert Kennedy was assassinated less than six months after the film's release.

The church used for the wedding scene is actually the United Methodist Church in LaVerne. In a commentary audio released with the 40th anniversary DVD, Hoffman revealed that he was uneasy about the scene in which he pounds on the church window, as the owner of the church had been watching the filming disapprovingly. The residence used for the Robinsons' house was located on North Palm Drive in Beverly Hills.

There are repeated subliminal shots of Mrs. Robinson's bare breasts and midriff in the scene in Elaine's room when Benjamin has been trapped by Mrs. Robinson.

[edit] Music

The film boosted the profile of folk-rock duo Simon & Garfunkel, whose soundtrack album The Graduate, on the strength of the hit single "Mrs. Robinson", rose to the top of the charts in 1968 (knocking off The Beatles' White Album). However, the version that appears in the film is markedly different from the hit single version, which would not be issued until Simon and Garfunkel's next album, Bookends. The actual film version of "Mrs. Robinson" does appear on the "Graduate" soundtrack LP.

According to a Variety article by Peter Bart in the 15 May 2005 issue, Nichols had become obsessed with Simon & Garfunkel's music while shooting the film. Lawrence Turman, his producer, made a deal for Simon to write three new songs for the movie. By the time they were nearly finished editing the film, Simon had only written one new song. Nichols begged him for more but Simon, who was touring constantly, told him he didn't have the time. He did play him a few notes of a new song he had been working on; "It's not for the movie... it's a song about times past — about Mrs. Roosevelt and Joe DiMaggio and stuff." Nichols advised Simon, "It's now about Mrs. Robinson, not Mrs. Roosevelt."

[edit] Reception

A.D. Murphy of Variety and Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times praised the film upon its release with Murphy describing it as a "delightful satirical comedy-drama"^[1] and Ebert claiming it was the "funniest American comedy of the year".^[2]

For the film's thirtieth anniversary reissue, Roger Ebert retracted some of his previous praise for the film ^[3] He, along with Gene Siskel, gave the film a mediocre review on the television program Siskel & Ebert.^[4]

[edit] Awards and honors

Dustin Hoffman earned an Oscar nomination for his performance as did Bancroft and Ross.

Along with the acting nominations, the film received nominations for Best Cinematography, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Picture. Mike Nichols won the Academy Award for Best Director.

The film won the BAFTA Award for Best Film, as well as the BAFTA Award for Best Editing (to Sam O'Steen).

In 1996, The Graduate was selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant", and placed #18 on the list of highest-grossing films in the United States and Canada, adjusted for inflation.

American Film Institute recognition

• 1998: AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies #7
• 2000: AFI's 100 Years... 100 Laughs #9
• 2002: AFI's 100 Years... 100 Passions #52
• 2004: AFI's 100 Years... 100 Songs:
  • "Mrs. Robinson" #6
• 2005: AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes:
  • "Plastics." #42
  • "Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me. Aren't you?" #63
• 2007: AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) #17

[edit] Stage adaptation

John Reid produced a play in 2000, adapted from the movie, which was a hit both in London's West End and on Broadway and has toured the United States. There is a Brazilian version adapted by Miguel Falabella. Several actresses have starred as Mrs. Robinson, including Kathleen Turner, Lorraine Bracco, Jerry Hall, Amanda Donohoe, Morgan Fairchild, Anne Archer, Vera Fischer and Linda Gray. The Broadway production in 2002 starred Kathleen Turner, Jason Biggs, and Alicia Silverstone.

The stage production restores the section of the novel where Benjamin hitchhikes across America, not included in the original film. It also uses songs by Simon and Garfunkel not used in the film, such as Baby Driver as well as music from other popular musicians from the era such as The Byrds and The Beach Boys.

The play often receives media attention due to a sequence that requires the (often notable) actress playing Mrs. Robinson to disrobe and act a scene in the nude. Some productions of the play incorporate an on-stage topless love scene involving the Mrs. Robinson character.

