trajan
Screenwriter
- Joined
- Jan 1, 2009
- Messages
- 1,198
- Real Name
- lar
Too many of his films are are missing in action on blu. Waiting for CARNAL KNOWLEDGE among others.
A friend of mine in college had a whole theory about why THE GRADUATE became such a phenomenon. Something about the critics wanting to seem hip after initially dismissing the film and then seeing the long lines of college kids for the film and not wanting to miss the boat. (There was a lot of that in the late '60s.) But he was just as critical of the film as you were. I was not a big fan of it either. I wonder how it would have played with the original casting choices, Robert Redford and Doris Day, in the Hoffman/Bancroft parts. (Don't quote me on that--both were considered but maybe not at the same time.)Ejanss said:Sadly, the Graduate and Catch-22 are the reasons I'm NOT a Nichols fan--
Catch-22 was hated by critics at the time for taking Heller's book and turning it into a disconnected series of comedy sketches ("Help the bombadier!" "I am the bombardier!" "Then help him!")
While the Graduate is harmed by the fact that every single character is supposed to be a Symbol of the Troubled Search For 60's Identity, not one thing they do conforms to the patterns of human behavior. We gather that Benjamin is conflicted that Mrs. Robinson has been a trusted friend of his parents, but why a boozy suburban-frustrated middle-aged woman would throw herself at Hoffman's aimless mumbling zombie, and with such unsubtlety that he would normally run out of the room like a shot...
(In fact, it's sort of ironic: All those years growing up in the 70's, I was told I would find the Graduate a life-changing, eye-opening experience when I hit college...And when I did see the movie in college, I felt conflicted that I was alone in just not liking it that much or going with the majority, even though the older generation told me I was supposed to. )
We were just discovering the power of social satire in the troubled LBJ/Nixon days, but we had too many axes to grind to give it any finesse, and it's easy to smell a Mike Nichols-Buck Henry collaboration nowadays....Even "Day of the Dolphin".