Review of "The Graduate"
"The Graduate" is a delightfully entertaining film from the late '60s starring Dustin Hoffman as Benjamin Braddock, a very confused recent college graduate and Anne Bancroft as Mrs.
Robinson, an older woman who seduces him.
The storyline and acting are both fantastic as well as the Simon and Garfunkel soundtrack played throughout the film.
Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) returns home to Los Angeles from college upon completing his graduation.
He is very confused about his future and clearly needs some time to himself.
He returns home to a huge graduation party hosted by his parents in which he doesn't want to participate.
Mrs.
Robinson, a beautiful friend of his parents, finds him alone in his room and asks him to give her a ride home.
Shortly after doing so, she ends up seducing him, much to his shock.
A few weeks later, however, Benjamin agrees to have an affair with her, which lasts for the next several months.
Mrs.
Robinson's daughter Elaine returns from college for the summer and Benjamin's parents urge him to go out with her, but naturally he feels reluctant to do so.
To make matters worse, Mrs.
Robinson refuses to let Benjamin date her daughter.
Once he does, she tells her daughter about their affair, falsely claiming that Benjamin raped her.
But Benjamin decides he's in love with Elaine, so he goes to Berkeley to pursue her once she starts school there again.
Eventually she falls in love with him as well, though she's torn between him and her much more conservative boyfriend.
The last few minutes of the movie are very fast-paced, as Benjamin finds himself rushing back and forth between Berkeley and Los Angeles.
Eventually he ends up at the First Presbyterian Church in Santa Barbara, where Elaine is to get married to her college boyfriend.
He ends up disrupting the ceremony, knocking on the window and yelling "Elaine!" repeatedly.
Eventually she yells "Ben!", whence Ben rushes into the wedding, fights off the crowd with Elaine, rips the cross off the alter and uses it to lock the crowd inside, and finally runs off with Elaine onto a bus to a surprised crowd.
Robinson, an older woman who seduces him.
The storyline and acting are both fantastic as well as the Simon and Garfunkel soundtrack played throughout the film.
Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) returns home to Los Angeles from college upon completing his graduation.
He is very confused about his future and clearly needs some time to himself.
He returns home to a huge graduation party hosted by his parents in which he doesn't want to participate.
Mrs.
Robinson, a beautiful friend of his parents, finds him alone in his room and asks him to give her a ride home.
Shortly after doing so, she ends up seducing him, much to his shock.
A few weeks later, however, Benjamin agrees to have an affair with her, which lasts for the next several months.
Mrs.
Robinson's daughter Elaine returns from college for the summer and Benjamin's parents urge him to go out with her, but naturally he feels reluctant to do so.
To make matters worse, Mrs.
Robinson refuses to let Benjamin date her daughter.
Once he does, she tells her daughter about their affair, falsely claiming that Benjamin raped her.
But Benjamin decides he's in love with Elaine, so he goes to Berkeley to pursue her once she starts school there again.
Eventually she falls in love with him as well, though she's torn between him and her much more conservative boyfriend.
The last few minutes of the movie are very fast-paced, as Benjamin finds himself rushing back and forth between Berkeley and Los Angeles.
Eventually he ends up at the First Presbyterian Church in Santa Barbara, where Elaine is to get married to her college boyfriend.
He ends up disrupting the ceremony, knocking on the window and yelling "Elaine!" repeatedly.
Eventually she yells "Ben!", whence Ben rushes into the wedding, fights off the crowd with Elaine, rips the cross off the alter and uses it to lock the crowd inside, and finally runs off with Elaine onto a bus to a surprised crowd.
