The Graduate

[English Dave]

Re: The Graduate

And of course there is the great ''Pitch'' in the opening of ''The Player'' for The Graduate'' sequal. ''No Mrs. Robinson isn't an invalid. Just some kind of malady.''

Classic stuff.

RIP Ann Bancroft. A great actress, and must have had a damn fine sense of humor to have married Mr Brooks.

[refriedwhiskey]

Re: The Graduate

Yeah, that bit in The Player was great. I think it arose from the real, ongoing rumors of a Graduate sequel. Like so much in that movie, it was based on real stuff.

But it was funny stuff.

[Architeuthis Dux]

Re: The Graduate

I laughed my ass off when I saw it several years ago. Hoffman's character really hit me where I lived. "Man," I thought. "He's just like me! Except, of course, my folks aren't rich, I don't own an Alfa Romeo convertible, and I'm not having an affair with Ann Bancroft."


Then, just today, I ran across this while reasearching something else:

http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilre.../graduate.html

This guy, Stephen Holden, watches the film and sees it completely differently than I did, seeing all sorts of social commentary and rhetorical content that I either completely missed (he uses the terms "generation gap fable" and "satire of the cocktail generation) or simply dismissed as not that important.

I saw the Hoffman and Bancroft affair not in terms of some kind of dramatized lesson about society and generations, but in terms of lonely, horny individuals coming together and not coming together, temporarily shagging each other because of a mutual feeling of not really belonging with anyone else. As a human story, I liked it very much. As a piece of rhetoric, it either missed the mark or I simply wasn't paying attention.

[Pencey]

Re: The Graduate

I think it was the music by Simon and Garfunkel which made the movie so great.

[Authorized]

Re: The Graduate

Sadly, Hollywood is making a sequel of The Graduate (sorta):

Rumor Has It (2005) Jennifer Aniston, Kevin Costner, Mark Ruffalo, Shirley McClaine...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0398375/

[alipali]

Re: The Graduate

Jeesh, who'd get their jollies banging Shirley McClaine these days?

[Ire]

Re: The Graduate

I love the Graduate and have watched it about 10 times at least.

I do wonder if it would be made today and I mean with its pacing and satire intact. Yes, Calder Willingham, Buck Henry and Mike Nichols not to mention Hoffman, Bancroft, Ross, Murray Hamilton and the Simon and Garfunkel soundtrack, made the movie what it is, but would the script be made today? An alienated "anti-hero" Benjamin Braddock, a threadbare act structure.

The pacing of the first meeting between Benjamin and Mrs. Robinson is awesome.

To wit, I mean if there was a script that I'd die for to have as part of my body of work, it would probably be The Graduate.

It's definitely not a 4-quadrant movie. Maybe it might be made as an indie.

I might be opening up a Pandora's Box with this question, or many might not care, but f- it.

Would it be directed/edited in the same manner? (Yes, I know it was almost thirty years ago.) I'll also add that, imo, the same issues Benjamin was dealing with are still endemic to today's introspective college grads.

[jellyjilly]

Re: The Graduate

I saw a screening of that sequel kinda sorta. It's really not a sequel; just uses a few details about the publication of The Graduate as a jumping-off point for an aging-Rachel type who's having a wee identity crisis.

And by the way, it absolutely stunk. I'm guessing it will serve Jennifer Aniston the same way The Wedding Guest served Deborah Messing.