Watch this video to learn the untold truth of The Graduate.
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00:00The Graduate has become one of the most important movies of the latter half of the 20th century.
00:06Featuring acclaimed performances from Anne Bancroft and Dustin Hoffman, the movie not
00:10only had a huge impact on the film industry but also American culture.
00:14Here's the untold truth of The Graduate.
00:17Benjamin, played by Dustin Hoffman, is supposed to be seen as a naive young man compared to
00:22Anne Bancroft's mature, seductive housewife character, Mrs. Robinson.
00:27The central taboo of the film is their affair and the age difference between the two, but
00:31in reality, the actors were only six years apart.
00:34Anne Bancroft was 35, playing a woman a decade older than herself, and Hoffman was 29.
00:40According to Vanity Fair, Gene Hackman, who was originally cast in the film as Mr. Robinson,
00:45was fired and replaced with someone older in order to really drive home the age difference
00:50between Benjamin and Mrs. Robinson.
00:53However, director Mike Nichols wasn't bothered by the real-life six-year age difference between
00:57the lead performers in his film.
00:59He told Vanity Fair,
01:00"...both actors seemed to be the ages their characters were."
01:04That's acting.
01:05Hoffman admitted in the same article that he was a neophyte, with The Graduate being
01:09his first lead film role, and that Bancroft was an accomplished actress, so he felt they
01:14had a unique and special relationship with one another.
01:17Hoffman said about Bancroft,
01:18You're either working with the people who are going for the same truth as you are, or
01:22you're not.
01:23She was.
01:24She had a character.
01:26The Graduate would have been an entirely different film if the actors who Nichols originally
01:30intended to work with had been cast into two lead roles.
01:34Many stars auditioned or were approached for the roles of Benjamin and Mrs. Robinson.
01:39Doris Day could have played Mrs. Robinson.
01:41According to Vox, Nichols approached Day, but she turned it down, noting that the part,
01:46quote, "...offended her sense of value."
01:49Robert Redford, who fit the physical description of Benjamin in the eponymous novel the film
01:52was adapting, screen-tested for the part.
01:55Apparently, during the session, Nichols questioned whether the very handsome Redford could convincingly
02:00play a loser who was capable of being rejected by women.
02:03You're very nearly perfect.
02:05It's a rotten thing to say.
02:09By the mid-1960s, Anne Bancroft had garnered a reputation as a serious film and stage actress
02:15who was known for playing acclaimed roles.
02:17Take her award-winning turn as blind Helen Keller tutor Annie Sullivan in The Miracle
02:22Worker.
02:23Many were concerned that the racy, controversial role of Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate might
02:28ruin her career.
02:29Nichols told Vanity Fair,
02:31"...everyone cautioned her to turn it down.
02:33How can you go from the saintly Annie Sullivan to the Medusa-like Mrs. Robinson?
02:38Too risky."
02:39It's hard to imagine by today's standards that this type of role would legitimately
02:44concern an actress about her future career prospects.
02:47Then again, The Graduate was made just on the cusp of the beginnings of the sexual revolution.
02:53Anne Bancroft's husband, Mel Brooks, convinced her to do the film.
02:57Brooks reportedly liked the script and had worked with its screenwriter in the past.
03:01She followed his gut instinct, and in the end, Anne nabbed a Best Actress Oscar nomination
03:06for her performance.
03:07Despite the accolades she received for the role, Bancroft admitted to being resentful
03:12of only becoming known as Mrs. Robinson for the rest of her career, and told the LA Times
03:17in 1997,
03:18"...I'm still trying to get away from it."
03:21"...It's enough."
03:25Before such classic comedies as Spaceballs and Blazing Saddles, there was The Producers.
03:30Mel Brooks' freshman film broke comedic boundaries, satirized the Nazis, and was a wildly popular
03:36movie that eventually became a successful musical and won Brooks an Oscar for Best Original
03:40Screenplay.
03:42Before The Graduate, Hoffman had a few minor roles under his belt.
