The Graduate: DVD, Blu-ray Movie Review (2009)

Few movies compare with “The Graduate” when it comes to communicating the anxiety, dark hilarity and potential misery of one’s first sexual experience.

In 1967, just as the sexual revolution was nearing its bed-shaking peak, the sexually naive Benjamin Braddock brought all of his angst, confusion and bumbling humanity to the screen. For Dustin Hoffman, it was a career-making performance. For our culture, his character defined two separate eras as he grew out of the repression of the past, and into a man reflecting a more sexually free and aggressive time.

The movie features a great performance by Anne Bancroft as Mrs. Robinson, the older woman who seduces Benjamin, a dull, self-centered cur with nothing interesting to offer and who is going nowhere. Still, it's easy to like him because of his naive charm.

It's easy to relate to him because we see in him ghosts of our younger selves--that's the point of the movie, the reason it works. His faults rest in youth, which can be forgiven. Thus, when you watch him onscreen, you have faith that he will emerge into the better, more interesting person he needs to become--if only for the sake of those people who will enter his life in the future.

Rated PG. Grade: B+