The Graduate
The Graduate is a 1967 American independent romantic comedy-drama film directed by Mike Nichols and written by Buck Henry and Calder Willingham, based on the 1963 novella by Charles Webb. It stars Dustin Hoffman as Benjamin Braddock, a recent college graduate who is seduced by an older married woman, Mrs. Robinson, but falls for her daughter, Elaine. The soundtrack was recorded by Simon & Garfunkel, and featured the hit single "Mrs. Robinson".
The Graduate was released December 21, 1967. It grossed $104.9million in the United States and Canada, making it the highest-grossing film of 1967 in North America. Adjusted for inflation, its gross is $857 million, making it the 22nd-highest-grossing film in the United States and Canada. It received seven nominations at the 40th Academy Awards, and won for Best Director.
In 1996, The Graduate was selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". The following year, the American Film Institute ranked it the 7th-greatest American film and the 17th-greatest in 2007. It is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential films ever made.
Plot
After earning his bachelor's degree, Benjamin Braddock returns to his parents' home in Pasadena, California. During his graduation party, Mrs. Robinson, the wife of his father's law partner, asks him to drive her home. Once there, she tries to seduce him. He resists her advances, but later invites Mrs. Robinson to the Taft Hotel, where he registers under the surname Gladstone. Benjamin spends the summer idly floating in his parents' swimming pool and meeting Mrs. Robinson at the hotel. During one of their trysts, Mrs. Robinson reveals that she and her husband married after she accidentally became pregnant with their daughter, Elaine. When Benjamin jokingly suggests that he date Elaine, Mrs. Robinson angrily forbids it.Benjamin's parents and Mr. Robinson pester Benjamin to ask Elaine out. He reluctantly takes her out, but attempts to sabotage the date by ignoring her, driving recklessly and taking her to a strip club. She flees in tears, but Benjamin chases after her, apologizes and kisses her. They eat at a drive-in restaurant, where they bond over their shared uncertainty about their plans. After they visit the Taft Hotel for a late-night drink and the staff greet Benjamin as Mr. Gladstone, Elaine deduces that Benjamin is having an affair. Benjamin admits to having an affair with a married woman whom he does not name. He tells Elaine the affair is over and asks to see her again.
To prevent Benjamin from dating Elaine, Mrs. Robinson threatens to tell her about their affair. To thwart this, Benjamin tells Elaine that the married woman is her mother. Elaine throws Benjamin out of the house and returns to school at Berkeley. Benjamin follows her there, hoping to regain her affections. Elaine initially rejects him and briefly dates a medical student, Carl. When she learns her mother lied about Benjamin raping her, she reconciles with him. Benjamin pushes for marriage, but Elaine is uncertain despite her feelings for him. Mr. Robinson arrives at Berkeley and angrily confronts Benjamin. He informs him that he and Mrs. Robinson are getting divorced and threatens to have him jailed if he keeps seeing Elaine. Mr. Robinson forces Elaine to leave college to marry Carl.
Benjamin drives to Pasadena and enters the Robinson home searching for Elaine. He finds Mrs. Robinson, who tells him that he cannot prevent Elaine's marriage to Carl. Benjamin flees the house and drives back to Berkeley. There he discovers the wedding is in Santa Barbara that day. He speeds over 300 miles to Santa Barbara, but his car runs out of gas a short distance from the church.
Benjamin runs to the church, arriving just as the ceremony is ending. His desperate appearance in the glass church gallery stirs Elaine into defying her mother and fleeing the sanctuary. Benjamin fights off Mr. Robinson and repels the wedding guests by swinging a large cross, which he uses to bar the church doors, trapping everyone inside. Benjamin and Elaine escape aboard a bus and sit among the startled passengers, with Elaine still in her wedding gown. As the bus drives on, their ecstatic smiles slowly change into ambivalent expressions.
Cast
Several actors make uncredited appearances in minor roles.Richard Dreyfuss speaks two lines, about calling "the cops", in his second film role as one of the tenants in McCleery's boarding house. Ben Murphy plays the shaving fraternity brother who comes out with a double entendre. Mike Farrell is a hotel bellhop. Kevin Tighe is one of the showering fraternity brothers. Noam Pitlik is the service station attendant.