03:46According to IndieWire, Brooks approached Hoffman to be in The Producers, and the young
03:49actor originally said yes to playing the fanatical Hitler supporter Franz Liebkind.
03:55However, Hoffman also asked Brooks' permission to audition for The Graduate.
03:59Brooks agreed, as he was aware of the script, considering that his wife, Anne Bancroft,
04:04was already slated to star in it.
04:06Plus, he didn't think Hoffman stood a chance of getting the role.
04:09Brooks said,
04:11This big break made Hoffman instantly famous, and propelled him down a path to becoming
04:23one of the most acclaimed dramatic actors of his generation.
04:27Based on a low-selling, virtually unknown 1963 novel of the same name by Charles Webb,
04:33the rights to The Graduate weren't on Hollywood's radar.
04:36Nichols was still a very green director at this point.
04:39An actor-turned-writer Buck Henry had no screenwriting experience.
04:43The film was also notoriously difficult to cast.
04:46Despite all the challenges, the movie was acquired for a very low price and financed
04:50by Embassy Pictures.
04:52The first screenings of the initial cut didn't impress executives, either.
04:55They especially didn't like Nichols' choice for the leading man.
04:59Much to everyone's surprise, however, the obscure, low-budget indie with an unknown
05:03star was a runaway hit.
05:05It even included one of the greatest quotes in movie history.
05:08Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me, aren't you?"
05:15Hollis Alpert, a film critic at the time, recalls the public's reaction to the movie
05:20in The Guardian.
05:21"[Lines extended around the corner all the way down the block, except that the people
05:25waiting for the next showing were not family groups but mostly young people in their teens
05:29and early twenties.
05:30It was as though they all knew they were going to see something good, something made for
05:34them."
05:35Dustin Hoffman was the physical opposite of the book's lead character, Benjamin Braddock,
05:40who looked more like Nichols' first choice, Robert Redford.
05:43The character is described in the book and screenplay as tall and handsome.
05:47Other hugely popular actors, such as Steve McQueen and Warren Beatty, were also being
05:52considered.
05:53Not only was Hoffman not the right physical type, but he nearly blew his audition and
05:57even told Nichols he didn't think he was right for the part.
06:00When Nichols decided to cast him, it would shift the culture in Hollywood.
06:04Screenwriter Buck Henry says in Vanity Fair,
06:06"...a whole generation changed its idea of what guys should look like.
06:10I think Dustin's physical being brought a sort of social and visual change."
06:15The infamous, highly dramatic church scene of The Graduate was inspired by Harold Lloyd's
06:201924 classic silent comedy Girl Shy.
06:23The film is about a shy tailor's apprentice with a stutter who rushes to save the girl
06:28he loves from getting married to a bigamist.
06:30Nichols was inspired by the film's climactic race-to-rescue sequence.
06:35While filming The Graduate's wedding scene inside a United Methodist church in California,
06:39many bizarre complications arose.
06:41Apparently, the heat was unbearable, and there were so many people crowded together on the
06:45set that Bancroft fainted at one point.
06:49According to the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, Hoffman nearly passed out as well.
06:53But the strangest moment came when Hoffman's character is banging on the balcony glass
06:57to get Elaine's attention, who is about to get married below him.
07:01He and the cast and crew nearly got thrown out of the church by the pastor, Donald Woods.
07:07Hoffman says in an interview included in the 2015 DVD release,
07:10"...in the middle of a take, I hear screaming, and it's the Reverend, and he's screaming,
07:15stop, stop, everybody out, that's it, everybody out."
07:18Apparently, the glass window Hoffman had been banging on was precious and irreplaceable,
07:24which is why Hoffman taps on the window with his palms instead of banging with his fists
07:28in the final cut.
07:30Much like the 1960s shook up American sociopolitical culture, The Graduate was the very definition
07:36of a late-60s film controversial, at times taboo, breaking from convention, and grappling
07:42with themes such as youth disillusionment and questioning societal norms.
07:47Politico points out that if the film had come out prior to 1967, it might have been dismissed
07:52as, quote, "...cultural slander."
