1 00:00:05,000 --> 00:00:07,720 The Sound of Silence 2 00:00:07,760 --> 00:00:12,000 3 00:00:12,040 --> 00:00:16,200 4 00:00:16,239 --> 00:00:20,840 5 00:00:20,880 --> 00:00:25,280 while I was sleeping... 6 00:00:25,320 --> 00:00:27,800 The year is 1967, 7 00:00:27,840 --> 00:00:30,400 the city is Los Angeles, 8 00:00:30,440 --> 00:00:33,600 and floating on a sky-blue pool 9 00:00:33,640 --> 00:00:36,960 is a young man named Benjamin Braddock. 10 00:00:37,000 --> 00:00:39,440 He has returned home from college 11 00:00:39,480 --> 00:00:42,240 with no idea what he wants from the future, 12 00:00:42,280 --> 00:00:44,280 or indeed the present. 13 00:00:44,320 --> 00:00:47,680 He is a lost soul, adrift on his parents' wealth, 14 00:00:47,720 --> 00:00:50,760 and played by an oddly-built unknown 15 00:00:50,800 --> 00:00:52,760 named Dustin Hoffman. 16 00:00:53,720 --> 00:00:56,760 Mrs Robinson, you're trying to seduce me. 17 00:00:56,800 --> 00:00:58,160 (GIGGLES) 18 00:00:59,520 --> 00:01:01,320 Aren't you? 19 00:01:01,360 --> 00:01:03,760 Well, no, I hadn't thought of it. 20 00:01:04,440 --> 00:01:07,840 How would you say The Graduate defined an era? 21 00:01:08,640 --> 00:01:11,560 It re-defined an era, really. 22 00:01:11,600 --> 00:01:16,080 When you think of the youth films of the 1960s, 23 00:01:16,120 --> 00:01:19,120 a young America thought it could do anything... 24 00:01:19,160 --> 00:01:22,200 and snubs to the older generation. 25 00:01:22,240 --> 00:01:26,440 And here comes a film which suggests the exact opposite. 26 00:01:26,480 --> 00:01:30,160 Here's young Dustin Hoffman. 27 00:01:31,440 --> 00:01:35,240 He's a college-educated middle-class lad 28 00:01:35,280 --> 00:01:37,479 with everything in his favour. 29 00:01:37,520 --> 00:01:40,160 He could get a good job just like that, 30 00:01:40,200 --> 00:01:42,680 but he doesn't know what he wants. 31 00:01:42,720 --> 00:01:47,120 He doesn't know anything about anything. 32 00:01:47,160 --> 00:01:51,640 He's completely doubtful about his life, 33 00:01:51,680 --> 00:01:56,000 compared to the hippies' 1960s, the earlier 1960s, 34 00:01:56,039 --> 00:01:58,600 it's a completely different outlook. 35 00:01:59,440 --> 00:02:01,400 (EXHALES) 36 00:02:01,440 --> 00:02:03,880 (WATER SPLASHES) 37 00:02:10,400 --> 00:02:12,640 The Graduate defined an era. 38 00:02:12,680 --> 00:02:14,280 But more than that, 39 00:02:14,320 --> 00:02:18,560 it turned a caustic eye on an increasingly divided America: 40 00:02:18,600 --> 00:02:22,680 by wealth, by age, by sensibility. 41 00:02:22,720 --> 00:02:26,600 With its shimmering melancholy and bittersweet humour, 42 00:02:26,640 --> 00:02:30,520 it landed firmly into a generation 43 00:02:30,560 --> 00:02:33,079 and reflected that generation. 44 00:02:33,120 --> 00:02:34,640 (THE SOUND OF SILENCE CONTINUES) 45 00:02:34,680 --> 00:02:38,000 its warning 46 00:02:38,040 --> 00:02:42,000 47 00:02:42,040 --> 00:02:43,600 48 00:02:43,640 --> 00:02:49,600 are written on the subway walls 49 00:02:49,640 --> 00:02:52,480 50 00:02:52,520 --> 00:02:57,160 51 00:02:57,200 --> 00:02:58,960 52 00:03:01,560 --> 00:03:03,160 (SONG ENDS) 53 00:03:04,800 --> 00:03:06,640 TV: "Recently, the March Of Time 54 00:03:06,680 --> 00:03:11,000 "conducted an extensive survey of North Carolina's class of '49. 55 00:03:11,040 --> 00:03:14,040 "They are men and women with a deeply felt appreciation 56 00:03:14,080 --> 00:03:16,840 "of the blessings our society has afforded them. 57 00:03:16,880 --> 00:03:21,160 "In our March Of Time Survey, they agree almost unanimously 58 00:03:21,200 --> 00:03:24,840 "that they have attained the goal set for themselves in college. 59 00:03:24,880 --> 00:03:28,400 "Only one graduate expressed dissatisfaction with life." 60 00:03:29,320 --> 00:03:33,960 "The class of '49 has made its dream of material security come true. 61 00:03:34,840 --> 00:03:38,560 "And this insular contentment, for better or worse, 62 00:03:38,600 --> 00:03:42,440 "is finding its reflection in American society today." 63 00:03:45,840 --> 00:03:47,880 Is anything wrong? No, no. 64 00:03:47,920 --> 00:03:51,240 We're just on our way downstairs. The Carlsons are here. 65 00:03:51,280 --> 00:03:53,240 They are? Well, come on. 66 00:03:53,280 --> 00:03:55,240 They came all the way from Tarzana. 67 00:03:56,280 --> 00:03:58,000 Come on, let's get cracking. 68 00:03:58,040 --> 00:04:01,240 It's a wonderful thing to have so many devoted friends. 69 00:04:02,520 --> 00:04:04,080 The astonishing script 70 00:04:04,120 --> 00:04:06,800 was by comedian-turned-screenwriter Buck Henry, 71 00:04:06,840 --> 00:04:09,840 who had unlocked the best seller on which it was based. 72 00:04:09,880 --> 00:04:12,520 Behind the camera was comedian-turned-director 73 00:04:12,560 --> 00:04:14,040 Mike Nichols, 74 00:04:14,080 --> 00:04:15,880 making only his second film. 75 00:04:15,920 --> 00:04:19,200 Together, actors, writer, and director 76 00:04:19,240 --> 00:04:21,399 captured an elusive mood 77 00:04:21,440 --> 00:04:23,440 like sunlight on a swimming pool. 78 00:04:23,480 --> 00:04:26,760 At once very funny, even farcical, 79 00:04:26,800 --> 00:04:29,080 but tinged in despair. 80 00:04:29,120 --> 00:04:32,640 A symphony of embarrassments and heartbreak 81 00:04:32,680 --> 00:04:35,400 that revolutionised Hollywood. 82 00:04:35,440 --> 00:04:37,920 It was called The Graduate. 83 00:04:39,120 --> 00:04:43,880 In 1963, Charles Webb wrote a book called The Graduate. 84 00:04:45,040 --> 00:04:47,159 He'd been at an East Coast university 85 00:04:47,200 --> 00:04:48,840 and at the age of 24, 86 00:04:48,880 --> 00:04:51,880 he decided to put all of his experiences 87 00:04:51,920 --> 00:04:53,920 in the Californian lifestyle. 88 00:04:53,960 --> 00:04:55,800 He really really wanted to, sort of, 89 00:04:55,840 --> 00:05:00,520 exorcise his feelings about his life. 90 00:05:00,560 --> 00:05:04,160 Charles Webb's novel The Graduate was almost an autobiography. 91 00:05:04,200 --> 00:05:08,200 He'd grown up on the West Coast. He'd been blonde, tall, sun-tanned. 92 00:05:08,240 --> 00:05:09,920 His parents had a swimming pool 93 00:05:09,960 --> 00:05:12,240 and when he moved east to university, 94 00:05:12,280 --> 00:05:14,640 he very much rejected that lifestyle. 95 00:05:14,680 --> 00:05:18,320 He found it repellent, and he wrote a book which really attacked 96 00:05:18,360 --> 00:05:20,920 everything that he'd known growing up. 97 00:05:20,960 --> 00:05:23,680 There was, he said, no Mrs Robinson, 98 00:05:23,720 --> 00:05:25,760 that had been an invention of his. 99 00:05:25,800 --> 00:05:29,520 His real problem was the conformity of the Californian existence. 100 00:05:29,560 --> 00:05:32,760 This idea that everybody lived this very conformist, 101 00:05:32,800 --> 00:05:34,960 very smartly dressed... 102 00:05:35,000 --> 00:05:38,120 With cocktail parties where no one said anything of any meaning, 103 00:05:38,159 --> 00:05:42,080 and everyone thought their kids ought to go into some kind of great future. 104 00:05:42,120 --> 00:05:44,680 He was particularly appalled by his parents 105 00:05:44,720 --> 00:05:47,960 and their friends' existence, which he saw as very zombie-like, 106 00:05:48,000 --> 00:05:50,800 this endless round of socialising and work 107 00:05:50,840 --> 00:05:54,200 that he really wanted no part of. He wanted to get off that carousel. 