the graduate
With a pop-song score written by Paul Simon and performed by Simon & Garfunkel bolstering its contemporary appeal, The Graduate opened to rave reviews in December 1967 and surpassed all commercial expectations. [1]
The soundtrack to Mike Nichols’ The Graduate remains a key musical document of the late ’60s, although truth be told, its impact was much less artistic than commercial (and, for that matter, more negative than positive). [2]
But the exhortation of family friend Mr. Robinson (Murray Hamilton) to seize every possible opportunity inspires Ben to accept an offer of sex from icily feline Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft). [1]
Recent college graduate Benjamin Braddock is trapped into an affair with Mrs. Robinson, who happens to be the wife of his father's business partner and then finds himself falling in love with her teenage daughter, Elaine. [3]
Mentally adrift the summer after graduating from college, suburbanite Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) would rather float in his parents’ pool than follow adult advice about his future. [1]
The film tells the story of Benjamin Braddock (played by Dustin Hoffman), a recent university graduate with no well-defined aim in life, who is seduced by an older woman, Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft), and then proceeds to fall in love with her daughter Elaine (Katharine Ross). [4]
With the exception of its centerpiece track, the elegiac and oft-quoted “Mrs. Robinson” — which only appears here as a pair of fragments — the Simon & Garfunkel songs that comprise much of the record (a series of Dave Grusin instrumentals round it out) appeared on the duo’s two preceding LPs; Nichols’ masterstroke was to transplant those songs into his film, where they not only meshed perfectly with the story’s themes of youthful rebellion and alienation (and the inner life of the central character, Dustin Hoffman’s Benjamin Braddock) but also heralded a new era in movie music centered around the appropriation of past pop hits, a marketing gimmick that grew exponentially in the years to follow. [2]
These lines and others became cultural touchstones, as 1960s youth rebellion seeped into the California upper middle-class in Mike Nichols ‘ landmark hit. [1]
So old Elaine Robinson got started in a Ford. [5]
The album began its life because of Nichols’ enthusiasm for the duo’s music, and Columbia Records chief Clive Davis’ ability to persuade the pair of the importance of a soundtrack LP. [2]
The Graduate is a 1967 American comedy-drama motion picture directed by Mike Nichols. [4]
Adding to the European art film sensibility, the movie offers an unsettling and ambiguous ending with no firm closure. [...] The affair and the pool are all well and good until Ben is pushed to go out with the Robinsons’ daughter Elaine (Katharine Ross) and he falls in love with her. [1]
A. D. Murphy of Variety and Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times praised the film upon its release with Murphy describing it as a “delightful satirical comedy-drama” and Ebert claiming it was the “funniest American comedy of the year”. [4]
Mr. Braddock: These are all our good friends, Ben. [5]
Sources:
[1] The Graduate: Information from Answers.com
[2] The Graduate: Information from Answers.com
[3] The Graduate (1967) - IMDb
[4] The Graduate - Wikipedia
[5] The Graduate (1967) - Memorable quotes