Hi everyone. Sorry it's been a long time since my last review. I've had work on school and a couple of other stuff going on. But the important thing is that I'm back and it's time I continued to make all these reviews starting with one I've been meaning to write for months. So here's a classic that I saw for the first time years ago when I was visiting a relative who lived near Chicago, and one that I saw again at my Film Expression class, The Graduate.
Plot: Benjamin Braddock is a shy almost 21 year old college graduate. At his graduation party, the wife of his father's law partner, Mrs. Robinson asks him to drive her home from the party which he reluctantly agrees to do. At her home, Mrs. Robinson attempts to seduce him, but he manages to avoid her thanks to her husband coming home. But a few days later he gives in and they begin having an affair. But Ben soon has troubles with the choices he's made when his parents set him up on a date with Mrs. Robinson's daughter Elaine.
Now I agree that this was a very well done movie. The subtext was very well done, the acting was excellent, the list goes on. But the story is still messed up. In fact, quite honestly I had originally planned to rate this a 100% as it rightfully deserves. But since I should be honest when it comes to how I all around like the movie, I had to give it a slightly lower rating. Why? Because, as I hope at least some of you are aware after my The Little Mermaid review, where I explained that basically because of that particular film, it kind of started this little habit of mine for when I want to avoid watching a film or tv show where the main character is getting into big trouble or doing something really stupid. And this film is not an exception in the slightest. I mean I shouldn't have to explain why what happens in this film that makes it messed up. I'm a little over it now that I've seen it at least once so I know what generally happens, but I should be honest since this is also about what I personally thought of the film. So let the record show that as a film, I fully agree that the rating is rightfully 100%, and that it's only because of my one silly issue that it's even half a percent lower than that.
Acting/Characters:
Dustin Hoffman/Benjamin Braddock: So this was Hoffman's second film and I believe his first big hit. Well I can clearly see why. I mean to put it simply, he really pulled through in giving us a shy and very confused young adult that's going through all this crap. Really it's not much of a surprise that he even got a best actor nomination for that year.
Anne Bancroft/Mrs.Robinson: She did a very good job with her character. Mrs. Robinson was a woman who you can kind of understand why she did what she did. But at the same time you do have to hate her for pretty much everything that she does. So yeah, Bancroft deserved a nomination at least just like Hoffman.
Katharine Ross/Elaine Robinson:Well what more is there to point out? She did a very good job portraying as this confused young adult just like Hoffman and she got a nomination as well.
Music: The music was very well done. Sounds of Silence worked very well to what was happening to Ben. And then there's Mrs. Robinson which was very good and they also did a very good job with using the music for when Ben's car was running out of gas.
Editing: The editing was very well done. The L cut and J cut from the scene where Ben hops into the pool after having sex for the first time with Mrs. Robinson was very well done. (apology to any particular film geeks or film makers who have anything against using the terms "L cut" or "J cut"- which seems to originate from anyone using Final Cut Pro - as the way to describe the specific editing that was done in that particular scene.)
And that's my review for The Graduate. I may have my little issue that keeps me from honestly giving it 100%, but in truth that's truly the rating as a film because it's just very well done.
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