108 00:05:54,240 --> 00:05:56,080 The journey to a phenomenon 109 00:05:56,120 --> 00:06:00,600 begins with a young, untested producer named Lawrence Turman 110 00:06:00,640 --> 00:06:04,280 who had read the novel and thought, "This is about me." 111 00:06:04,320 --> 00:06:07,840 There are also two images that stuck in his mind: 112 00:06:07,880 --> 00:06:10,320 a boy in a scuba suit 113 00:06:10,360 --> 00:06:12,440 trapped at the bottom of a swimming pool, 114 00:06:12,480 --> 00:06:16,600 and that same boy on a bus with a girl in a wedding dress. 115 00:06:16,640 --> 00:06:19,840 Two images that will be seen in the final film. 116 00:06:19,880 --> 00:06:21,840 He didn't have a lot of money to work with. 117 00:06:21,880 --> 00:06:23,880 But with his shoestring budget, 118 00:06:23,920 --> 00:06:26,560 he managed to option the rights to The Graduate 119 00:06:26,600 --> 00:06:30,240 after reading a sort of mixed review of it in the New York Times. 120 00:06:30,280 --> 00:06:32,800 But it captured his interest, he picked up the book 121 00:06:32,840 --> 00:06:35,440 and he optioned it for only one thousand dollars 122 00:06:35,480 --> 00:06:38,440 because no one else really wanted the book. 123 00:06:38,480 --> 00:06:41,800 And so began the fairly long and arduous process 124 00:06:41,840 --> 00:06:45,680 of getting The Graduate from a novel to the screen. 125 00:06:45,720 --> 00:06:47,440 On a hunch, 126 00:06:47,480 --> 00:06:51,640 he sought out the 33-year-old theatrical director Mike Nichols, 127 00:06:51,680 --> 00:06:54,440 who was growing increasingly interested in the movies. 128 00:06:54,480 --> 00:06:56,120 In Broadway circles, 129 00:06:56,159 --> 00:07:01,640 Nichols was famed for sending up a particular brand of American anxiety. 130 00:07:01,680 --> 00:07:04,920 On a hunch, Mike Nichols turned to Buck Henry, 131 00:07:04,960 --> 00:07:09,400 co-creator of TV's Get Smart to write a screenplay. 132 00:07:09,440 --> 00:07:11,480 He was concerned about getting a screenwriter 133 00:07:11,520 --> 00:07:14,760 that could do the job on the script fairly quickly and easily. 134 00:07:14,800 --> 00:07:16,600 He wasn't even thinking about actors yet, 135 00:07:16,640 --> 00:07:20,320 but he needed to attach somebody appealing to this package. 136 00:07:20,360 --> 00:07:23,640 Even with Mike Nichols on board, 137 00:07:23,680 --> 00:07:27,360 a director who was so popular and fairly well-known in showbiz, 138 00:07:27,400 --> 00:07:30,360 he just simply could not seem to sell it to a studio. 139 00:07:30,400 --> 00:07:33,760 They almost all turned him down. They didn't find it funny. 140 00:07:33,800 --> 00:07:36,800 Execs said they didn't understand what was comedic about the script, 141 00:07:36,840 --> 00:07:39,040 I think probably because it was so deadpan. 142 00:07:39,080 --> 00:07:41,320 It just failed to connect 143 00:07:41,360 --> 00:07:44,880 to a often financially floundering movie business 144 00:07:44,920 --> 00:07:48,280 that was in the market largely to make big comedies, 145 00:07:48,320 --> 00:07:50,640 big musicals, big war films. 146 00:07:50,680 --> 00:07:53,040 People just didn't seem to get it. 147 00:07:53,080 --> 00:07:55,280 Why do you think Mike Nichols was the right man? 148 00:07:55,320 --> 00:07:56,960 He'd come from Broadway, hadn't he? 149 00:07:57,000 --> 00:08:00,200 Why do you think he was the perfect director?Well... 150 00:08:00,240 --> 00:08:02,440 He turned out to be the perfect director, 151 00:08:02,480 --> 00:08:04,560 but there was a great deal of doubt. 152 00:08:04,600 --> 00:08:07,840 Some of them hated the book, of course.Yeah. 153 00:08:07,880 --> 00:08:10,080 And they hated the piece of theatre, 154 00:08:10,120 --> 00:08:12,440 so they wouldn't entertain the film at all. 155 00:08:12,480 --> 00:08:15,480 And then they said, "Who is this Mike Nichols anyway? 156 00:08:15,520 --> 00:08:19,680 "He's never done anything much, except in the theatre." 157 00:08:19,720 --> 00:08:21,240 It's a great risk. 158 00:08:21,280 --> 00:08:25,240 So it was a very difficult film to make. 159 00:08:25,280 --> 00:08:28,320 MRS BRADDOCK: Here's Ben. Excuse me, just a minute. 160 00:08:29,720 --> 00:08:32,760 Listen, everybody. I want you all to be quiet. 161 00:08:32,799 --> 00:08:34,720 I've got Ben's college yearbook here 162 00:08:34,760 --> 00:08:38,400 and I just want to read you some of the wonderful things about Ben. 163 00:08:38,440 --> 00:08:40,120 Be quiet, please! 164 00:08:41,039 --> 00:08:44,159 Captain of the cross-country team, head of the debating club, 165 00:08:44,200 --> 00:08:47,760 associate editor of the college newspaper in his junior year 166 00:08:47,800 --> 00:08:50,080 managing editor in his senior. 167 00:08:50,120 --> 00:08:52,800 To me, The Graduate is a film about... 168 00:08:52,840 --> 00:08:54,520 It's about the generation gap, 169 00:08:54,560 --> 00:08:57,600 but it's really about someone who's just trying to find their own way 170 00:08:57,640 --> 00:08:59,320 and they don't want to be pressurised 171 00:08:59,360 --> 00:09:02,600 by the values of their parents almost. 172 00:09:02,640 --> 00:09:04,360 But it's not a dropout movie. 173 00:09:04,400 --> 00:09:06,800 It's not about someone who's going to go to Woodstock 174 00:09:06,840 --> 00:09:08,760 and lead a totally alternative lifestyle. 175 00:09:08,800 --> 00:09:11,760 It's about someone who's within the middle class, essentially. 176 00:09:11,800 --> 00:09:14,840 You know, it's in Pasadena, in a suburb of Los Angeles. 177 00:09:14,880 --> 00:09:18,760 He's just rootless and he is trying to find his way. 178 00:09:18,800 --> 00:09:21,000 (FISH TANK BUBBLES) 179 00:09:21,040 --> 00:09:24,240 Oh, I guess this isn't the bathroom, is it? 180 00:09:24,920 --> 00:09:27,400 It's, uh, down the hall. 181 00:09:27,440 --> 00:09:30,400 How are you, Benjamin? Fine, thank you, Mrs Robinson. 182 00:09:30,440 --> 00:09:33,880 The, uh, bathroom's down at the end of the hall. 183 00:09:34,560 --> 00:09:36,480 Such a pleasant room. 184 00:09:36,520 --> 00:09:39,160 Eventually, the only producer he could get interested, 185 00:09:39,200 --> 00:09:40,840 after two years of trying, 186 00:09:40,880 --> 00:09:43,000 was a producer called Joseph E Levine 187 00:09:43,040 --> 00:09:44,840 who was known as a schlock-meister, 188 00:09:44,880 --> 00:09:48,760 by which they meant that he would buy European over-the-top films 189 00:09:48,800 --> 00:09:51,320 like Hercules, he would put his own name over the top of it, 190 00:09:51,360 --> 00:09:55,160 he would market the hell out of it, do an over-dubbed version 191 00:09:55,200 --> 00:09:57,440 and make a lot of money out of a cheap purchase. 192 00:09:57,480 --> 00:09:59,920 He was gradually, with his company Embassy Pictures, 193 00:09:59,960 --> 00:10:01,800 trying to move into a more respectable... 194 00:10:01,840 --> 00:10:03,360 actually making the films, 195 00:10:03,400 --> 00:10:06,480 not just buying European celluloid and selling it on. 196 00:10:06,520 --> 00:10:08,400 So he wanted to start investing, 197 00:10:08,440 --> 00:10:12,160 and he knew that the director Mike Nichols had cache. 