--- title: "The Graduate" year: 1967 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-graduate" fi1m_score: 86 critics_score: 83 critics_reviews: 17 published: "2026-09-20T04:56:48.911595+00:00" updated: "2026-09-20T04:56:49.283505+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # The Graduate (1967) Directed by Mike Nichols · 1h 47m · MPA PG · Drama, Romance, Comedy **Fi1m score: 86** · Critics 83 from 17 reviews *In a sentence:* He has a degree, a sports car and a pool, and no idea what any of them are for > Mike Nichols’s comedy about a graduate who drifts into an affair with a family friend is still funny and still sharp, and Anne Bancroft is the best thing in it. It goes softer once it stops being about her, though not by enough to spoil it. ## Synopsis Ben Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) comes home to his parents’ house having just finished college, and does not know what to do next. His father (William Daniels) and mother (Elizabeth Wilson) throw a party to show him off to their friends, one of whom, Mr. McGuire (Walter Brooke), takes him aside to give him career advice. Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft), the wife of his father’s business partner Mr. Robinson (Murray Hamilton), asks Ben to drive her home, pours him a drink and makes him an offer. He panics and leaves, then telephones her a few days later from a hotel. The affair that follows is conducted in hotel rooms and near silence, while his parents keep asking why he never takes out the Robinsons’ daughter, Elaine (Katharine Ross). ## Review Ben Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) rides an airport walkway at the start of *The Graduate* with his face set, and for the next hour and three quarters he is carried along by other people in much the same way. Mike Nichols’s film, adapted by Calder Willingham and Buck Henry from Charles Webb’s novel, is a comedy about a young man who has done everything that was asked of him and finds there is nothing waiting at the end of it. The first hour is about as good as American comedy gets. The second is good, and we will come to the difference. The party that opens the film is the sharpest thing in it. Ben’s parents (William Daniels and Elizabeth Wilson) have filled the house with their friends, and Nichols shoots them close and slightly too bright, so every face is a mask of goodwill with something else behind it. Walter Brooke’s Mr. McGuire takes Ben aside by the pool and gives him career advice with the gravity of a man passing on a family secret. Then Anne Bancroft’s Mrs. Robinson asks for a lift home. Patricia Zipprodt puts her in animal prints and Robert L. Surtees frames Ben through the arch of her raised leg, and yet Bancroft plays none of it as a hunt. She is bored. She has been bored for years. Ben is simply what came through the door. Hoffman was not the obvious casting for a Californian golden boy and that is the joke Nichols builds the film on. He stammers, he over-explains, he says “Mrs. Robinson” as if it were a form of address he has been practising. Buck Henry, playing a hotel clerk who watches Ben fail to book himself in, gets more out of a raised eyebrow than most actors get from a speech. And Sam O’Steen’s editing keeps making the point the dialogue is too polite to make, cutting between the family pool and the hotel until they feel like one place. His parents think he is resting. He is drowning in comfort. We laughed hardest at the scene in which Ben, in diving gear, walks into the family pool in front of the neighbours. Then Surtees puts the camera inside the mask, the faces above mouthing at him through the water, and Ben sinks to the bottom and stays there. The laugh went out of us and did not come straight back. Richard Sylbert’s Braddock house, all glass, fish tank and pale carpet, is a place where a person could be watched at every moment and never once seen. What moved us more than we expected was the night in the hotel when Ben insists, for once, that they talk, and asks about the life she had before she was married. Bancroft lets the question land and then lets the light go out of her face, and for a minute the film is about a woman who gave up a life she can barely remember wanting. Nichols holds on her and does not cut away for a gag. It is the best scene in the film and the one Bancroft should be remembered for. The second half belongs to Elaine, and we will say only that Ben decides what he wants and goes after it. The trouble is that the film’s interest in Mrs. Robinson drops away the moment she stops being useful to the plot, and she is turned from a person into an obstacle. Katharine Ross is bright and likeable and has very little to play; Elaine is mostly a face Ben looks at. Ben’s pursuit reads less like love than like the first idea he has ever had on his own. Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel’s songs, which sit so well over the hotel scenes early on, are asked to carry more than they should late. Nichols has a good ear for the actors’ timing and, occasionally, a fondness for the clever shot for its own sake. Against that, he ends the film on a held image that we will not describe, except to say that staying on it a few seconds longer than expected changes the meaning of everything before it. Most critics have loved this film for fifty years and we are, broadly, with them, though we would rate the hour with Bancroft a good deal above the hour without her. It runs 107 minutes and is a 12A. Watch it with someone at the wrong age for it, either far younger than Ben or far older than Mrs. Robinson, and see which of the two they end up on the side of. *Fi1m score 86, published 20 September 2026.* ### Reviews we read (17) - **Radio Times**, Tom Hutchinson (5/5): This landmark satire on America's bourgeoisie thrust Dustin Hoffman into the limelight and won a best director Oscar for Mike Nichols. The critic highlights Hoffman's sensational performance, the biting screenplay, innovative camerawork and the perfect Simon and Garfunkel soundtrack. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-5mdjxq/the-graduate/) - **The Independent** (★★★★★): The re-released classic remains beguiling fifty years on, largely thanks to Dustin Hoffman's breakthrough performance as the awkward, panicked Benjamin, which mixes humour, boredom and vulnerability in equal measure. [Read](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/film-reviews-roundup-hampstead-the-book-of-henry-souvenir-the-graduate-a7800391.html) - **The Times**, Kevin Maher (★★★★★): Mrs Robinson emerges as the sympathetic heroine in this reappraisal of the classic, far more dignified and complex than Hoffman's spoilt, creepy Benjamin. Nichols's direction and the performances highlight her conflicted humanity amid the film's generational and marital tensions. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/film/article/the-graduate-1967-review-8snb9npf2) - **Time Out**, Tom Huddleston (5/5): Mike Nichols’s near-flawless class satire still feels as sly, modern and bracing as it must have in 1967. The critic praises the iconic scenes that have entered the culture and the magnificent chase-to-the-church finale with its unnerving closing shot. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-graduate) - **RogerEbert.com**, Roger Ebert (90/100, inferred): Ebert calls it the funniest American comedy of the year with a clear subversive point of view against upper-middle-class conformity. He praises Mike Nichols as a major new director, Dustin Hoffman's awkward ethical performance, and Anne Bancroft's sexy, shrewish turn. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-graduate-1967) - **Slant Magazine**, Budd Wilkins (90/100, inferred): The review highlights the film's formal experimentation, use of long takes, pop music soundtrack, and examination of discomfort and anomie over typical teen sex comedy tropes. It praises the performances, especially Hoffman, Bancroft, and Ross, and Nichols and Surtees' inventive cinematography and editing. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/the-graduate/) - **The New York Times**, Bosley Crowther (90/100, inferred): Crowther hails the film as one of the best of the year and a sharp seriocomic social satire in the vein of Preston Sturges. He singles out its sophisticated wit, excellent performances by Bancroft, Hoffman, and Ross, and first-rate staging and music. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1967/12/22/archives/film-tales-out-of-school-the-graduate-arrives-on-local-screens.html) - **Empire**, Ian Nathan (85/100, inferred): Mike Nichols delivers biting satire on late-60s American values and social dysfunction through a witty script and assured direction; standout performances from Hoffman, Bancroft and Ross, plus Simon & Garfunkel songs, create an enduring, funny and sharply observed classic with an ambiguous ending. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/empire-essay-graduate-review/) - **Little White Lies**, Henry Bevan (80/100, inferred): Mike Nichols’ 1967 film is a great tonic for anyone suffering from post-university blues, creating a touching portrait of anxiety and dislocation from society. The critic singles out the dinner party scene and the metaphor of Ben submerged in the swimming pool for praise. [Read](https://lwlies.com/in-praise-of/the-graduate-dustin-hoffman-growing-up) - **Film Comment**, Richard T. Jameson (70/100, inferred): The film remains a time capsule that captures a pivotal shift in American moviegoing consciousness, making audiences newly aware of cinematic technique through its innovative style and storytelling. It praises the film's visual and editing choices, such as deep-focus setups and seamless transitions between scenes, as groundbreaking and influential. [Read](https://www.filmcomment.com/article/about-mike-nichols/) - **The Hollywood Reporter** (70/100, inferred): The critic calls it a brutally funny look at contemporary youth that is on target for most of its course and will benefit from enthusiastic word of mouth. They praise the adaptation's preservation of the novel's dialogue and Nichols' visual and stylistic approach suited to the subject. