Movie+Review-The+Graduate

In 1967's //The Graduate//, Dustin Hoffman plays Benjamin Braddock. Ben had recently graduated from college and has returned home, only to discover that he has no idea what to do with the rest of his life. The wife of Mr. Braddock's business partner, played by Anne Bancroft, seduces Ben, only to cause him more confusion. Ben then falls in love with Mrs Robinson's daughter.

Dustin Hoffman is very believable as a confused young man without any life direction. Ben shows little enthuiasm throughout the movie and spends most of his days coasting along.

//The Graduate// is a romantic comedy with drama mixed in. Although slightly sluggish in some parts, the movie is overall a good one, with its lack of violence and graphic nature. The relationship between Anne Bancroft's, Mrs Robinson, Ben, and Katharine Ross's, Elaine Robinson, is an easy one to follow. It is not difficult to determine what is going on between each character. There are some scenes that, although somewhat serious, also contain quite a bit of humor. In the beginning Ben has no desire for anything, but all that changes when Elaine enters the picture. Elaine causes him to actually care about something and to fight for what he wants, with little regard to his past or the consequences that he may encounter.

The soundtrack to //The Graduate// is an appropriate collection of music. From the opening, Simon and Garfunkel's The Sound of Silence, to the closing music, the lyrics flow with the action unfolding on the screen. The Sound of Silence makes for a fairly haunting opening scene, with the lines, "Hello Darkness, my old friend, I've come to talk with you again, because a vision softly creeping, left its seeds while I was sleeping, and the vision that was planted in my brain, still remains, within the sound of silence." The lyrics give the viewer a feeling of depression and loneliness.

The movie starts out slowly with Ben coming home after graduation. When his affair with Mrs. Robinson begins, the action picks up a bit, but not to a large extent. After he falls for Elaine, Ben has a new goal in life which changes the speed of the movie. No longer is he wasting his days doing next to nothing. He has a reason to fight, in the hopes that he won't lose the one he loves.

Although there are no special editing tricks, the movie is still an interesting one. Due to the absence of violence, //The Graduate// is an appropriate film for most movie-viewers. If blood and gore are not the ideal subjects to watch, //The Graduate// would make a nice way to spend a few hours.