198 00:10:12,200 --> 00:10:16,160 All three of them, producer, writer, and director, 199 00:10:16,200 --> 00:10:18,440 thought of the material in the same way. 200 00:10:18,480 --> 00:10:21,280 They all saw themselves as Benjamin Braddock. 201 00:10:21,320 --> 00:10:24,000 That was the point that Hollywood missed. 202 00:10:24,040 --> 00:10:25,640 In 1967, 203 00:10:25,680 --> 00:10:27,640 this alienated graduate, 204 00:10:27,680 --> 00:10:31,680 locked in his own head, spoke to a generation. 205 00:10:38,680 --> 00:10:40,360 Will you come in, please? 206 00:10:40,400 --> 00:10:41,720 What? 207 00:10:41,760 --> 00:10:44,640 I'd like you to come in until I get the lights on.What for? 208 00:10:44,680 --> 00:10:47,400 Because I don't feel safe till I get the lights on. 209 00:10:58,840 --> 00:11:02,600 (PIANO MUSIC) 210 00:11:02,640 --> 00:11:05,040 May I ask you a question? 211 00:11:06,920 --> 00:11:08,560 What do you think of me? 212 00:11:08,600 --> 00:11:10,200 What do you mean? 213 00:11:10,240 --> 00:11:11,920 You've known me nearly all your life. 214 00:11:11,960 --> 00:11:14,640 You must have formed some opinion of me. 215 00:11:14,680 --> 00:11:17,960 Well, I always thought that you were a very nice person. 216 00:11:20,200 --> 00:11:22,000 Did you know I was an alcoholic? 217 00:11:24,880 --> 00:11:28,640 On the page, Benjamin was a golden boy Californian. 218 00:11:28,680 --> 00:11:33,080 The writer, Charles Webb, was fair-haired and six-foot plus. 219 00:11:33,120 --> 00:11:35,600 Everyone agreed, including Nichols, 220 00:11:35,640 --> 00:11:38,120 that he had to be played by Robert Redford. 221 00:11:38,160 --> 00:11:40,000 So a meeting was arranged, 222 00:11:40,040 --> 00:11:43,680 and Nichols knew straight away that he wasn't right for the part. 223 00:11:43,720 --> 00:11:45,680 He could never play a loser. 224 00:11:45,720 --> 00:11:49,280 So the search began for the perfect loser. 225 00:11:49,320 --> 00:11:51,440 Enter Dustin Hoffman, 226 00:11:51,480 --> 00:11:54,800 10 years into a faltering New York stage career, 227 00:11:54,840 --> 00:11:57,200 feeling certain the movies are not for him. 228 00:11:57,240 --> 00:11:59,960 And then to cast... 229 00:12:00,000 --> 00:12:03,360 Dustin Hoffman is... How absurd? 230 00:12:03,400 --> 00:12:07,280 Dustin Hoffman was 30 at the time. Yes. 231 00:12:07,320 --> 00:12:10,680 And it was odd casting because he's too old, 232 00:12:10,720 --> 00:12:12,720 and she's too young really. 233 00:12:12,760 --> 00:12:16,400 But Nichols saw something in the chemistry between them, didn't he? 234 00:12:16,440 --> 00:12:19,880 He sensed the actors could achieve what he wanted from them. 235 00:12:19,920 --> 00:12:21,600 Oh, yes, he did in the end. 236 00:12:21,640 --> 00:12:24,360 I mean, it was astonishing. 237 00:12:24,400 --> 00:12:26,600 Doris Day was asked to do it, 238 00:12:26,640 --> 00:12:28,720 Jeanne Moreau was asked to do it, 239 00:12:28,760 --> 00:12:31,000 Half of Hollywood was asked to do it. 240 00:12:31,040 --> 00:12:33,040 (SOPHISTICATED ORCHESTRAL MUSIC) 241 00:12:33,080 --> 00:12:34,560 TV: "In Acapulco, 242 00:12:34,600 --> 00:12:37,640 "a lavish dinner party attracts a wide variety of celebrities, 243 00:12:37,680 --> 00:12:41,440 "including Lynda Bird Johnson and her actor friend George Hamilton. 244 00:12:41,480 --> 00:12:44,160 "Film star John Wayne enjoys the festivities, 245 00:12:44,200 --> 00:12:47,360 "while Mexican movie actress Dolores del Rio and her husband 246 00:12:47,400 --> 00:12:49,240 "are also among the famous guests. 247 00:12:51,760 --> 00:12:53,560 "Lynda and George refuse to comment 248 00:12:53,600 --> 00:12:55,680 "on speculation about a future wedding, 249 00:12:55,720 --> 00:12:59,360 "while they spent the gay evening as almost constant dancing partners. 250 00:12:59,400 --> 00:13:02,760 "A request to have the press barred from the party was refused." 251 00:13:02,800 --> 00:13:06,960 Mike Nichols met Buck Henry at a party thrown by Jane Fonda. 252 00:13:07,000 --> 00:13:09,440 This was a fascinating mix of people 253 00:13:09,480 --> 00:13:13,680 because in one room there was older generation Hollywood royalty, 254 00:13:13,720 --> 00:13:16,040 and the other half was the younger generation, 255 00:13:16,080 --> 00:13:18,440 represented by Jane and her brother 256 00:13:18,480 --> 00:13:20,960 and an all the people that they liked. 257 00:13:21,000 --> 00:13:23,960 So it was a very, very interesting mix, 258 00:13:24,000 --> 00:13:25,880 completely cross-generational. 259 00:13:25,920 --> 00:13:29,120 Mike Nichols really enjoyed his improvisational style. 260 00:13:29,160 --> 00:13:30,680 They riffed together at the party. 261 00:13:30,720 --> 00:13:33,080 They really enjoyed each other's company, and he thought, 262 00:13:33,120 --> 00:13:36,080 "This guy can deliver the character of Benjamin Braddock." 263 00:13:36,120 --> 00:13:37,840 He could see in him 264 00:13:37,880 --> 00:13:40,880 the same sense of being Benjamin Braddock 265 00:13:40,920 --> 00:13:44,320 that Mike Nichols had first responded to in The Graduate. 266 00:13:44,360 --> 00:13:48,520 Robert Redford was very keen to play the part of Benjamin Braddock 267 00:13:48,560 --> 00:13:52,760 and he had negotiation talks with Mike Nichols. 268 00:13:52,800 --> 00:13:55,560 Of course, they'd worked together on Barefoot in the Park, 269 00:13:55,600 --> 00:13:57,560 which was Redford's first play, 270 00:13:57,600 --> 00:14:00,040 so they knew each other. 271 00:14:00,080 --> 00:14:02,560 It was quite clear to Nichols 272 00:14:02,600 --> 00:14:05,680 that Redford was totally wrong for the part. 273 00:14:05,720 --> 00:14:09,000 He asked him, "Have you ever had any trouble with women?" 274 00:14:09,040 --> 00:14:11,400 And Robert Redford said, "What do you mean?" 275 00:14:11,440 --> 00:14:13,520 And he said, "There we are. That's the answer. 276 00:14:13,560 --> 00:14:15,320 "That's exactly what I mean." 277 00:14:15,360 --> 00:14:18,040 He said, "You're not anxious. 278 00:14:18,080 --> 00:14:21,200 "You don't have that sort of anxiety. You don't have it." 279 00:14:21,240 --> 00:14:23,000 He said, "Well, I can act it." 280 00:14:23,040 --> 00:14:25,760 But the fact is that what Nichols wanted, 281 00:14:25,800 --> 00:14:27,440 and what he finally got, 282 00:14:27,480 --> 00:14:31,120 was the actual visual representation 283 00:14:31,160 --> 00:14:36,600 of the anxieties and the problems that Benjamin Braddock has. 284 00:14:37,760 --> 00:14:41,720 So, Dustin was a jobbing stage actor in New York 285 00:14:41,760 --> 00:14:44,040 and had been for almost a decade 286 00:14:44,080 --> 00:14:47,720 by the time The Graduate and Hollywood really came calling. 287 00:14:47,760 --> 00:14:50,240 He was 29 when he starred in The Graduate. 288 00:14:50,280 --> 00:14:54,320 He had worked up some steam in a few plays that got decent write-ups. 289 00:14:54,360 --> 00:14:56,080 He had recently had something 290 00:14:56,120 --> 00:14:59,240 which got on the cover of the New York Times Magazine. 291 00:14:59,280 --> 00:15:03,840 But generally speaking, it was a bit of a long haul for him. 292 00:15:03,880 --> 00:15:06,960 He was friends with many of the great luminaries 293 00:15:07,000 --> 00:15:09,040 that would turn out to also be very successful. 