I'm worried...

...about my future.

So many films to go.  So little time.

AFI Top 100 (10th Anniversary Edition) in a calendar year.  I should probably call the timing on this quest off, but I'm trying.  I still want to get through them all, though, even if I don't make the whole list in a year.

Film 38

38.  "The Graduate" (AFI Rank #17)

I was able to squeeze this one in last year before I abandoned ship on this journey.  Well.  I watched it again last night.

I said some things about this last year.  I'm going to be a little more detailed this year.

Released in 1967, this was director Mike Nichols' second film, and the second film for which he'd been nominated for a Best Director Oscar.  This time he won, while Best Picture went to "In The Heat Of The Night."  Those awards being split happens more than you think...but not all that frequently.  If I were asked my opinion (and even if I weren't), I'd say the Academy got it right.

Why?  Simple.  Like the last film I reviewed, Mike Nichols' background wasn't in film.  He was a product of Broadway, and directed several huge hit shows in the early 60s.  What we see in "The Graduate," like in "A Streetcar Named Desire," is the work of a guy who is used to really WORKING with actors, and not worrying about the technical nearly as much.  Sure, there are lots of pretty pictures that theatre directors make, but our main focus is performance.  How do you bring the words on the page to life?  We rehearse, we experiment, we focus on relationships, and truth, and listening.  And that, folks, is what is GREAT, GREAT, GREAT about "The Graduate."  There are lots of moments where we see characters laid bare, or change, or whatever.  Nichols' hand on those moments, no doubt, was probably central to a lot of that.  For example...when Mrs. Robinson first encounters Benjamin in his bedroom, she asks him if he has an ashtray.  "Oh, that's right.  The Big Track Star doesn't smoke."  A short while later...and indeed, when Benjamin decides to submit to Mrs. Robinson's request to have an affair...we see him talking to her on the phone...while smoking.  The next time we see Benjamin sitting down, we see an ashtray full of cigarette butts, all of which he has smoked while waiting for Mrs. Robinson at the Taft Hotel.  In a simple visual trick, we see that Benjamin is no longer the innocent, no longer a child.  He's a man, and he's changing, whether for the better...or not.

That isn't really about working with actors, I guess.  So, let's look at a different scene.  Let's talk about the scene where Benjamin decides that sex alone is no longer satisfying, and that he wants to converse with Mrs. Robinson.  Anne Bancroft and Dustin Hoffman give such compelling performances, work together so well, that it feels like we're peeping toms, staring in at a nefarious moment between a couple of desperate people.  Their conversation is snappy, it's well-paced, the actors "top" (talking simultaneously) each other many times...it's all the things that make a theatrical performance special.  Every conversation written in a script needs to feel like it's being said for the first time, because, in theory, it is.  Watch "The Graduate" and try to find those moments where it doesn't feel that way.  It's not very often, and I'm going to credit Mike Nichols.  Other subtle performance things that a director may have helped with:  the way Murray Hamilton places ice in the glasses he gives to Benjamin; the holding of the cigarette smoke by Anne Bancroft when Benjamin first kisses her; the near constant grilling (something I would notice, for sure) of dinner by Benjamin's parents.  How about the fact that Mrs. Robinson is nearly always wearing the fur pattern of some predatory cat?  

Now, had Mike Nichols just done great performances, he'd still have a great film.  However, he pulled all kinds of other tricks.  He may have been (I'm not knowledgeable enough to know) the first to use the montage to rock music to great effect...that it was in its infancy is shown by the fact that one of the more clever montages (the one where we are going back and forth between Benjamin at home and at the Taft with Mrs. Robinson)...actually has TWO songs that play through it.  On top of this, we've got the wonderful scene with Benjamin in his SCUBA gear, the opening title sequence, with Benjamin riding the moving walkway at LAX, the scene where the Robinsons stop by the Braddocks house after the affair has begun...and the adults are in silhouette...blurred by the sweaty sunglasses Benjamin wears, the many scenes of Benjamin driving from LA to Berkeley, back to LA, back to Berkeley, then to Santa Barbara.  It's gripping stuff.  It's heady filmmaking, and I LOVE heady filmmaking.

This, from my little research, was the first film to use popular music that ran over the visual, whether tied to the moment or not, just to create a mood, rather than help the story along.  Performed by Simon and Garfunkel (with Dave Grusin providing the incidental music), it is impossible to separate that music from this film.  It is so tied with our emotional investment in everything going on, that without it, the film would somehow not carry the weight it does.  It's a terrific choice, and really, really paves the way for a discussion as to how important music is in film.  Kubrick would prove it again the following year with "2001: A Space Odyssey," but think about how many thrillers, etc. we would not be able to experience without that music under it.  Music is as much a part of film as actors.  "The Graduate" nails this aspect.

Of course, I haven't really touched on the SCRIPT.  Written by Buck Henry (who makes a terrific turn as the hotel clerk IN the film)  and Calder Willingham, the script is a super tight story, full of humor, satire, drama...you name it.  That a word like "Plastics," when uttered by an actor, could have such an impact...is testament.  Named the 13th best screenplay in film history by the Writers Guild of America, it is hard to argue with that honor.  The fantastical works because of what is so REAL in the more grounded scenes.  It must have been a pleasure to show up to work every day, knowing that the plot laid out in front of you was so intrinsically beautiful.  Great stuff.

Acting.  Well.  I can't expound upon this too much more.  Bancroft is DEAD sexy, Hoffman is wonderfully befuddled, Katherine Ross is exquisitely charming, and even small roles like Norman Fell's landlord...are spot on.  So much chemistry exists between the actors, so much listening, so much trust...damn.  I really, really love this movie.  There is one moment that I wish could have been a little different...I wish Hoffman had taken just the tiniest of pauses after "You open up your" before he said "life to me" as he is staring at Mrs. Robinson, legs slightly spread, trying her damnedest "not" to seduce him.  I'm not sure why he didn't.  Maybe it was better subtle, but that's a terrific chance that was missed.  Maybe the censors didn't want it.  I don't know.  It's pretty great acting if that's really my only quibble.  As I said last year...I still find it incredible that Murray Hamilton and William Daniels were younger than I am now when they filmed this.

Is "The Graduate" the perfect film?  No.  I find a lot of the Berkeley stuff unnecessary...and too drawn out...it feels out of pace with the rest of the film.  However, it is a great film.  A GREAT GREAT GREAT FILM.  Watch it again.  It merits it.  It's #17 on the list...and if it's one of the top 20 films of all time...well...that might be worth checking out, don't you think?

I think Roger is too much a part of the generation that he thinks is being hailed in much of "The Graduate" to see it from any perspective other than through that filter.  His review of the re-release in 1997 is here.  I think he's myopic.  Yes, the generation gap may be a large part of this film, in 1967 terms...I'm not sure that is the ultimate theme.  Maybe it is.  I wasn't part of that...and I see a lot more in the film than that.  Bah.  Screw Roger on this one.