07:54The Graduate came out the same year as the rebellious romantic caper film Bonnie and
07:58Clyde, and the critically acclaimed Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.
08:02But Benjamin isn't exactly a counterculture hippie rebelling against society, as one might
08:07expect from a youth-centric film of this time.
08:09In fact, he's a bit of a square.
08:11But the events that unfold due to decisions he makes along the way conclude in a sort
08:16of symbolic character arc that pushes him to his breaking point.
08:20As the final scene implies, he makes a conscious decision to ignore society's rules and attempts
08:25to grasp at a life of free will.
08:27As film historian Mark Harris states in Smithsonian Magazine's 50-year anniversary review, before
08:33The Graduate was released, the studios believed, quote, "...everything should appeal to everyone."
08:37After dissecting what made the film so successful, executives came to the realization that almost
08:42half their paying audience was under 24.
08:45Why does The Graduate still resonate so strongly with movie audiences to this day?
08:50It may be that its themes of questioning institutions, including marriage, higher education, and
08:55capitalist models, are all too applicable now.
08:59Inside Higher Ed makes the argument that the film is, quote, "...an emblem of youth alienation
09:04in post-war America."
09:05After all, one of the most memorable exchanges of dialogue is when a family friend of Benjamin's
09:10parents gives him a simple word of advice that concerns his future.
09:14"...Just one word."
09:16"...Yes, sir?"
09:17"...Are you listening?"
09:18"...Yes, I am."
09:19"...Plastics."
09:20It's a not-so-subtle allegory of the generational gap and the growing distaste for consumer culture
09:29and entering the adult world.
09:31Reviews in 1967, like one by New York Times critic Bosley Crowther, praised the film,
09:36calling it,
09:37"...one of the best serio-comic social satires we've had from Hollywood."
09:41Walking the line between tragic comedy and political satire may have put the film a bit
09:46ahead of its time, seeming more novel to its audience than it would today.
09:50But history repeats itself, and the themes of The Graduate certainly still hold significance
09:54in the 2020s.
09:56Nichols approached Paul Simon to write three original songs for the film.
10:00However, one track that wasn't meant for the film made the cut.
10:03Originally, the first line to the famous Mrs. Robinson tune was,
10:06"...here's to you, Mrs. Roosevelt."
10:09In a Variety article, Nichols reminisces on the song's conception.
10:12He said that Simon told him,
10:14"...it's a song about time's past.
10:16About Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt and Joe DiMaggio and stuff."
10:19Nichols replied to him, quote,
10:20"...it's now about Mrs. Robinson, not Mrs. Roosevelt."
10:24Though the song became famously tied to the film, only a small portion of the chorus of
10:28the song actually makes the cut of the movie, which leads to speculation that the song wasn't
10:33even completed until after the film came out.
10:36Mrs. Robinson became one of the most famous movie songs in film history and was also a
10:40number one hit, along with the soundtrack album which was released in 1968.
10:45Due to the film's popularity, the fairly obscure New York folk duo gained an entirely new audience.
10:51The track also appeared on Simon and Garfunkel's next studio album, Bookends, and became one
10:55of their most successful and beloved songs.
10:58A walking tour entitled The Story of the Graduate Movie is given at UC Berkeley's campus.
11:04It's taking fans of the film through its many backdrops and locations around town.
11:09Stops on the tour include Ben's boarding house, an old Victorian building on campus, the famous
11:14Moe's Books, where Ben stalks Elaine, and the Cafe Mediterranean, where he keeps an
11:19eye on the bookstore across the street.
11:21Other locations on the tour include the Theta Delta Chi fraternity house and Sproul Plaza.
11:27The tour is guided by former Berkeley Historical Society president Steve Bienicom.
11:33He spoke to the Arizona Republic about the tours and why they're so popular, saying,
11:36"...I think people are interested in seeing places from history, even fictional history.
11:41The 60s has a hold on the imagination.
11:44Berkeley did really capture the attention of the nation in that era."
11:47The same can be said of The Graduate, as the film continues to reverberate through popular
11:52culture and capture the attention of viewers today as much as it did in 1967.