294 00:15:09,080 --> 00:15:12,320 He shared a flat with Gene Hackman at a certain point, 295 00:15:12,360 --> 00:15:14,960 but he often struggled to get gigs. 296 00:15:15,000 --> 00:15:19,200 He looked very Jewish and that could be a real handicap at the time. 297 00:15:19,240 --> 00:15:22,920 He said he was always, sort of, cast in particular types of roles, 298 00:15:22,960 --> 00:15:24,920 sort of typecast often. 299 00:15:24,960 --> 00:15:28,280 And he did a lot of other jobs at the same time. 300 00:15:28,320 --> 00:15:31,520 He worked in Macy's in the toy department. 301 00:15:31,560 --> 00:15:34,920 He worked as an attendant in a psych ward. 302 00:15:34,960 --> 00:15:38,200 He really knew what it was to struggle to make ends meet. 303 00:15:38,240 --> 00:15:40,440 There were times where he had considered giving up 304 00:15:40,480 --> 00:15:43,800 and maybe going into directing or doing something else, 305 00:15:43,840 --> 00:15:47,240 so it was remarkable that he had maintained the grit at that point 306 00:15:47,280 --> 00:15:51,520 to even be still in the running for a film like The Graduate. 307 00:15:51,560 --> 00:15:54,120 The screen test couldn't have gone any worse. 308 00:15:54,160 --> 00:15:57,400 Nichols arranged for Hoffman to come to Los Angeles, 309 00:15:57,440 --> 00:16:00,560 and he arrived crippled with nerves, 310 00:16:00,600 --> 00:16:03,040 sleepless, pale as of bedsheet, 311 00:16:03,080 --> 00:16:06,080 intimidated by all of the tanned Californian crew, 312 00:16:06,120 --> 00:16:07,920 in awe of Katharine Ross, 313 00:16:07,960 --> 00:16:10,680 who'd been lined up to play Elaine Robinson. 314 00:16:10,720 --> 00:16:12,360 He stuttered his lines. 315 00:16:12,400 --> 00:16:15,160 He failed to heed what Nichols wanted from him. 316 00:16:15,200 --> 00:16:17,520 It went on for 12 hours. 317 00:16:17,560 --> 00:16:19,160 But on screen, it worked. 318 00:16:19,200 --> 00:16:22,520 All that agitation, all that lost boy stammer 319 00:16:22,560 --> 00:16:24,640 added up to Benjamin Braddock. 320 00:16:24,680 --> 00:16:29,280 Hoffman brings magnificent self-consciousness to the role, 321 00:16:29,320 --> 00:16:31,320 an itch beneath the skin 322 00:16:31,360 --> 00:16:34,760 that amplified the alienation of the character. 323 00:16:34,800 --> 00:16:39,120 Well, no, I hadn't thought of it. I feel very flattered. 324 00:16:39,160 --> 00:16:41,400 Mrs Robinson, will you forgive me for what I just said? 325 00:16:41,440 --> 00:16:43,080 It's alright. It's not alright. 326 00:16:43,120 --> 00:16:45,400 It's the worst thing I ever said to anyone.Sit down. 327 00:16:46,480 --> 00:16:48,520 Please forgive me because I like you. 328 00:16:49,000 --> 00:16:50,920 I don't think of you that way, but I'm mixed up. 329 00:16:50,960 --> 00:16:52,400 It's alright. Finish your drink. 330 00:16:52,440 --> 00:16:54,680 Mrs Robinson, it makes me sick that I said that to you. 331 00:16:54,720 --> 00:16:56,760 Well, forget it right now. Finish your drink. 332 00:16:56,800 --> 00:17:00,280 Mike Nichols' next step was to find Mrs Robinson. 333 00:17:00,320 --> 00:17:02,160 This was... 334 00:17:02,200 --> 00:17:03,960 an equally difficult task. 335 00:17:04,000 --> 00:17:06,240 He chose Anne Bancroft because 336 00:17:06,280 --> 00:17:10,560 they wanted an American actress who had a European quality, 337 00:17:10,599 --> 00:17:13,040 someone who could seem a little bit out of place 338 00:17:13,079 --> 00:17:15,040 but was very much of the place. 339 00:17:15,079 --> 00:17:19,200 He could see the frustration that Anne Bancroft herself had. 340 00:17:19,240 --> 00:17:23,480 She had originally been a successful young starlet 341 00:17:23,520 --> 00:17:24,960 who played glamorous roles 342 00:17:25,000 --> 00:17:26,920 and then Hollywood had sort of given up on her 343 00:17:26,960 --> 00:17:29,200 and stopped allowing her to develop her career. 344 00:17:29,240 --> 00:17:32,400 So she'd gone into theatre and still slightly resented Hollywood 345 00:17:32,440 --> 00:17:34,440 for the way it had cast her off. 346 00:17:34,480 --> 00:17:37,040 And she just fit the role perfectly. 347 00:17:37,080 --> 00:17:39,440 She looked and talked the role. 348 00:17:39,480 --> 00:17:44,120 She was too young. She was 35 and Mrs Robinson is 45. 349 00:17:44,160 --> 00:17:47,600 In fact, she was quite close to Dustin Hoffman in age, 350 00:17:47,640 --> 00:17:52,800 but he felt that she had the talent to bring it up in age terms, 351 00:17:52,840 --> 00:17:56,280 and she does have this very convincing weariness about her. 352 00:17:56,320 --> 00:17:58,120 It just worked so well. 353 00:17:58,160 --> 00:18:01,800 The other thing I really feel about all of this is that 354 00:18:01,840 --> 00:18:05,920 it's speaking to people who are within the mainstream, 355 00:18:05,960 --> 00:18:08,560 within the middle classes, broadly speaking, 356 00:18:08,600 --> 00:18:12,200 but facing some kind of dissatisfaction. 357 00:18:12,240 --> 00:18:16,360 I felt that dissatisfaction is really what The Graduate's about. 358 00:18:16,400 --> 00:18:19,920 Mrs Robinson is dissatisfied. She's in a loveless marriage. 359 00:18:19,960 --> 00:18:21,520 Benjamin is dissatisfied 360 00:18:21,560 --> 00:18:24,600 with the fact that his parents want him to go work in plastics. 361 00:18:24,640 --> 00:18:26,560 You know, everyone's dissatisfied. 362 00:18:26,600 --> 00:18:29,840 Even the parents, you feel like they're living the American dream 363 00:18:29,880 --> 00:18:33,800 without any real, deeper thought behind it. 364 00:18:33,840 --> 00:18:36,480 So I think it's a film about dissatisfaction. 365 00:18:38,160 --> 00:18:39,800 If Hoffman was the star, 366 00:18:39,840 --> 00:18:44,320 the dark heart of The Graduate is Anne Bancroft's Mrs Robinson. 367 00:18:44,360 --> 00:18:47,240 There had been plans to cast Hollywood greats 368 00:18:47,280 --> 00:18:51,320 like Deborah Kerr, Rita Hayworth, or even Doris Day. 369 00:18:51,360 --> 00:18:54,600 Nichols had met with Ava Gardner and been dazzled, 370 00:18:54,640 --> 00:18:56,360 but knew she was wrong. 371 00:18:56,400 --> 00:18:59,000 In truth, he was set on Bancroft. 372 00:18:59,040 --> 00:19:01,720 There was something brittle and beautiful about her. 373 00:19:01,760 --> 00:19:03,840 She'd been cast aside by Hollywood. 374 00:19:03,880 --> 00:19:05,520 She was also an ex, 375 00:19:05,560 --> 00:19:07,840 and he remembered the cynicism, 376 00:19:07,880 --> 00:19:10,280 always one quip ahead of you. 377 00:19:10,320 --> 00:19:13,400 And she brings to the role a superb performance, 378 00:19:13,440 --> 00:19:18,720 broken-hearted, wounded, insolent, and world-weary, 379 00:19:18,760 --> 00:19:21,640 and always we get that sense of bitterness. 380 00:19:22,600 --> 00:19:24,200 If you look back on it now, 381 00:19:24,240 --> 00:19:27,960 why do you think Dustin Hoffman somehow embodies Benjamin 382 00:19:28,000 --> 00:19:32,000 and Anne Bancroft fulfils what we need in Mrs Robinson? 383 00:19:32,040 --> 00:19:35,320 Anne Bancroft was a great actress. 384 00:19:35,360 --> 00:19:37,360 No doubt about that at all. 385 00:19:38,280 --> 00:19:42,680 She really holds the screen tightly throughout, 386 00:19:42,720 --> 00:19:46,200 and you believe in her, even though she does seem a bit young. 387 00:19:46,960 --> 00:19:49,360 Dustin Hoffman... 