Movie · 1967 · Drama, Romance, Comedy · 1h 46m · PG · English
Curator score: 8.7/10 (788.3K ratings)
This is Benjamin. He’s a little worried about his future.
Overview
A disillusioned college graduate finds himself torn between his older lover and her daughter.
Ratings
Curator score: 8.7/10
IMDb: 8.0/10
Letterboxd: 4.10/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 87%
Metacritic: 83
TMDB: 7.6/10
Director
Mike Nichols
Production
AVCO Embassy Pictures, Mike Nichols Productions, Lawrence Turman Productions
Cast
Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, Katharine Ross, Murray Hamilton, William Daniels, Elizabeth Wilson, Buck Henry, Brian Avery, Walter Brooke, Norman Fell, Alice Ghostley, Marion Lorne, Eddra Gale, Frank Baker, George Bruggeman, Garrett Cassell, Buddy Douglas, Richard Dreyfuss, Bob Eubanks, Mike Farrell
Curator Review
Verdict
A sharp, funny, and painfully observant coming-of-age satire about post-college drift, sexual confusion, and the suffocating expectations of adulthood. Its style, performances, and iconic ending still land hard, even if the repeated music and dated social dynamics can feel of their era.
Best for
viewers who like darkly comic relationship dramas
people interested in 1960s New Hollywood
fans of anxious, alienated protagonists
audiences drawn to iconic endings and strong visual storytelling
Skip if
you want straightforward romance
you dislike older films with period-specific gender politics
repetition in soundtrack or motif-driven filmmaking annoys you
you prefer plot-heavy stories over mood and character study
Overview
The Graduate is one of the defining American films about post-college paralysis: a young man with no clear purpose, a world of polished adult hypocrisy around him, and a romance that is equal parts seduction, comedy, and trap. Mike Nichols keeps the tone nimble and cutting, so the movie can be funny in one moment and deeply uneasy the next. That tension is the point: Benjamin’s aimlessness becomes a social diagnosis, not just a personal flaw.
Worth noting
What still stands out is how precisely the film captures discomfort. The framing often makes Benjamin look boxed in or swallowed by the spaces he inhabits, and the performances sharpen the sense that everyone is performing a role. The movie’s satire of suburban respectability is broad enough to be funny, but the emotional undercurrent is real enough to make the final stretch feel urgent rather than merely clever.
Bottom line
It’s also a film of enduring iconography: the music, the poolside imagery, the freeway finale, the last-minute shift from triumph to uncertainty. Some of its sexual politics are very much of the late 1960s, and the repeated use of its signature songs can be overfamiliar from years of imitation. Even so, the film remains a major work of style and nerve, and its ending still feels like a genuine question mark rather than a neat conclusion.
Top Letterboxd reviews
josh (5★) · 15859 likes
i really, really, really loved this but i almost killed myself when Scarborough Fair started playing for the seventh time within ten minutes.
georgina (5★) · 10609 likes
— Do you find me undesirable?
— Oh no, Mrs. Robinson. I think you're the most attractive of all my parents' friends
nick (4★) · 7405 likes
now do you know what a milf is
nico ⛽️ (5★) · 5437 likes
elaine: are you having an affair with someone?
ben: yes
elaine: who?
ben: ur mom lol
elaine: lol
ben: no but seriously
siobhan (4.5★) · 5278 likes
one of the best endings in cinematic history i think