Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Location: By the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea
68,422 posts, read 54,790,258 times
Reputation: 40917
Advertisements
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill790
Or his scenes with the wonderful Faye Dunaway. I was 14 years old when I first saw Little Big Man and absolutely fell in lust with Faye Dunaway. And I'm still there.....
--
That was a pretty popular destination for the testosterone addled.
Mostly myself. But if you don't like it, no one is forcing you to read. Move along....
It makes my ears vomit. Even Barry Manilow says, "That song is just way too white."
I think that says more about the Baby Boomers than it does THE GRADUATE. And nothing good.
It was. THE GRADUATE may have even been the first movie that started this modern trend. It just wasn't done well in THE GRADUATE. Playing the same song over and over and over and over just spoiled it. If you want to see this "novel concept" done well, check out MEAN STREETS. Or pretty much any Martin Scorsese movie for that matter.
Even BILLY JACK used the music of its day to greater effect than THE GRADUATE.
More ignorance with racism right on cue. So predictable....and I knew better.
I am surprised that there is an active thread on this movie, but glad since I finally just saw it since it was leaving Amazon. I never saw it back in the day. I am 66, so thought it was about time that I saw it. Ugh! Way overhyped. Maybe there was some cutting edge cinematography, like Benjamin scuba diving in his parents pool.
I agree with Mark about the score. Simon and Garfunkel were never my favorites..I preferred rick but did like some folk rock. Seemed like they were repeating same two or three songs over and over. Okay, maybe Mrs. Robinson since she was a main character, but why Scarborough Fair? I don’t know if soundtracks to movies were a thing back then, bu5 who would want such a limited soundtrack?
Then, the acting. I liked Dustin Hoffman in some later movies, but thought his acting was so flat in this. Not surprised that it was his first movie. Surprised that he was already 30. I thought if he was only 20 like his character, that could explain s9me if the flatness.
I had always heard that it was about counterculture youth rebelling against the older generation. Disappointed that Benjamin dressed just like his parents did, the country club set. Not long hair, no bell bottoms or tie dye! A suit. Short hair. And it wasn’t like he was rebelling against his parents lifestyle. He sure liked to hang out in their pool. Drive the Alfa Romeo they bought him. Even drank hard liquor as opposed to beer, wine, or marijuana. It’s just that he didn’t want to do anything after college. Not work. Not grad school. It’s not like he was upset by or doing something about the war, racism, inequities, etc.
Then he goes on a forced date with Elaine. Mean to her, so she cries and leaves. Bu5 a few minutes later, they are falling in love! Suddenly this guy who can’t commit to a job or grad school can commit to a relationship?
I am sure that putting the cross on the door of the church was viewed as cutting edge, but just no. Th3best part was the last scene with them on the bus after escaping the wedding, looking just Dazed and thinking now What?
And for a movie about the younger generation, sure wasn’t that much of them. The wedding looked to to be attended by the Robinson parents’ friends, not Elaine’s friends from college. Even her fiancée seemed like a fussy old guy, smoking a pipe.
Dialogue was laughable, especially Mrs. Robinson ordering Ben all around the time. If it had taken place years later I guess she could have been a domatrix, wearing leather.
Th3best part was the last scene with them on the bus after escaping the wedding, looking just Dazed and thinking now What?
That really is the key to the movie. It's a great commentary on the '60s, made even before the '60s were over.
The counter culture rebelled against the hypocrisy and emptiness of their parents' generation, and it must be said: There was a lot of hypocrisy and emptiness to rebel against. But ... now what? And the baby boomers didn't really have an answer to that, other than to become the Me Generation. Which is exactly what happened in the '70s.
“The Reformer is always right about what's wrong. However, he's often wrong about what is right.” (G.K. Chesterton)
Hard to believe that Anne Bancroft was only 36 when she played Mrs. Robinson. (And Dustin Hoffman was 30.) Most of us were forbidden by our parents to see this movie when it initially came out. It played on television only a few years later.
I wasn't allowed to see it either. I was only eight, but there was nothing else playing that looked interesting so I asked to go to see The Graduate. The answer was a firm NO. I saw it in later years, of course and I have always liked it. Norman Fell and Richard Dreyfus are in it. Both would later become famous.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