388 00:19:49,400 --> 00:19:53,200 the very doubtfulness of his acting is a help. 389 00:19:53,240 --> 00:19:57,200 He's not a confident actor at that stage in his career 390 00:19:57,240 --> 00:20:00,800 but it works because he's not very confident. 391 00:20:00,840 --> 00:20:02,920 That's the whole point about him. 392 00:20:02,960 --> 00:20:04,960 So... 393 00:20:05,000 --> 00:20:07,320 The two work wonderfully together. 394 00:20:07,360 --> 00:20:11,480 And when... in the latter half of the film, 395 00:20:11,520 --> 00:20:13,760 Mrs Robinson fades out... 396 00:20:14,920 --> 00:20:16,520 ..so does the film in a way. 397 00:20:16,560 --> 00:20:19,280 Yeah. You miss her presence. You really miss her. 398 00:20:19,320 --> 00:20:21,160 Katharine Ross is very good 399 00:20:21,200 --> 00:20:25,600 as the girl Dustin Hoffman eventually falls for. 400 00:20:27,680 --> 00:20:32,600 But those two as a pair are not as interesting as this older woman. 401 00:20:32,640 --> 00:20:35,440 I mean, the thought of an older woman with a young man 402 00:20:35,480 --> 00:20:37,360 is still shocking today. 403 00:20:37,400 --> 00:20:39,800 People say, "Ooooh!" 404 00:20:39,840 --> 00:20:43,680 They don't mind the other way around, 405 00:20:43,720 --> 00:20:47,880 but the older woman with the young man somehow... 406 00:20:47,920 --> 00:20:49,520 Uh... 407 00:20:49,560 --> 00:20:52,280 (CHUCKLES NERVOUSLY) I don't quite know how to put this. 408 00:20:52,320 --> 00:20:54,160 "Benjamin." 409 00:20:54,200 --> 00:20:58,040 Look, I was thinking about that time after the party. 410 00:20:58,080 --> 00:20:59,520 "Where are you?" 411 00:20:59,560 --> 00:21:02,240 And I was wondering if I could buy you a drink or something. 412 00:21:02,280 --> 00:21:05,240 "Where are you?" Uh, the Taft Hotel. 413 00:21:05,280 --> 00:21:07,000 "Did you get a room?" 414 00:21:08,080 --> 00:21:09,360 No. 415 00:21:09,840 --> 00:21:12,000 Now I know it's pretty late and if you'd rather- 416 00:21:12,040 --> 00:21:13,800 "Give me an hour." What? 417 00:21:13,840 --> 00:21:16,360 "I'll be there in an hour." (CALL DISCONNECTS) 418 00:21:22,560 --> 00:21:25,480 (BREATHES NERVOUSLY) 419 00:21:31,480 --> 00:21:32,800 (WHIMPERS) 420 00:21:37,681 --> 00:21:40,640 Scarborough Fair/Canticle 421 00:21:40,680 --> 00:21:45,920 422 00:21:47,560 --> 00:21:53,560 423 00:21:56,440 --> 00:22:02,280 424 00:22:03,120 --> 00:22:09,000 425 00:22:09,040 --> 00:22:10,560 Halfway through production, 426 00:22:10,600 --> 00:22:14,560 Nichols's brother sent him a copy of Parsley Sage Rosemary and Thyme, 427 00:22:14,600 --> 00:22:18,520 the new album by Folk troubadours Simon and Garfunkel. 428 00:22:18,560 --> 00:22:21,280 He would listen to it incessantly for a month, 429 00:22:21,320 --> 00:22:25,240 and he realised this was the sound of The Graduate. 430 00:22:25,280 --> 00:22:30,240 Poetic, wry, haunting, and heartbreaking. 431 00:22:30,280 --> 00:22:35,200 Simon and Garfunkel were really the perfect artists for The Graduate 432 00:22:35,240 --> 00:22:41,000 because they had this sound which was part of the 1960s counterculture 433 00:22:41,040 --> 00:22:42,560 but it was gentle. 434 00:22:42,600 --> 00:22:44,480 It fitted into the mainstream very much. 435 00:22:44,520 --> 00:22:46,040 A lot of that was down to 436 00:22:46,080 --> 00:22:48,920 Paul Simon's discovery of English folk music. 437 00:22:48,960 --> 00:22:51,960 He came to England in the mid-1960s, 438 00:22:52,000 --> 00:22:54,480 and he was hanging out with people like Martin McCarthy 439 00:22:54,520 --> 00:22:56,320 who was a big English folk singer, 440 00:22:56,360 --> 00:22:58,680 and he was learning how to fingerpick 441 00:22:58,720 --> 00:23:00,520 and do this rather intricate 442 00:23:00,560 --> 00:23:02,960 but very melodic style of guitar playing. 443 00:23:03,000 --> 00:23:06,160 And that has a kind of winsome quality. 444 00:23:06,200 --> 00:23:08,680 It's got a questing quality, 445 00:23:08,720 --> 00:23:10,680 that English folk style, 446 00:23:10,720 --> 00:23:15,320 which he then took and applied a kind of American sensibility to it. 447 00:23:15,360 --> 00:23:19,320 So that's when you end up with songs like The Sound of Silence 448 00:23:19,360 --> 00:23:21,600 and April She Will Come. Songs like that. 449 00:23:22,240 --> 00:23:23,840 The music was essential. 450 00:23:23,880 --> 00:23:26,000 Simon and Garfunkel, who were the folk singers, 451 00:23:26,040 --> 00:23:29,360 part of the era's music of protest, was the soundtrack. 452 00:23:29,400 --> 00:23:32,160 That gave the film a very 1960s feel. 453 00:23:32,200 --> 00:23:36,440 So when you're hearing songs like Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme, 454 00:23:36,480 --> 00:23:38,840 or when you were hearing The Sound of Silence, 455 00:23:38,880 --> 00:23:44,320 these were the soundtrack to a lot of the youth movement protests. 456 00:23:44,360 --> 00:23:47,160 So, it really focused it on the teenagers 457 00:23:47,200 --> 00:23:49,280 and the young people of the day. 458 00:23:49,320 --> 00:23:53,160 Famously, Simon and Garfunkel's album had been given to Mike Nichols 459 00:23:53,200 --> 00:23:54,640 halfway through filming. 460 00:23:54,680 --> 00:23:56,600 He was listening to it in the shower quite a lot 461 00:23:56,640 --> 00:23:58,800 and decided to try The Sound of Silence 462 00:23:58,840 --> 00:24:01,000 over the montage of Dustin Hoffman 463 00:24:01,040 --> 00:24:03,400 post his initial encounter with Mrs Robinson, 464 00:24:03,440 --> 00:24:05,000 and he realised it was right. 465 00:24:05,040 --> 00:24:10,080 The Sound of Silence 466 00:24:10,120 --> 00:24:14,200 467 00:24:14,240 --> 00:24:18,520 its warning 468 00:24:18,560 --> 00:24:22,360 469 00:24:22,400 --> 00:24:24,240 470 00:24:24,280 --> 00:24:29,920 are written on the subway walls 471 00:24:29,960 --> 00:24:32,880 472 00:24:32,920 --> 00:24:37,040 in the sounds... 473 00:24:37,720 --> 00:24:40,840 474 00:24:44,720 --> 00:24:49,200 The lyricism and the melancholy of Simon and Garfunkel's music 475 00:24:49,240 --> 00:24:52,640 lended itself really well to Benjamin's loneliness. 476 00:24:52,680 --> 00:24:58,000 In the film you kind of see it as his internal monologue in some way. 477 00:24:58,040 --> 00:25:00,640 It really kind of gives something to the film. 478 00:25:00,680 --> 00:25:03,080 At this point, poised on the cusp of 479 00:25:03,120 --> 00:25:06,360 the whole New Hollywood movement of the 1970s, 480 00:25:06,400 --> 00:25:08,840 you see that pop and rock soundtracks 481 00:25:08,880 --> 00:25:14,160 were consistently used more and more on films made by younger filmmakers. 482 00:25:14,200 --> 00:25:17,360 And this is one of the first, along with a film like Easy Rider, 483 00:25:17,400 --> 00:25:20,080 to include a modern soundtrack. 484 00:25:20,120 --> 00:25:23,840 It lends some zip and some urgency, I think, 485 00:25:23,880 --> 00:25:26,000 to the overall feeling of the film. 486 00:25:26,040 --> 00:25:27,600 And of course, in 1968, 487 00:25:27,640 --> 00:25:31,560 Mrs Robinson became number one on the charts as well. 488 00:25:31,600 --> 00:25:35,000 It is interesting how Mike Nichols used Simon Garfunkel. 489 00:25:35,040 --> 00:25:38,160 Initially, it was going to be orchestra, the usual approach. 