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/mike-nichols-early-films-hit-751514/) - **The New Yorker** (70/100, inferred): The review finds the film one of the liveliest gifts of the season thanks to its novelty and substance, with strong performances especially from Hoffman and Bancroft. It faults Nichols' direction for making it more prankish and less savage than the material deserved. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1967/12/30/honorable-failure) - **Variety**, A.D. Murphy (70/100, inferred): Murphy deems it a delightful satirical comedy-drama with strong box-office prospects, crediting the screenplay, cast led by Bancroft, Ross, and Hoffman, and Nichols' modern direction. He notes it works best in its hilarious first two-thirds before faltering in pacing. [Read](https://variety.com/1967/film/reviews/the-graduate-1117791319/) - **The Guardian** (50/100, inferred): The film is not as exciting or groundbreaking as its reputation claims and relies on packaging tricks, but it is very funny. Nichols excels at capturing absurdity and non-communication in the early sections, with strong performances from Hoffman and Bancroft, though it later descends into pretension. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/from-the-archive-blog/2014/nov/21/mike-nichols-the-graduate-review-1968) - **HeyUGuys**, Jack Hawkins (5/5): The review highlights the film's enduring appeal as a zeitgeisty yet timeless satire on suburban expectations and youthful uncertainty, crediting human performances and sharp commentary. It notes the excellent 4K restoration enhances its landmark status across generations. [Read](https://www.heyuguys.com/the-graduate-collectors-edition-studiocanal-4k-uhd-review/) - **Eye for Film**, Angus Wolfe Murray (85/100, inferred): The critic finds the film as fresh and inventive as ever, praising Mike Nichols' direction, the sharp screenplay, and Dustin Hoffman's benchmark anti-hero performance. It singles out the precise editing and memorable satirical performances that capture phony suburban life. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/the-graduate-film-review-by-angus-wolfe-murray) - **Paste**, Kenneth Lowe (65/100, inferred): The critic finds the film still good but dated, with hazy motivations and an unfair portrayal of female characters, especially Mrs. Robinson. He praises its wit, cleverness, and visual storytelling while noting it remains frozen in its 1960s era. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/the-graduate/can-we-still-enjoy-the-graduate-at-50) ## Details - **Director:** Mike Nichols - **Director:** Mike Nichols - **Screenplay:** Calder Willingham, Buck Henry - **Novel:** Charles Webb - **Cinematography:** Robert L. Surtees - **Editor:** Sam O'Steen - **Music:** Art Garfunkel, Paul Simon - **Production design:** Richard Sylbert - **Costume design:** Patricia Zipprodt - **Producer:** Lawrence Turman - **Cast:** Dustin Hoffman as Ben Braddock; Anne Bancroft as Mrs. Robinson; Katharine Ross as Elaine Robinson; William Daniels as Mr. Braddock; Murray Hamilton as Mr. Robinson; Elizabeth Wilson as Mrs. Braddock; Buck Henry as Room Clerk; Brian Avery as Carl Smith - **Runtime:** 1h 47m - **Certificate (MPA):** PG - **Release (the US):** 21 December 1967 - **Genres:** Drama, Romance, Comedy - **Budget:** $3 million - **Box office:** $105 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVNFaxJspMQ ## Where to watch in the US - The Roku Channel: free, hd, leaving 2026-10-01 - Tubi: free, hd, leaving 2026-10-01 - The Roku Channel: add-on, hd *Checked 2026-09-20.* Also available in: AU, FR, GB, IE, NZ, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Academy Awards 1968: Best Actor (nominated); Best Actress (nominated); Best Cinematography (nominated); Best Picture (nominated); Best Supporting Actress (nominated); Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay (nominated); Best Director (won) ## If you liked this - *Harold and Maude* (1971), Fi1m 81: Another lost young man, another older woman; this time the comedy is on his side. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/harold-and-maude.md) - *Billy Liar* (1963): Bradford instead of California, but the same boy who cannot leave and cannot stay. - *The Apartment* (1960), Fi1m 91: Wilder’s comedy of adultery, lifts and loneliness, sadder and tighter than this one. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-apartment.md) - *Rushmore* (1998), Fi1m 83: Anderson borrows the deadpan and the songs and hands them to a schoolboy. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/rushmore.md) - *The Worst Person in the World* (2021): Oslo, thirty years old, still no plan; the drift as seen from her side. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/the-graduate