Movie Review - The Graduate (1967)

Film: The Graduate (1967)

I'm not really sure why so many people rate this movie so highly. Perhaps I missed the point?

I'll start with the good parts - I thought it was well filmed and well acted. The use of clever camera angles and strange shots combined with the great Simon and Garfunkel soundtrack were the highlights of the movie. Sadly for this movie, in my view, that does not a good movie make. Beneath all that gloss is a romanticised Jerry Springer-esq story of people with too much time and money who haven't the foresight or sense of what to do with it. It was almost like the characters or script was somehow void of imagination, maybe that was the point but if it was, why would we want to watch it?

By showing us the depths a bored teenager (who must been a joy to be around during his studies) and a bored housewife will go to to be bored with someone else because of the situations they find themselves bored in before realising they're still bored... it's just, well... boring.

I wasn't alone in being underwhelmed. Half way through the movie the other four people I was watching the movie with had become bored by it too (they were also all watching it for the first time) to the point they had given up paying attention to it and merrily chatted away. I probably should have done the same but I tried my best to give it a fair chance.

I think if we'd have been alive and old enough to have seen this movie when it came out in 1967 we might have been more impressed by it, maybe for the novelty value. As children of the 80's however, I think we've been a little more desensitised to this sort of thing - did you see the TV we grew up watching? We were teenagers with Channel 5 on our TVs in our bedrooms. Need I say any more? To summarise; anyone who is shocked enough to care about the story line or who finds the Graduate a master piece for some other reason I'm clueless about, should just be thankful Mr Robinson wasn't 'meeting' both Carl and Ben at the same time whilst also murdering the odd neighbour or two as a coping mechanism to deal with his drug addiction from a prior life of crime that resulted in his witness protection relocation to the suburbs.

Maybe there was a message to do with some deeper meaning to life, love and the issues of growing up (or something) somewhere in there - but if there was, I missed it. I found it to be like watching reality TV without the unintentional comedy or ridiculous moments of revelation that might put you at unease or question yourself.

I think my main thing that disappointed me was that I just felt like I didn't care one way or the other for any of the characters. I tell a lie, I did feel sorry for the passengers and bus driver at the end.

This movie had a plot but a plot all about not a lot, just some dysfunctional wealthy folk swapping body fluids.

Score 4/10

Per the The A.L.I.N.I Movie Review rating scale:
4 = Could have probably done without watching it but meh, it was meh.