490 00:25:38,200 --> 00:25:43,160 He contacted Paul Simon, and he brought Paul Simon in 491 00:25:43,200 --> 00:25:45,240 and, I think, Art Garfunkel too. 492 00:25:45,280 --> 00:25:50,240 Initially, it was using Scarborough Fair as guide music. 493 00:25:50,280 --> 00:25:51,920 It wasn't er... 494 00:25:51,960 --> 00:25:57,760 It was just putting it together against the visuals 495 00:25:57,800 --> 00:26:00,480 and showing an idea of how it might come across. 496 00:26:00,520 --> 00:26:03,840 Paul Simon was watching, and he was... 497 00:26:03,880 --> 00:26:07,800 He started coming up with this little riff, 498 00:26:07,840 --> 00:26:10,880 it's quite a famous riff now, the riff on Mrs Robinson. 499 00:26:10,920 --> 00:26:16,720 Humming along, initially, it was a kind of free association of words. 500 00:26:16,760 --> 00:26:18,600 "God bless you, Mrs Roosevelt" 501 00:26:18,640 --> 00:26:21,680 which would've been an entirely different film if that'd stayed in, 502 00:26:21,720 --> 00:26:24,120 You know, Joe DiMaggio, these people from the past. 503 00:26:24,160 --> 00:26:29,360 It's almost like he was kind of riffing on America's past, 504 00:26:29,400 --> 00:26:32,160 America's 20th-century past. 505 00:26:32,200 --> 00:26:35,120 Writing this song which didn't have any clear meaning, 506 00:26:35,160 --> 00:26:38,760 but it's almost like the meaning made itself clear after the event. 507 00:26:38,800 --> 00:26:41,320 God bless you, please, Mrs Robinson. 508 00:26:41,360 --> 00:26:43,320 None of it was formed. 509 00:26:43,360 --> 00:26:45,240 It wasn't that he... 510 00:26:45,280 --> 00:26:48,360 he didn't sit down there and write the lyrics. 511 00:26:48,400 --> 00:26:51,840 He was watching the film, had his guitar, riffing about, 512 00:26:51,880 --> 00:26:54,800 and then half of it, of course, has no words whatsoever. 513 00:26:54,840 --> 00:26:56,680 It's just those wordless vocals 514 00:26:56,720 --> 00:26:58,560 because he was just doing it as he went along. 515 00:26:58,600 --> 00:27:01,800 From that came one of the most famous songs of the 20th century. 516 00:27:01,840 --> 00:27:04,160 Mrs Robinson 517 00:27:06,880 --> 00:27:10,480 518 00:27:10,520 --> 00:27:14,680 more than you will know 519 00:27:14,720 --> 00:27:17,040 520 00:27:17,080 --> 00:27:20,120 That song on its own, 521 00:27:20,160 --> 00:27:22,800 more or less, sold the movie. 522 00:27:22,840 --> 00:27:24,680 It put it in a completely different league. 523 00:27:24,720 --> 00:27:28,160 It became its own sort of phenomenon. 524 00:27:28,200 --> 00:27:30,920 It made Simon and Garfunkel. 525 00:27:30,960 --> 00:27:32,800 Although they were rising stars, 526 00:27:32,840 --> 00:27:36,960 Mrs Robinson was the song that put them right up there. 527 00:27:37,000 --> 00:27:40,000 I mean, they were American number one for weeks and weeks and weeks. 528 00:27:40,040 --> 00:27:43,880 And at the same time, it sort of fed back into the success of the film 529 00:27:43,920 --> 00:27:48,000 because Mrs Robinson was the iconic character of the movie. 530 00:27:48,040 --> 00:27:49,800 Absolutely perfect. 531 00:27:49,840 --> 00:27:54,160 An artist adrift in a world of plastic conformity, 532 00:27:54,200 --> 00:27:56,640 seeking an identity, 533 00:27:56,680 --> 00:27:59,760 The Graduate is as much the story of Mike Nichols 534 00:27:59,800 --> 00:28:01,600 as it is Benjamin Braddock. 535 00:28:01,640 --> 00:28:04,720 He will be introducing a new emotional language 536 00:28:04,760 --> 00:28:06,720 to American film. 537 00:28:06,760 --> 00:28:11,680 It's a huge influence on the likes of Steven Soderberg, David Lynch, 538 00:28:11,720 --> 00:28:13,280 The Coen Brothers, 539 00:28:13,320 --> 00:28:16,320 Paul Thomas Anderson, Quentin Tarantino, 540 00:28:16,360 --> 00:28:19,960 who all took from it that natural irony that it had, 541 00:28:20,000 --> 00:28:23,560 that skewed view of Los Angeles that it showed. 542 00:28:23,600 --> 00:28:26,040 "Dear Benjamin, Please forgive me 543 00:28:26,080 --> 00:28:29,360 "because I know what I'm doing is the best thing for you. 544 00:28:29,400 --> 00:28:32,160 "My father is so upset. You've got to understand. 545 00:28:32,200 --> 00:28:34,040 "I love you, but it would never work out." 546 00:28:34,080 --> 00:28:39,400 Mrs Robinson 547 00:28:47,280 --> 00:28:50,160 (ENGINE ROARS) 548 00:28:50,200 --> 00:28:53,360 The extraordinary thing about The Graduate is that... 549 00:28:53,400 --> 00:28:56,840 In 1967, the studio system was wobbly, 550 00:28:56,880 --> 00:28:59,400 it was starting to sort of unravel itself, 551 00:28:59,440 --> 00:29:02,680 it was outdated, outmoded. 552 00:29:02,720 --> 00:29:04,400 They were still making movies 553 00:29:04,440 --> 00:29:06,360 and they were still making some great movies, 554 00:29:06,400 --> 00:29:09,000 but there was a new generation waiting in the wings 555 00:29:09,040 --> 00:29:13,160 to actually break down the doors of Old Hollywood 556 00:29:13,200 --> 00:29:15,960 and make new kinds of movies, make a different kind of movie 557 00:29:16,000 --> 00:29:18,040 for a different kind of generation. 558 00:29:18,080 --> 00:29:20,320 There was a generation of kids out there 559 00:29:20,360 --> 00:29:23,280 who did not want to see the old Hollywood stars, 560 00:29:23,320 --> 00:29:24,880 magnificent as they were, 561 00:29:24,920 --> 00:29:26,520 they wanted their own stars, 562 00:29:26,560 --> 00:29:29,560 they wanted their own people. And they didn't want... 563 00:29:29,600 --> 00:29:31,560 people who they looked up to, 564 00:29:31,600 --> 00:29:34,760 they wanted people who they could identify with. 565 00:29:34,800 --> 00:29:36,920 Someone slightly geeky, 566 00:29:36,960 --> 00:29:40,200 someone who wanted to be cool but wasn't, 567 00:29:40,240 --> 00:29:43,960 someone who was anxious about his life, 568 00:29:44,000 --> 00:29:46,840 as they all were at that stage. 569 00:29:46,880 --> 00:29:52,240 The Graduate was a huge hit in its year of release 570 00:29:52,280 --> 00:29:54,880 but that was not what everybody expected in Hollywood. 571 00:29:54,920 --> 00:29:58,000 When Joseph E Levine took it around the other studio heads, 572 00:29:58,040 --> 00:29:59,680 they said, "This is a terrible film." 573 00:29:59,720 --> 00:30:02,200 When it was tested in front of professionals, they all said, 574 00:30:02,240 --> 00:30:05,440 "Oh, this is not gonna work. It's an OK film, but it's terribly cast." 575 00:30:05,480 --> 00:30:08,800 So there was this feeling of bleak despair. 576 00:30:08,840 --> 00:30:11,120 At one point, Levine was going to downgrade the film 577 00:30:11,160 --> 00:30:12,640 to a very limited release. 578 00:30:12,680 --> 00:30:16,280 But then he decided to try showing it in college campuses. 579 00:30:16,320 --> 00:30:18,280 Now, what's interesting here is that 580 00:30:18,320 --> 00:30:20,440 we think of this film as being a very radical film 581 00:30:20,480 --> 00:30:22,160 about youthful rebellion. 582 00:30:22,200 --> 00:30:23,640 And it is in a way, 583 00:30:23,680 --> 00:30:25,520 but it's also a very conservative film. 584 00:30:25,560 --> 00:30:29,160 Because the college campuses they took this film to... 585 00:30:29,200 --> 00:30:31,680 This was 1968 when the film was released, 586 00:30:31,720 --> 00:30:36,200 The Gulf of Tonkin in the Vietnam War had been 1964. 