Extras: Trailer, One on One with Dustin Hoffman, The Graduate at 25,
Photo Gallery, Exclusive 60-page companion book
Director:
Mike Nichols
(Biloxi Blues, The Birdcage, Carnal Knowledge, The Graduate, Primary Colors, Regarding Henry, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf ?, Wolf, Working Girl)
Producer:
Lawrence Turman
Screenplay:
Calder Willingham and Buck Henry
Music:
Simon and Garfunkel
Cast:
Mrs. Robinson: Anne Bancroft
Ben Braddock: Dustin Hoffman
Elaine Robinson: Katharine Ross
Mr. Braddock: William Daniels
Mr. Robinson: Murray Hamilton
The Graduate
stars Dustin Hoffman in the title role as a young man about to step out
into the big, wide world, but one who is far from ready to do so. Guests at his
graduation party want to offer him jobs in industry but it's not for him, but
what is?
Taking one of his mother's friends home, Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft),
is about to give Ben a life-changing experience. Old enough to know better, she
starts flirting with him making him feel very uneasy, especially when she
strips naked in front of him. From initial bed-romps to booking a room in a
hotel for the night, they go about their affair without gaining attention from
anyone. Problems are abound when her daughter Elaine (Katharine Ross)
returns home and Ben is persuaded to take her out. The question is - how long
can he string along a girl he begins to love while carrying on with her mother
before the truth comes out?
In his first major film role, Hoffman is totally convincing as the naive young
graduate entering a new playground where the rules are different, while
Bancroft plays it cool as the married woman doing what she shouldn't be doing
while maintaining a facade when other people are around. The script is also
first-rate with clever turns of phrase and witty one-liners, such as when
Ben arrives at the hotel ahead of Mrs. R. :
Receptionist: "Can I help you, sir ?" Ben: "What? No.. I'm just.." Receptionist: "Are you here for an affair, sir ?" Ben (shocked): "What ?!?" Receptionist: "The Singleman party, sir ?" Ben (relieved): "Oh, yes. The Singleman Party!" Receptionist: "It's in the main ballroom." Ben: "Ah, thank you. Hmm."
Benjamin realised there was still more learning to be done after graduation.
When first released on DVD two years ago, BMG put out a non-anamorphic print
with the original mono soundtrack. This time round we've been treated to a
striking anamorphic version that may have the occasional minor print fleck,
but I'm giving Momentum full marks in that dept. for doing a bang-up job of
treating the film with the presentation it deserves.
It is presented in its original widescreen ratio of 2.35:1 which is the only
way to watch this film.
Director Mike Nichols utilises the full widescreen frame to great effect
throughout the whole of the film and to even crop it to 16:9, the preferred
ratio of the TV industry these days even though it's not to everyone's taste
to crop a film, would destroy many an excellent composition.
The average bitrate is 6.5Mb/s, often peaking over 9Mb/s.
The soundtrack has been remade in stereo which does perfect justice to the
tunes of Simon and Garfunkel and includes songs such as Scarborough
Fair, The Sound of Silence and Mrs Robinson (no relation).
The extras begin with a 3½-minute theatrical trailer, itself presented in
16:9 (approx). Be warned, though, that this reveals many of the film's key
plot-points as well as the ending. I'd actually never seen the film before I
watched this DVD so if you're in the same boat, I'd advise you not to watch
until you've watched the whole film. The Photo Gallery contains 14
stills, some from the film and some featuring various film posters from around
the world.
The Graduate at 25 runs for 22 minutes and features chat from all the
industry bigwigs involved, plus a number of film clips in the original 2.35:1
widescreen ratio, albeit non-anamorphic. One on One with Dustin Hoffman
is a near-five-minute interview with the man, including speculations on a
possible sequel, although it's more a set of soundbites filmed at the same
time as the main featurette.
Finally, comes the Exclusive 60-page companion book, which provides
plenty of info about the film and its director, Mike Nichols, given
that its title is "Mike Nichols in Perspective", as well as a foreward
by the current on-stage Mrs Robinson, Amanda Donohoe.
The DVD contains animated and scores menus, with the sounds of S&G, 24 chapters
covering the 101 minutes of the film, dialogue in stereo for the English
soundtrack, plus mono options for German, Spanish and Italian.
There are subtitles in 6 languages: English, German, Spanish, Italian,
Portuguese and Turkish, which scores points over the previous release's
complete lack of subs.
Benjamin still hadn't got the hang of '69's.
After the non-anamorphic mono version released in 1999, it's so good to have
this film looking just as it should with some decent extras including the
wonderful accompanying book.
DVD Trivia: William Daniels, who plays Ben's father, was the voice of
KITT the car in Knight Rider.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
