1)
Director Mike Nichols struck a chord with audiences, especially young people,
with 1967’s The Graduate. Our Flashback text hails the film as a “box
office champion of the decade” (p. 301). The film introduced moviegoers to
character actor Dustin Hoffman as the confused college graduate Benjamin
Braddock. His portrayal of lost youth seized by the uncertainty of the future
was underscored by “brilliant touches of deadpan comedy” (p. 302). Benjamin’s
tale spoke to a generation disinterested in the hollow lives of their parents
and older people in general. Beyond that plot, Nichols won favor with his
energetic editing, complete with jump-cuts and continuity leaps which
“comically throws us off-guard” (p. 301). Nichols brought a cinematic language
excitingly sophisticated and confident to 1960s American cinema. Critics praised
his skillful use of mise en scène, inspired by the classic French filmmakers. Our
textbook singles out Mrs. Robinson’s seduction of Benjamin as a masterful use
of framing. “(Benjamin’s) feelings of entrapment and imminent violations are
conveyed not by his words … but by the mise en scène” (p. 301). Mrs. Robinson blocks
Benjamin’s exit from the front, her nude torso boxing him in in the frame, and
in the rear, a window further shrinks his space on screen. This use of the camera
elevates what could have just been another scene and creates something “intellectually
provocative,” combining humor with sexuality and all “through the editing and
the carefully composed images” (p. 301). The
Graduate offered a great deal visually, using widescreen to show a variety
of information on screen at once, “suggesting a multitude of feelings and ideas”
(p. 302). These technical elements serviced what became an important social
commentary film for the 1960s. The story paints a bitter portrait of adulthood,
upper-class living, and the emptiness of materialism that still carries weight
today. It’s The Graduate’s still
relevant thoughts that keep it fresh for generation after generation of
audiences. The way Benjamin felt back in 1967 is a feeling that will always be
felt by our world’s youth.
2)
Article URL: http://www.timeout.com/newyork/film/mike-nichols-on-the-graduate
This
TimeOut article is a phone interview
with The Graduate’s director, Mike
Nichols, from April of this year during Nichols’ Broadway revival of Death of a Salesman. The interviewer
asks questions about the script, Dustin Hoffman, the production, camera
techniques, and the response the film received. Nichols shows himself to be a
good interview: open, interesting, and easy to chat up. It helps in this case
that he still holds The Graduate
close to his heart. After forty plus years, Nichols says the film is “not
hard to talk about.” For one thing, the script went through two unsatisfactory
write-ups, the first of which Nichols thought was “horrible.” The third draft
by Buck Henry is the one that did it for him. He even mentions Mr. McGuire’s
“plastics” line, a joke already dated by the film’s 1966 production, as one of
Buck’s gambles that paid off. The actor that brought the lead character of
Benjamin Braddock to life was then 30-year-old Dustin Hoffman, playing a 20
going on 21-year-old college graduate. Nichols first saw Hoffman in a play as a
transvestite Russian housewife where he obviously caught his eye. His
performance’s strength in The Graduate
was the way he underplayed his lines. This technique had Nichols eating
“handkerchiefs during some scenes to keep from cracking up,” as it made his
delivery that much funnier. The cast and crew rehearsed for a month before
actual shooting took place, and the production team prepped the film for almost
a full year before cameras started rolling. This preparation time allowed
Nichols and Buck to come up with a lot of the camera shots and montages. For
the montage of Benjamin’s continued sexual relationship with Mrs. Robinson while
turning into “the mindless object that his parents wanted him to be,” Nichols
and Buck wrote out the sequence shot by shot. Much of the film’s imagery and camerawork was
inspired by the works of directors like Fellini, Bergman, and George Stevens.
Nichols had the freedom to make the film he envisioned, given a 3 million
dollar budget with no intrusion. The unhindered product was previewed in New
York on 86th Street and met with audience members standing up and
cheering when Benjamin stole Elaine away from the wedding at the film’s end.
The film was not even complete. Nichols had to play the sound from a box in his
lap in the theater because the final mix had not yet been completed. Dustin
Hoffman was in attendance, “white as a sheet,” and shocked at the overwhelmingly
positive response. Nichols had an undeniable crowd-pleaser on his hands.
Executive producer Joseph E. Levine gave Nichols the ultimate praise when after
seeing the movie he told him, in a singing tone, “I smell mo-ney!”