587 00:30:36,240 --> 00:30:39,240 These were campuses where there were student occupations, 588 00:30:39,280 --> 00:30:42,080 where people wanted to talk about the Vietnam War, 589 00:30:42,120 --> 00:30:44,240 about conscription, about protest. 590 00:30:44,280 --> 00:30:47,800 And actually, Benjamin is an incredibly square guy. 591 00:30:47,840 --> 00:30:49,640 He's always wearing a shirt and tie. 592 00:30:49,680 --> 00:30:52,200 He's always shaving. There's no political opinions. 593 00:30:52,240 --> 00:30:55,360 So initially the students' response was, 594 00:30:55,400 --> 00:30:57,880 "Where's the Vietnam War in this film?" 595 00:30:57,920 --> 00:31:00,320 And that seemed to be a big problem. 596 00:31:00,360 --> 00:31:01,920 "OK, so the studio doesn't like it. 597 00:31:01,960 --> 00:31:04,200 "The college kids don't like it. Where is it gonna play?" 598 00:31:04,240 --> 00:31:06,200 They started it in a few cinemas 599 00:31:06,240 --> 00:31:08,560 and the audiences went crazy for it. 600 00:31:08,600 --> 00:31:11,640 Maybe the producers and studio executives 601 00:31:11,680 --> 00:31:15,120 saw themselves in the older Robinsons and Braddocks, 602 00:31:15,160 --> 00:31:17,400 but that film caught fire. 603 00:31:17,440 --> 00:31:21,120 Dustin Hoffman recalled attending a preview in New York 604 00:31:21,160 --> 00:31:24,600 and watching the film gather momentum like a runaway train. 605 00:31:24,640 --> 00:31:27,600 By the time his character is rushing to the church, 606 00:31:27,640 --> 00:31:29,520 the room was screaming. 607 00:31:29,560 --> 00:31:31,280 He held back in the cinema, 608 00:31:31,320 --> 00:31:34,360 terrified that he'd be recognised as Benjamin. 609 00:31:34,400 --> 00:31:36,240 One old lady did. 610 00:31:36,280 --> 00:31:39,360 She turned out to be Radie Harris, a gossip columnist, 611 00:31:39,400 --> 00:31:41,440 and she pointed her cane at him 612 00:31:41,480 --> 00:31:44,840 like one of Macbeth's witches to prophesy 613 00:31:44,880 --> 00:31:46,680 "Are you Dustin Hoffman? 614 00:31:46,720 --> 00:31:48,400 "Are you The Graduate? 615 00:31:48,440 --> 00:31:51,040 "Your life is never gonna be the same again." 616 00:31:51,080 --> 00:31:52,640 She was right. 617 00:31:52,680 --> 00:31:56,120 We can say that it really was probably 618 00:31:56,160 --> 00:31:58,760 the first film to herald what we call New Hollywood, 619 00:31:58,800 --> 00:32:03,680 that new wave of filmmaking that came in the late 1960s and 1970s.Yeah. 620 00:32:03,720 --> 00:32:06,400 They probably wouldn't have come in at all, 621 00:32:06,440 --> 00:32:08,400 but for The Graduate, 622 00:32:08,440 --> 00:32:10,440 because it was a success. 623 00:32:11,040 --> 00:32:14,840 I mean, it changed Hollywood's attitude completely. 624 00:32:14,880 --> 00:32:16,760 They wondered, you know, "What?" 625 00:32:16,800 --> 00:32:19,840 "Who is this young man, whom we don't know, 626 00:32:19,880 --> 00:32:24,680 "making a film with this young boy who we don't know either? 627 00:32:24,720 --> 00:32:27,400 There's a wonderful story about Dustin Hoffman being in New York 628 00:32:27,440 --> 00:32:29,000 after the film had come out 629 00:32:29,040 --> 00:32:32,440 and peering out a window and seeing these queues break the block. 630 00:32:32,480 --> 00:32:33,560 Yes. 631 00:32:33,600 --> 00:32:36,000 This great success, everything he could have wanted, 632 00:32:36,040 --> 00:32:38,320 and being even more worried now 633 00:32:38,360 --> 00:32:40,160 that he was going to be noticed everywhere. 634 00:32:40,200 --> 00:32:43,600 Which is exactly how Benjamin would've reacted to it.Yes. 635 00:32:43,640 --> 00:32:45,200 Word got out. 636 00:32:45,240 --> 00:32:47,680 The queues stretched from block to block. 637 00:32:47,720 --> 00:32:51,120 A young audience went back again and again. 638 00:32:51,160 --> 00:32:54,600 The film that had been rejected by every studio in Hollywood 639 00:32:54,640 --> 00:32:57,000 became the biggest hit of the year. 640 00:32:57,040 --> 00:33:01,400 It has gone on to become one of the most profitable films of all time. 641 00:33:01,440 --> 00:33:03,720 642 00:33:03,760 --> 00:33:05,760 (DOG BARKS) 643 00:33:23,526 --> 00:33:26,480 644 00:33:26,520 --> 00:33:30,960 smiles on those who pray 645 00:33:31,000 --> 00:33:34,280 646 00:33:38,400 --> 00:33:41,160 (BRASS FANFARE PLAYS) 647 00:33:41,200 --> 00:33:44,320 TV: "Mrs Lyndon B Johnson comes to Williams College 648 00:33:44,360 --> 00:33:46,120 "for an honorary degree. 649 00:33:46,160 --> 00:33:48,320 "President John Sawyer escorts the First Lady 650 00:33:48,360 --> 00:33:50,360 to the ceremony at Chapin Hall. 651 00:33:50,400 --> 00:33:53,680 "She took no formal notice of a group of anti-war picketers 652 00:33:53,720 --> 00:33:56,760 "who staged a silent vigil protesting the Vietnam War. 653 00:33:58,880 --> 00:34:02,960 "Some 75 student demonstrators walked out of the auditorium where 654 00:34:03,000 --> 00:34:06,640 "Mrs Johnson was given an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree 655 00:34:06,680 --> 00:34:09,080 "for her national beautification program. 656 00:34:09,120 --> 00:34:12,480 "Despite the demonstration, the first lady is warmly applauded." 657 00:34:12,520 --> 00:34:14,520 (APPLAUSE) 658 00:34:14,560 --> 00:34:19,400 Do you think that Nichols was attuned to America at that time? 659 00:34:19,440 --> 00:34:22,400 I mean, he always claimed it's not a Vietnam film 660 00:34:22,440 --> 00:34:25,560 but there's a sense of something terrible going on in the background, 661 00:34:25,600 --> 00:34:27,159 such doom almost. Yes. 662 00:34:27,199 --> 00:34:32,880 Oh, he was definitely a Liberal Democrat in other words. 663 00:34:32,920 --> 00:34:38,880 He was someone who felt that America had gone badly wrong somehow 664 00:34:38,920 --> 00:34:43,840 and that the young people's hopefulness had been betrayed. 665 00:34:44,920 --> 00:34:47,920 This is really about that betrayal, 666 00:34:47,960 --> 00:34:50,920 even though it comes out OK in the end for Hoffman, 667 00:34:50,960 --> 00:34:52,480 I think, doesn't it? (!) 668 00:34:52,520 --> 00:34:56,320 Well, it's a fabulous last shot on the bus, isn't it? 669 00:34:57,280 --> 00:34:59,480 It's almost like a beat too long 670 00:34:59,520 --> 00:35:01,960 and suddenly they're looking in different directions, 671 00:35:02,000 --> 00:35:03,960 and you think, "Will they stay together?" 672 00:35:04,000 --> 00:35:06,920 "Will this work out?" You're left questioning at the end. 673 00:35:06,960 --> 00:35:09,240 Yes. I suppose you are. 674 00:35:09,280 --> 00:35:11,040 In Hoffman's star turn, 675 00:35:11,080 --> 00:35:14,520 a new breed of leading man was introduced to the world. 676 00:35:14,560 --> 00:35:18,400 They no longer needed to resemble Robert Redford or Paul Newman, 677 00:35:18,440 --> 00:35:21,560 the Old Hollywood ideal of the American Prince. 678 00:35:21,600 --> 00:35:23,680 Now, they could look like Hoffman 679 00:35:23,720 --> 00:35:27,520 or Gene Hackman or Robert Duvall or Al Pacino. 680 00:35:27,560 --> 00:35:29,440 This wasn't the Hollywood Dream. 681 00:35:29,480 --> 00:35:31,600 This was American reality. 