Production
Getting the film made was difficult for Nichols, who, while noted for being a successful Broadway director, was still an unknown in Hollywood. Producer Lawrence Turman, who wanted only Nichols to direct it, was continually turned down for financing. Turman also said that every studio turned down the project, saying "they read the book and hated it, and no one thought it was funny". He then contacted producer Joseph E. Levine, who said he would finance the film because he had associated with Nichols on the play The Knack, and because he heard Elizabeth Taylor specifically wanted Nichols to direct her and Richard Burton in Virginia Woolf.With financing assured, Nichols suggested Buck Henry for screenwriter, although Henry's experience had also been mostly in improvised comedy, and he had no writing background. Nichols said to Henry, "I think you could do it; I think you do it." Nichols was paid $150,000, and was to receive one-sixth of the profits.
Casting
Nichols' first choice for Mrs. Robinson was French actress Jeanne Moreau. The motivation for this was the cliché that in French culture, "older" women tended to "train" the younger men in sexual matters. Casting for the project was challenging. Doris Day turned down an offer because the nudity required by the role offended her. Shelley Winters, Ingrid Bergman, Eva Marie Saint, Ava Gardner, Patricia Neal, Susan Hayward, Deborah Kerr, Rita Hayworth, Lana Turner and Geraldine Page were also considered for the role of Mrs. Robinson.Dustin Hoffman was cast as Liebkind in the Mel Brooks film The Producers, but before filming began Hoffman begged Brooks to let him go to audition for The Graduate. When Dustin Hoffman auditioned for the role of Benjamin, he was just short of his 30th birthday at the time of filming. He was asked to perform a love scene with Ross, having previously never done one, and believed that, as he said later, "a girl like would never go for a guy like me in a million years". Ross agreed, believing that Hoffman "looked about 3 feet tall... so unkempt. This is going to be a disaster." Producer Joseph E. Levine later admitted that he at first believed Hoffman "was one of the messenger boys". Despite – or perhaps because of – Hoffman's awkwardness, Nichols chose him for the film.
"As far as I'm concerned, Mike Nichols did a very courageous thing casting me in a part that I was not right for, meaning I was Jewish," said Hoffman. "In fact, many of the reviews were very negative. It was kind of veiled anti-Semitism.... I was called 'big-nosed' in the reviews; 'a nasal voice'." Hoffman was paid $20,000 for his role in the film, and netted $4,000 after taxes and paying for temporary accommodations. After spending that money, Hoffman filed for New York State unemployment benefits, receiving $55 per week while living in a two-room apartment in the West Village of Manhattan.
Before Hoffman was cast, Robert Redford and Charles Grodin were among the top choices. Redford tested for the part of Benjamin, but Nichols thought Redford did not possess the underdog quality Benjamin needed. Grodin turned down the part at first because of the low $500/week salary offered by producer Lawrence Turman. Grodin was offered more money, but declined again because he did not believe he could prepare for a screen test for the film overnight. "If they had given me three days to prepare, I think I would have gotten the role," he said.
Harrison Ford also auditioned for the role of Benjamin Braddock but was turned down.
Burt Ward was informally offered Hoffman's role, but was already committed to the role of Robin in the Batman television series.
Jack Nicholson, Steve McQueen, Anthony Perkins, Warren Beatty, George Peppard, George Hamilton, Keir Dullea, Brandon deWilde and Michael Parks were also considered for the role of Benjamin Braddock.
Ronald Reagan was considered for the part of Benjamin's father Mr. Braddock, which eventually went to William Daniels. Nichols cast Gene Hackman as Mr. Robinson, but he was later fired after a few days of rehearsals; he was replaced by Murray Hamilton. Many years later, Hackman said that being fired from the film still hurt him.
Despite playing mother and daughter, Anne Bancroft and Katharine Ross were only eight years apart in age. Bancroft and Hoffman differed less than six.
Filming
The quality of the cinematography was influenced by Nichols, who chose Oscar winner Robert Surtees to do the photography. Surtees, who had photographed major films since the 1920s, including Ben-Hur, said later, "It took everything I had learned over 30 years to be able to do the job. I knew that Mike Nichols was a young director who went in for a lot of camera. We did more things in this picture than I ever did in one film."Many of the exterior university campus shots of Berkeley were actually filmed on the brick campus of USC in Los Angeles.
The church used for the wedding scene is actually the United Methodist Church in La Verne. In an audio commentary released with the 40th anniversary DVD, Hoffman revealed he was uneasy about the scene in which he pounds on the church window, as the minister of the church had been watching the filming disapprovingly. The wedding scene was highly influenced by the ending of the 1924 comedy film Girl Shy starring Harold Lloyd, who also served as an advisor for the scene in The Graduate.