[edit] Possibility of sequel

Charles Webb has written a sequel to his original novel titled Home School, but initially refused to publish it in its entirety because of a contract he signed in the 1960s. When he sold film rights to The Graduate, he surrendered the rights to any sequels. If he were to publish Home School, Canal+, the French media company that owns the rights to The Graduate, would be able to adapt it for the screen without his permission.^[5] Extracts of Home School were printed in The Times on May 2, 2006.^[6] Webb also told the newspaper that there was a possibility he would find a publisher for the full text, provided he could retrieve the film rights using French copyright law.^[7] On 30 May 2006 The Times reported that Webb had signed a publishing deal for Home School with Random House which he hoped would enable him to instruct the French lawyers to attempt to retrieve his rights. The novel was released in Britain in 2007.^[8]

[edit] Cultural references

In Robert Altman's Hollywood satire The Player (1992), Buck Henry, co-writer of The Graduate, plays a screenwriter (himself, in fact, as Buck Henry was a screenwriter on the original film) attempting to pitch a sequel to The Graduate to a Hollywood producer. Henry's character reminds the producer that the leading actors are all still alive and envisages a scenario in which Ben, Elaine and Mrs. Robinson live together in a ménage à trois.

The Graduate's characters are at the center of Rob Reiner's 2005 movie Rumor Has It.

The Graduate is a central theme of 2009's "(500) Days of Summer," which is introduced as the main male lead's, Tom's, favorite motion picture, with the caveat that his "total misreading" of the interpretation of the ending, where the Benjamin and Elaine escape on a public bus, may be incomplete, and that subsequent reality of the gravity of his and his lover Summer's actions mirror the moments before his breakup with her. In (500) Days of Summer, after Tom and Summer see The Graduate together, in a nearby restaurant over pancakes, Summer states they should not see each other again, adding, after Tom bolts for the exit, that she still wants to be friends, interpreting the lesson of "The Graduate" in a very different way.

[edit] Trivia

On the episode of the television show Movies That Shook the World devoted to The Graduate, Linda Gray stated that she was the model for the leg in the iconic poster.

One of the Campus Loop buses at Kent State University in the 1970s had a plaque in it identifying it as a "movie star" and stating that it was the bus Benjamin and Elaine escape on at the end of the film.

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: The Graduate

• Official website
• The Graduate at the Internet Movie Database
• The Graduate at the TCM Movie Database
• The Graduate at Allmovie
• The Graduate at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Graduate at Filmsite.org
• The Graduate at Box Office Mojo
• Making of article in Vanity Fair magazine

Awards and achievements
Preceded by The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming	Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy 1968	Succeeded by Oliver!
Preceded by A Man for All Seasons	BAFTA Award for Best Film 1968	Succeeded by Midnight Cowboy

v • d • e Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy West Side Story/A Majority of One (1961) · The Music Man/That Touch of Mink (1962) · Tom Jones (1963) · My Fair Lady (1964) · The Sound of Music (1965) · The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming (1966) · The Graduate (1967) · Oliver! (1968) · The Secret of Santa Vittoria (1969) · MASH (1970) · Fiddler on the Roof (1971) · Cabaret (1972) · American Graffiti (1973) · The Longest Yard (1974) · The Sunshine Boys (1975) · A Star Is Born (1976) · The Goodbye Girl (1977) · Heaven Can Wait (1978) · Breaking Away (1979) · Coal Miner's Daughter (1980) Complete List · (1951–1960) · (1961–1980) · (1981–2000) · (2001–present)

v • d • e Films directed by Mike Nichols 1960s Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) • The Graduate (1967) 1970s Catch-22 (1970) • Carnal Knowledge (1971) • The Day of the Dolphin (1973) • The Fortune (1975) 1980s Gilda Live (1980) • Silkwood (1983) • Heartburn (1986) • Biloxi Blues (1988) • Working Girl (1988) 1990s Postcards from the Edge (1990) • Regarding Henry (1991) • Wolf (1994) • The Birdcage (1996) • Primary Colors (1998) 2000s What Planet Are You From? (2000) • Wit (2001) • Angels in America (2003) • Closer (2004) • Charlie Wilson's War (2007)

v • d • e The films of Buck Henry Directed Heaven Can Wait (1978) (with Warren Beatty) • First Family (1980) Screenplays The Troublemaker (1964) (with Theodore J. Flicker) • The Graduate (1967) (with Calder Willingham) • Candy (1968) • Catch-22 (1970) • The Owl and the Pussycat (1970) • What's Up, Doc? (1972) (with David Newman and Robert Benton) • The Day of the Dolphin (1973) • Protocol (1984) • To Die For (1995) • Town & Country (2001) (with Michael Laughlin)