The Graduate (1967)

(Go to full size to see the trailer)

Tay's Rating- :D :D :D : D

Interesting Facts: -In Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft's first encounter in the hotel room, Bancroft did not know that Hoffman was going to grab her breast. Hoffman decided offscreen to do it, because it reminded him of schoolboys trying to nonchalantly grab girls' breasts in the hall by pretending to put their jackets on. When Hoffman did it onscreen, director Mike Nichols began laughing loudly offscreen. Hoffman began to laugh as well, so rather than stop the scene, he turned away from the camera and walked to the wall. Hoffman banged his head on the wall, trying to stop laughing, and Nichols thought it was so funny, he left it in.

-Ronald Reagan was considered for the role of Mr. Braddock.

-Jack Nicholson was considered for the part of Benjamin Braddock.

-The movie's line "Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me. Aren't you?" was voted as the #63 movie quote by the American Film Institute (out of 100), as the #5 of Premiere's "100 Greatest Movie Lines" (2007).

-The leg in the poster for "The Graduate" belongs to Linda Gray.

This movie was one of the movies selected from my Intro in Film teacher and the assignment was to write my own review so here it is. 

The Graduate

The movie I watched was The Graduate from 1967. The main theme of this film is be careful what you fall for. The film was filmed in 1967 filmed by Mike Nichols. The lead actors were Dustin Hoffman (Ben), Anne Bancroft (Mrs. Robinson), and Katharine Ross (Elaine). Most of locations in the film were filmed in Los Angeles. The society at the time was in the late 60’s and the early 70’s. At the time, people would do their own thing. It can be a mid-life crisis, cheating, sexual frustration, drinking, drugs, and anything.

When I watched this film, I was impressed with the cinematography and the story plot. There were a lot of twists and a few of big climaxes. There were a few things unexpected happened. I loved the story of the romantic part and the drama part at the same time. The main thing about this film was to focus on the character, Ben Braddock, and his struggles after graduating college which was social problems and moral implications. The twists and the climaxes are my favorite parts. I was surprised that Ben had an affair with Mrs. Robinson.  All of the sudden, Elaine came into the picture, Ben fell in love with her. But she found out the woman in the affair was her mother and she broke the short-lived relationship off. She married someone else but ran away with Ben at the wedding.

But the cinematography was the part I was impressed at. There were a lot of close-ups of the characters’ emotions. The natural frame was included. Natural frame is when the camera focuses on the main subject but there was something surrounding the main subject close to the camera. It comes out blurry but the main subject is clear. Another name for natural frame is Rack Focus. The film used many types of filming to make the film happen with the story the film has. It used close-ups, panning, and zooming into the character and zooming out was used. The lighting was dramatic and bright at the same time. The film had high-key and low-key lighting at the same time to emphasizes the scene. There were some inside/out editing to show close to the main character’s true emotion and turns into the climax part of the movie. There was some repetition from Mrs. Robinson to Ben by manipulating Ben into an affair. She kept going and going and Ben fell for it. Also there was external conflict with Ben and Elaine when he lost contact to her and she found someone else.

My opinion and summary of this film is to be prepared the unexpected. If I would tell someone else about this film, I would say, just watch it and you will enjoy it. The cast was well picked. The story plot was unpredictable and predictable at the same time. The film was well filmed with filing techniques and editing. Also the story plot was perfectly written. I was not bored but yet surprising at the conflicts and the externally observable truths in the story of the film.