3) One of the most
interesting questions asked to Mike Nichols from the interview was how he felt
about being considered part of the 1960s youth movement following the opening
of The Graduate when Nichols was actually
in his mid-thirties. Part of the film’s catching on with college age viewers had
to do with executive producer Levin’s decision to preview the films at college
campuses. Nichols’ film was met with confusion from an audience expecting to
see a film relating to the Vietnam War. Due to the period in American history
and the escalation of American involvement in Vietnam, college students used
the war as a barometer for a film’s quality. In Nichols’ own words: “The
only way college students could apparently get laid in those days was to be
very serious and concerned about the war.” A lack of appreciation for the film
was the initial reaction from the demographic that would come to connect with
it the most. Though Vietnam was absent from The
Graduate, its ideas and messages were absolutely socially conscious. As
younger viewers would come to see, they were also very relevant and relatable
to their own lives. Another outlet that attracted acceptance from the young and
overall mainstream was the film’s use of popular music. At the time of production,
Nichols had been listening to Simon and Garfunkel in the shower before heading off
to the set when it hit him. “Schmuck,” he told himself, “this is your
soundtrack!” The music from the folk duo has undoubtedly become an iconic
hallmark of the film, from the repeated uses of the songs “The Sound of Silence”
and “Scarborough Fair” to the hit single “Mrs. Robinson,” which producer Larry
Turman got Paul Simon to write just for the film. The song initially referred
to Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, as an ode to times past, but Nichols got him to
rewrite it to Robinson. When Nichols first laid “The Sound of Silence” over the
film, he was amazed by how well it complimented the visual. Looking back, he
calls the experience “one of those miraculous moments you get when you’re
making a movie, where everything somehow comes together.” From subject matter
to camera techniques to soundtrack, The Graduate
had all the makings of a classic made at exactly the right time. It stands
today as a great encapsulation of the era.
4)
A review of this film cannot be done without discussion of Mrs. Robinson as
played by legendary screen actress Anne Bancroft. Her performance in the film
is multilayered, polarizing viewers in an interesting way. The interviewer in
the TimeOut article mentions that in
all the times he saw the film before he was 40-years-old, he sympathized with
Benjamin. After he turned 40, he shifted his sympathy towards Mrs. Robinson.
Nichols responds, “That was always my intent with the Mrs. Robinson
character.” The humanity Anne Bancroft brought to the role is what made the
dynamic between her and Hoffman spark. She was initially unsure of how to play
the role, and Nichols wasn’t exactly sure himself, but he read her a line in a
cold, clipped tone and Anne found the character. “Oh, I know that! That’s
anger,” she said. That anger, that bitterness is what defines Mrs. Robinson, a
woman utterly dissatisfied with her life save for the bright spot that is her
daughter Elaine. Her temporary infatuation with Benjamin, a much younger man, is
what Nichols says gives The Graduate
its staying power. The film, as he puts it, “is an unintentional retelling of
the Hippolytus and Phaedra myth.” This myth is where the older woman and younger
man trope was born, and since then it’s been retold countless times in popular
media. To the point where Nichols says the theme “gets filed away in our
collective brains, because the corrupting aspects make that myth dangerous.”
Yet this danger is what makes the story so compelling. For whatever reason,
this particular story resonates with people. “You want to move people,” Nichols
remarks, “remake the Hippolytus and Phaedra myth.” In adapting Charles Webb’s
novel of the same name, he did just that. Where his retelling stood out from
all the others was in its stylish delivery. You don’t even have to look past
the first scene to catch a visual replicated in later films. Quentin Tarantino’s
Jackie Brown paid homage to the
opening walkway scene, featuring Pam Grier instead of Hoffman moving through
the Los Angeles International Airport. The famous, “You’re trying to seduce me”
scene has been parodied a thousand times over. The film has earned a place deep
inside American popular culture. As a work of cinema, it’s incredibly well put
together. It’s clearly inspired, assembled by thoughtful minds showing their
creativity in a decade that’s become synonymous with innovation. Mike Nichols spearheaded
a production that had more going for it than I think anyone knew at the time.
Now, close to half a century later, the verdict is clear: The Graduate is a classic American film. It’s been selected for
preservation in the United States National Film Registry for being “culturally,
historically, or aesthetically significant.” Having finally seen the film myself,
I can now understand the praise I’ve seen put on this movie for years. For all
its technical aspects and actor work, at the end of it all, The Graduate is a satisfying,
intelligent film experience that says a great deal about our human relationships.
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