The Graduate

"This is Benjamin. He’s a little worried about his future."

1967 1h 47m EN

🙌

7.6

BANGER

🍅

87%

FRESH

💯

METACRITIC

⭐

IMDB

★7.6TMDB · 3,834🍅87%Rotten Tomatoes●83Metacritic★8IMDB · 301,414

DramaRomanceComedy

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

A disillusioned college graduate finds himself torn between his older lover and her daughter.

“This is Benjamin. He’s a little worried about his future.”

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Where to watch · US

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Cast

Dustin Hoffman
Ben Braddock
Anne Bancroft
Mrs. Robinson
Katharine Ross
Elaine Robinson
William Daniels
Mr. Braddock
Murray Hamilton
Mr. Robinson
Elizabeth Wilson
Mrs. Braddock
Buck Henry
Room Clerk
Brian Avery
Carl Smith

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Mike Nichols
Writers: Calder Willingham, Buck Henry
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $3.0M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Grossed $105M — a 35.0× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

59 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Mike Nichols, shot by Robert Surtees. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Sam O'Steen shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft and Katharine Ross carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "This is Benjamin. He’s a little worried about his future.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0061722 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Mike Nichols directs. Robert Surtees behind the camera. Sam O'Steen cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Shot for just $3.0M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
2Grossed $105M — a 35.0× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.
359 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
4Directed by Mike Nichols, shot by Robert Surtees. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Editor Sam O'Steen shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft and Katharine Ross carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "This is Benjamin. He’s a little worried about his future.".
8IMDB entry: tt0061722 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Classified under 16 themes, including "love triangle", "seduction", "college", "older woman seduces younger guy".

The technical file

Cinematography: Robert Surtees
Editing: Sam O'Steen
Production design: Richard Sylbert
Costume design: Patricia Zipprodt
Makeup / hair: Harry Maret
Runtime: 107 min · 1h 47m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $3,000,000
Box office: $104,945,305
Return: 3498% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG
IMDB: The Graduate (1967)
Rotten Tomatoes: 87% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 83/100
IMDB rating: 8/10 · 301,414 votes
MPAA: PG

Awards

Won 1 Oscar. 22 wins & 17 nominations total

National Board of Review: Top Ten Films
Academy Award for Best Director

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Mike Nichols

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Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2023-02-10
★ 7/10
Dustin Hoffman is great in this as the impressionable twenty-one year old "Ben" who falls prey to the wiles of the woman immortalised by Simon & Garfunkel. "Mrs Robinson" (Anne Bancroft) is married to the husband of his father's business partner. She is sexy, alluring, sophisticated - and he, well he is just young, naive and horny. Their assignations proceed with few problems but in parallel, his own family are trying to hook him up with her daughter "Elaine" (Katharine Ross). The plot thickens and poor old "Ben" finds him self more and more conflicted, Whom might he choose? Whom might he be allowed to choose? Can their secret stay just that? What, I think, keeps this stylish effort from Mike Nichols relevant fifty-odd years later is it's ability to expose the human, visceral, need for sex, for love, for "more" - without graphically demonstrating it! How characters evolve into more rounded, measured, less "instant" human beings - and Hoffman carries that development role off perfectly. Bancroft is simply a class act. She manages to morph from glamorous wife and mother to seductress and back again with a distinct panache and chic that is both menacing and tantalising in equal measure. You just know that the equilibrium, the balance of power and dependency between the two will change, it has to - but how? That's the question. At what cost - collateral, emotional, personal? The production standards are excellent, the dialogue potent and the chemistry between the initially hapless Hoffman and Bancroft palpable. Of course, a memorable soundtrack helps it along too and if you can see this on a big screen, then it's well worth the effort.
Filipe Manuel Neto2023-10-28
★ 4/10
A good example of a film that was extremely notable in its time, but that is not very relevant today. This film is considered by some to be one of the best that US cinema has given us. It is also the film that catapulted to fame the discreet Dustin Hoffman, one of the most consistent and solid actors of his generation. There is no doubt that he deserved the status, in this and other films that followed. However, considering this film as one of the best ever made in the USA doesn't seem fair to me: the film is satisfactory, it was a huge success at the time and had an impact on pop culture, but it has aged poorly, and today it seems like nothing more than a minor work. The script is, perhaps, the key point to understanding the film: a love triangle between a young man inexperienced with women, a seductive older woman and her young daughter, with whom he falls in love. Released in 1967, in the wake of the Sexual Revolution and a growing challenge to society's values and morals, it is a film with a strong focus on the characters' sexuality and which places women in the role of seductress before a beardless, clumsy male figure. The sexual evocations are discreet in our eyes – we are too used to films with explicit sexual content – but enough to shock and excite people at the time and give the film a huge success at the box office. However, let's be honest: watching the film today, it's forgettable. I understand the impact it had and the way it was viewed, but it has aged poorly and seems somewhat dated, uninteresting and conventional. On the other hand, there is a huge lack of morality, an implicit nihilism that is only rebutted when Hoffman's character fights for love, finding a meaning that goes beyond carnal attraction, even though the story between these two characters seems totally unbelievable. Technically, the film has nothing special, and takes on a conventional aspect as it bets all its chips on the story told and the performance of the cast. There is only extra care in some details, such as the excellent soundtrack, with songs by Simon & Garfunkel, made specifically for the film and which are now known even to those who have never seen it. Dustin Hoffman deserved all the attention he got: he carried the film on his back and wisely took advantage of the opportunity to boost his career. However, he is the only interesting actor in the film. Anne Bancroft fulfills what is required of her, but does not go beyond that, and Katherine Ross is not well used.