50 Years On: Mike Nichols's 'The Graduate'

This is definitely a very interesting film to revisit as the years go by as a millenial; though our backgrounds may be different, there's a lot we can all relate to in Benjamin Braddock. He's a bit awkward and unsure of what to do with himself, mildly disillusioned but not quite to the extent that he's prepared to do anything radical with himself. He's also torn between two women, Katherine Ross's Elaine Robinson and her mother, Anne Bancroft's Mrs Robinson, a choice that not many of us will ever have to face, but it's certainly a difficult dilemma to be in. Anyway, beyond that, there's so much we can see in Benjamin's predicament that reflects the current condition; there's many times when I feel a bit aimless and uncertain about what lies ahead beyond my university degree, like ol' Benjamin. Life has given him everything he needs to succeed, really: a supportive family, wealth, great education, intelligence, smarts. Perhaps not so much in conventional good looks and height - looking back, it was pretty daring of Mike Nichols to cast such an off-kilter leading man in Dustin Hoffman - but anyway, Benjamin is placed in a very good position to make something of himself, but really he just seems pretty indifferent to everything. He's not exactly depressed, he's not exactly lifeless or humourless, he's just kind of...there.

As I've mentioned, it was pretty daring of Nichols to make such an offbeat choice for his leading role in the unproven, unknown Hoffman over the actors the studio wanted - among them Robert Redford and Burt Ward - but thank goodness for them making the one and only right choice. Hoffman is pure brilliance as Benjamin, and it's only the powerhouse performances of Sidney Poitier, Rod Steiger, Alain Delon and Robert Blake that keep him from a deserved win in the competitive year of 1967. The film requires him to make Benjamin an underdog, but not necessarily a wholly endearing one, while still being very funny. It's a great performance that strikes the perfect balance between being painfully awkward, awkwardly funny, and downright hilarious, especially in that now iconic hotel scene.

Another great thing about The Graduate is how much depth it gives to its apparent caricatures. Elaine is initially just another sweet love interest figure, but she gradually reveals depths as someone quite deeply conflicted by Benjamin's selfish actions, and Ross's final scene with Hoffman is a knockout (more on that in a bit). And the always great Anne Bancroft is superlative as a character that has rightfully become entrenched in the pop cultural landscape. Just the way she carries a cigar, sits in a chair, dresses and undresses, all adds up to an incredibly fascinating performance, Mrs Robinson is such an enigma, so mysterious and sexy, but at the same time to vulnerable and weak beneath that veneer of class and respectability.

Of course, none of these elements would work anywhere near as well as they do without Nichols and his great directing work, which really deserves a whole article of its own. So many things he does here is so daring, from the purposefully passionless depiction of the love scenes, to those amazing montages set to the indelible Simon & Garfunkel soundtrack (it fits so perfectly with the tone of the film, playful with a touch of melancholy), the swift tonal changes from dead seriousness to deadpan humour. And that ending is just an ingenius note to end on.