It's the funny, satirical, outrageous, quirky yet touching combination that inspired Woody Allen and Wes Anderson, and above all that it's a human study that will never age. (8.5/10)

Great movie, but I will have to make some tiny, niggardly criticisms. Bancroft is wonderful in every facet of her role save one -- she does not seem remotely convincing as the mother of Katharine Ross's character, which probably explains why the two women share minimal time together (the only time I saw the movie was on TV, so I don't know what was edited or deleted). Less than a decade older than Ross, Bancroft's femme fatale, whose first name we never learn, is more like a raven-haired evil stepmother, who trifles with Benjamin but rejects him as thoroughly unsuitable for her own sweet daughter, Elaine. (She looks comically rabid in the film's ending scene at the church where a wedding is NOT held as planned.) William Daniels is overbearing (as so many of his characters were) as Benjamin's father who sets in action the sequence of events leading to Mrs. Robinson's downfall by pressuring Ben to go out with Elaine, despite his son's unwillingness. Murray Hamilton, as Mr. Robinson, comes off as an almost hysterical wimp in the scene at Ben's Berkeley boarding house room, unfortunately.The rather bizarre scene where Hoffman's character, Benjamin (shirtless) is shaving, and his mother (an amazingly and unexpectedly sexy Elizabeth Wilson, usually known for her gorgon-like supporting and comedy roles) is standing, in a nightgown, inside the open bathroom door querying him as to his nocturnal proclivities is priceless. It makes you understand why Benjamin would have so many problems with women.

The Graduate is a 1967 film directed by Mike Nichols and stars Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, and Katharine Ross. The film is distributed by Metro Goldwyn Mayer, being labeled as a Dramatic Comedy. I was aware of the film's presence in cinema before watching it. But after watching it, I wanted to document my observations and opinions just for you.The Graduate is the story of Benjamin Braddock (played by Dustin Hoffman) fresh out of College who doesn't know what do with his future other than for life to carry him away. After his Graduation party, he becomes seduced by Mrs. Robinson (played by Anne Bancroft) and they start dating. Ben's father then asks him to date the Robinson's daughter, Elaine (played by Katharine Ross) whom Ben is now attracted to and proceeds to do as such. Ben soon gets caught up in troubling affairs and antics throughout in a world not quite as promising as it seemed. Dustin Hoffman's "break-out" performance as Ben Braddock is an excellent audience surrogate, being confused, nervous, and trying to keep his cool through the first half of the film. Plus his character development is great and woven into the progressing story perfectly, who runs in complete circles in the game of life. Anne Bancroft's performance as Mrs. Robinson steals every scene she is present. She has almost total dominance throughout entire scenes, being the perfect blend of sexy and dangerous. Katharine Ross delivers a very good performance as Elaine, showing very convincing emotions when needed. Though I think her character is slightly underwritten as I would have liked to see more of her. I liked a lot about The Graduate (well, that's an understatement). Every single shot never ceases to amaze me with it's composition, movement, length, sound design, and more. I also loved the lighting of each scene, serving as both a metaphor and carefully crafted filmmaking. The film is realistically dark seeing as it envelopes Ben in this newly found adult world, giving new meaning to the term "Dark Comedy". The Soundtrack by Simon & Garfunkel really set the tone and elevate scenes in which it is present. Plus, the songs are enjoyable by themselves, even without context. The Graduate's themes are about adulthood, relationships, and society. Ever since you or anyone turns into an adult, life turns a complete 180 degrees and that can be troublesome for most. But The Graduate makes this turn of events both surreal and grounded, showing this world feeling manufactured and weird, but also with a sense of realism to follow. The lesson I got from the film is that you need to plan things rather than life giving you a rude awakening very quickly.I believe this movie has something for everyone. General audiences can appreciate the depth and the film in general. And people who like cinema outside of watching it will get a surprisingly deep story. And since the film is PG-13, I believe the film is worthy of the rating showing adult themes and even imagery. But I would recommend this movie to anyone mature enough to understand it's themes. I believe this is the same tier of comedy the Coen Brothers and other legendary comedies set decades later.Overall, I give The Graduate a... 9/10

I can't say I connected with this movie either on its comic level or on its dramatic level. I'm giving this two stars because I liked the soundtrack (although I thought both "Sound of Silence" and "Scarborough Fair" were repeated a few too many times) and the cinematography. The characters and story I didn't care for at all.If I had to describe this movie in one word, it would be "unconvincing." Most of the characters' actions seemed to have weak or nonexistent motivations. Why does Mrs. Robinson admit to Benjamin that she married her husband because of an unplanned pregnancy? Why does he hate her so much when she tells him to stay away from her daughter? Why do he and Elaine suddenly fall in love after not seeing each other in years? Why does he suddenly want to marry her? Why does she suddenly want to marry him?As others have pointed out, the awkward and unfocused behavior of the main character does not seem consistent with what we find out about him at the start of the film, which is that he has won academic awards and is also a successful athlete. This movie reminded me of one of my favorite books, The Catcher in the Rye. Both stories are about young men who don't quite know what they're doing with themselves and both have a kind of ambiguous ending. The difference between Holden Caulfield and Benjamin is that Holden's behavior throughout the book makes sense given what we already know about him. At the start, we know he's an academic failure and holds many of the people (especially the adults) he knows in contempt.Some people hate the book, because of Holden Caulfield's constant whining and complaining. But J. D. Salinger didn't mean for the reader to think of him as a hero. We are supposed to see Holden as a bit of a whiner. Some people will find him endearing and will see his whining more as understandable observations about life. Others won't, and that's okay. But I'm a bit confused about how we're supposed to view Benjamin. Is he a hero or an antihero? Are we supposed to sympathize with him in the end, when he runs off with a married woman, essentially on a whim? I think that the answer to the second one is no (we're supposed to infer, I think, that Benjamin and Elaine might end up in the same situation as Mr. and Mrs. Robinson), but that the answer to the first is the former - no character who is meant to be sympathetic reproaches him and he doesn't seem to ever have any moments of serious self-awareness. We're supposed to accept that he makes mistakes, but never think that he's obnoxious or unpleasant. One of the big problems with The Graduate is that we find out very little about Benjamin's worldview. Holden accomplishes very little by the end of The Catcher in the Rye, but we at least know what he thinks about just about everything. Benjamin says he is concerned about his future, and the movie would have been more interesting if this concern had been highlighted throughout it, but it's forgotten after Benjamin starts his affair with Mrs. Robinson.Also, this is supposed to be a comedy and I'll admit that I didn't think it was funny. The only part that made me crack a smile was when Benjamin and Elaine run away from her wedding and he uses a cross to fend off her parents, her fiancé (who is actually her husband at that point), and the guests, and uses it to bolt the church doors. But comedy is highly subjective, obviously, so other people may have found this movie to be quite humorous. Lastly, I think I should assure anyone reading this and thinking I disliked the movie because of prudish concerns, that isn't the case.