The Graduate Movie

Based on the novel of the same name by Charles Webb, The Graduate is a 1967 comedy drama directed by Mike Nichols and starring Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, Katharine Ross and Murray Hamilton.

Benjamin Braddock (Hoffman) is twenty-one, has just graduated and finds himself mentally adrift and aimless as he is trying to shut out his parents' and society's advice on how to approach his future. At a graduation party thrown by his parents, he finds him self-driving his  father's law partner's wife, Mrs Robinson (Bancroft) home, where she proceeds to seduce him. Benjamin initially rebuffs her but it doesn't take long for him to change his mind as he starts an affair with the older woman. Things complicate significantly, though, when Mr. Robinson (Hamilton) and his parents set him  up with the Robinsons' daughter Elaine (Ross) and he finds himself falling in love with her.

One of the most influential Hollywood movies of the sixties, and, along with Bonnie & Clyde, the precursor to the New Hollywood of the seventies, The Graduate is a landmark comedy drama, which solidified its director's status and made an instant star out of Dustin Hoffman. Very much a product of its time, the film struck a chord with audiences as its protagonist and his struggle perfectly captured the youth rebellion of the time. On top of that, director Nichols also kept the film's style fresh with plenty of French New Wave influences and a killer soundtrack by Simon and Garfunkel only added to the film's youth appeal. Hoffman and Bancroft are fantastic, the widescreen photography great and the film perfectly captures youthful and post-school malaise. The Graduate went on to be nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Actor, Actress, Adapted Screenplay and Cinematography, winning one for Best Director, as well as seven Golden Globe nominations, winning five for Best Comedy, Director, Actress and Best Male and Female Newcomer. It also won five BAFTA Awards for Film, Director, Editing, New Actor and Screenplay, a Grammy Award for Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture and a Top Ten Film Award from the National Board of Review. In 1996, The Graduate was also selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". A true Hollywood classic.