The Graduate

1) Relate what was discussed in class or the text to the screening.

The Graduate, was directed by Mike Nichols and written by Buck Henry and Calder Willingham in 1967. This film grossed about $60 Million at the box office and was nominated and won a great amount of Academy Awards that year. The Graduate was Dustin Hoffman's first starring role which he was nominated for Best Actor. Hoffman's character in the film was about a college graduate named Ben Braddock. After coming home from his last year away at college, Ben, just like everyone other college student, does not really know what he wants to do after graduating. Ben's biggest concerned is with his future and what he now wants to do. College track star, Ben starts off the movie being a very clean cut fellow; he does not drink, smoke or party. In class, we discussed that once Ben is seduced by his neighborhood wife, Ms. Robinson, his ways and mannerisms change quickly. In result of his love affair with Mrs. Robinson, he starts drinking, smoking and worrying his parents by staying out all night and or not even coming home the next day. 

2)  Find a related article and summarize the content.

http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/patc/graduate/
This article explains how reconizeable and loved this movie still is today. From the soundtrack to the people in the movie, it has launched careers for a great amount of people who starred and made this film even possible.  The music being played thoughtout the entire film was all from Simon & Garfunkel. The whole cast for the film was oringally going to be complety different. At first, just like the book, the characters were suppose to have a blonde hair type. The film ended up having about all brunette characters "ethnic- looking family."

3) Apply the article to the film screened in class. How did the article support or change the way you thought about the film, director, content, etc.?

This article has changed my thought only a little bit. Comparing todays film censoring and before 1967, there is definitly a big difference. Just like the article said the generation then really needed something, or a movie, to make a big impact to relate too and the Graduate does just that. It was amazing to read the article when they were talking about the sexual content in it and how they would discuss doing the leg scene. The director talked about filiming Ms. Robinson's leg scene. He said, "We talked about it being a jungle, and it was a jungle. There were all these plants and the Beverly Hills garden behind the glass that surrounded the sun porch. And we talked about her being the tiger in the jungle and she had a tiger-striped dress on and it was all built to be a trap, a tender trap. We wanted to find a way to express the fact that she was being provocative... And there was her leg and it was up and it seemed logical."

4) Write a critical analysis of the film, including  your personal opinion, formed as a result of the screening, class discussions, text material and the article. 

I think that this film did a great job with choosing the role for the movie. Orignally the role of Ben was suppose to be given to Robert Reddford but unlike Ben's character, Robert was just too good looking to play the part. As the film progresses thought the movie the music plays a major part with it. As he is enjoying his break in the summer the background music of Simon & Garfunkel plays creating the characters true mood. Just like we learned in class, the music played by the musical duo created the sequence of the story. 

 Checklist for Plagiarism  

(x) I have not handed in this assignment for any other class.

(x) If I reused any information from other papers I have written for other classes,

 I clearly explain that in the paper.

(x) If I used any passages word for word, I put quotations around those words,

 or used indentation and citation within the text.

(x) I have not padded the bibliography. I have used all sources cited 

in the bibliography in the text of the paper.

(x) I have cited in the bibliography only the pages I personally read.

(x) I have used direct quotations only in cases where it could not be 

stated in another way. I cited the source within the paper and in the bibliography.

(x) I did not so over-use direct quotations that the paper 

lacks interpretation or originality.

(x) I checked yes on steps 1-7 and therefore have been fully 

transparent about the research and ideas used in my paper.

Colleen McGovern

December 5, 2013