682 00:35:31,640 --> 00:35:34,160 The film accelerated and accelerated and accelerated, 683 00:35:34,200 --> 00:35:37,080 and it became the box office smash of that year. 684 00:35:37,120 --> 00:35:41,200 At one point, the New Yorker devoted 26 pages of analysis to the film, 685 00:35:41,240 --> 00:35:44,520 trying to understand what its enormous appeal was. 686 00:35:44,560 --> 00:35:48,440 It also changed the way Hollywood thought about its audience. 687 00:35:48,480 --> 00:35:51,200 They'd previously not really understood 688 00:35:51,240 --> 00:35:53,920 how to segment audiences in quite the right way. 689 00:35:53,960 --> 00:35:56,640 They'd played about with this a bit in the 1950s with James Dean, 690 00:35:56,680 --> 00:35:59,120 but they'd really tried to move back into these musicals 691 00:35:59,160 --> 00:36:02,360 and these big-budget action pictures which were for everyone. 692 00:36:02,400 --> 00:36:05,840 This was very much appealing to a particular demographic; 693 00:36:05,880 --> 00:36:08,760 these were kids who came and saw it again and again and again. 694 00:36:08,800 --> 00:36:11,600 There's this absolutely fanatical devotion. 695 00:36:11,640 --> 00:36:14,960 I mean, at one point in Columbia college's occupation, 696 00:36:15,000 --> 00:36:17,720 when the students were occupying the buildings there, 697 00:36:17,760 --> 00:36:19,480 every now and then they would sneak out 698 00:36:19,520 --> 00:36:21,720 so they could see The Graduate at the local cinema, 699 00:36:21,760 --> 00:36:24,600 and then come back in to carry on with their political protests. 700 00:36:24,640 --> 00:36:28,760 So it became the lifeblood of the youth of the time, 701 00:36:28,800 --> 00:36:31,840 even though in a strange way, it's a 1950s movie. 702 00:36:32,960 --> 00:36:35,040 Elaine! 703 00:36:35,080 --> 00:36:37,320 Elaine! Who is that guy? What's he doing? 704 00:36:37,360 --> 00:36:39,960 Take care of him. He's too late. 705 00:36:41,120 --> 00:36:42,600 Elaine! 706 00:36:43,320 --> 00:36:45,680 Elaine! Elaine! 707 00:36:46,280 --> 00:36:48,400 Elaine! (CROWD MUTTERS) 708 00:36:48,440 --> 00:36:51,160 Elaine! Make him stop. 709 00:36:52,720 --> 00:36:54,400 Elaine! 710 00:36:54,440 --> 00:36:58,760 Elaine! Elaine! Elaine! 711 00:36:59,520 --> 00:37:01,000 Elaine! 712 00:37:02,880 --> 00:37:07,760 Elaine! Elaine! Elaine! (SHOUTING DROWNS OUT SPEECH) 713 00:37:07,800 --> 00:37:09,160 Elaine! 714 00:37:09,200 --> 00:37:11,200 Ben!! 715 00:37:11,240 --> 00:37:14,480 The latter part of the film is very, very condensed. 716 00:37:14,520 --> 00:37:16,800 Suddenly you find that Mrs Robinson 717 00:37:16,840 --> 00:37:19,360 has engineered for her daughter, Elaine, 718 00:37:19,400 --> 00:37:23,360 to marry this jock from college called Carl. 719 00:37:23,400 --> 00:37:26,000 They're in a very modern church with a lot of glass, 720 00:37:26,040 --> 00:37:28,840 of course, because there's glass right all the way through this film. 721 00:37:28,880 --> 00:37:33,600 Benjamin is racing to try and stop the marriage, 722 00:37:33,640 --> 00:37:37,880 and to declare his love, and to rescue the damsel... 723 00:37:37,920 --> 00:37:41,040 realising that he could actually be too late. 724 00:37:41,080 --> 00:37:43,840 And so... at that point, 725 00:37:43,880 --> 00:37:46,640 Elaine looks around and... 726 00:37:46,680 --> 00:37:49,240 there's this sort of momentary indecision. 727 00:37:49,280 --> 00:37:52,880 You think, "Oh, my God, he's come for her." 728 00:37:52,920 --> 00:37:55,120 And they basically run off together, 729 00:37:55,160 --> 00:37:58,680 they jump on a bus and go to the back of the bus. 730 00:37:58,720 --> 00:38:02,800 It's a most spontaneous sort of... reaction, 731 00:38:02,840 --> 00:38:06,200 very highly improbable I have to say, 732 00:38:06,240 --> 00:38:10,880 but what's really incredible about this is that... 733 00:38:10,920 --> 00:38:14,800 if it had been a slightly more conventional Hollywood movie... 734 00:38:16,120 --> 00:38:19,880 ..Benjamin would've rescued her before she'd taken her vows. 735 00:38:19,920 --> 00:38:23,320 In other words, she would've hesitated before saying "I do." 736 00:38:23,360 --> 00:38:26,600 Then the moment he would've got her, they would've run off. 737 00:38:27,160 --> 00:38:28,800 That's not the case. 738 00:38:28,840 --> 00:38:33,280 Buck Henry had actually extended Charles Webb's ending 739 00:38:33,320 --> 00:38:36,840 so that the couple had taken their vows, 740 00:38:36,880 --> 00:38:40,440 and then he thought better of it and retracted it. 741 00:38:40,480 --> 00:38:43,880 But Mike Nichols said, "No, no, we'll keep that." 742 00:38:43,920 --> 00:38:47,840 I think that gives it even more serious import, 743 00:38:47,880 --> 00:38:49,560 which is what he wanted. 744 00:38:49,600 --> 00:38:51,880 This is a Mike Nichols film, 745 00:38:51,920 --> 00:38:54,040 and Mike Nichols is saying 746 00:38:54,080 --> 00:38:58,080 this future for them is desperately uncertain. 747 00:38:59,360 --> 00:39:01,480 Mike Nichols always resisted the idea 748 00:39:01,520 --> 00:39:04,000 that the film was explicitly political, 749 00:39:04,040 --> 00:39:06,320 or that it was about the generation gap, 750 00:39:06,360 --> 00:39:08,160 which a lot of people said when it came out. 751 00:39:08,200 --> 00:39:09,760 He didn't love that either. 752 00:39:09,800 --> 00:39:12,520 I mean, it's hard to say it's not about some kind of generation gap 753 00:39:12,560 --> 00:39:15,280 but I also don't know if I think it's political 754 00:39:15,320 --> 00:39:18,280 so much as social or spiritual in a way. 755 00:39:18,320 --> 00:39:20,000 But it is also about class, 756 00:39:20,040 --> 00:39:24,000 and it is also about the entitlement and arrogance 757 00:39:24,040 --> 00:39:26,400 of the WASP upper middle class, 758 00:39:26,440 --> 00:39:29,760 the expectation that the American dream was theirs to grab. 759 00:39:30,760 --> 00:39:32,840 It's about kicking back against something, 760 00:39:32,880 --> 00:39:37,480 even if it's not full of the affectations of lifestyle, 761 00:39:37,520 --> 00:39:42,680 like long hair or drugs or overt anti-war sentiment. 762 00:39:42,720 --> 00:39:45,920 Some people actually criticised it for that at the time and said, 763 00:39:45,960 --> 00:39:50,720 "If there was gonna be a film about youth culture, then it should be more explicit in what it's saying." 764 00:39:50,760 --> 00:39:52,440 I don't think it needed to ever be that. 765 00:39:52,480 --> 00:39:55,520 I think what it does is perfectly good on its own. 766 00:39:55,560 --> 00:39:58,040 I think is something that... For example, 767 00:39:58,080 --> 00:40:01,000 there would be no Don Draper, there would be no Mad Men 768 00:40:01,040 --> 00:40:04,080 without a film like The Graduate and what it touches upon. 769 00:40:05,600 --> 00:40:11,080 He's being forced to take up a life that isn't his from day one. 770 00:40:11,120 --> 00:40:14,200 The whole thing about going into plastics and all that. 771 00:40:14,240 --> 00:40:15,600 And, you know... 772 00:40:15,640 --> 00:40:18,800 Then he's floating in the pool, drifting, 773 00:40:18,840 --> 00:40:22,360 and you know that he's not going to live that life. 774 00:40:22,400 --> 00:40:26,360 And the music is the soundtrack to that feeling, as much as anything. 775 00:40:26,400 --> 00:40:28,240 That's why the soundtrack is so clever 776 00:40:28,280 --> 00:40:30,080 because it's more than just a nice tune 777 00:40:30,120 --> 00:40:33,040 to go along with it or to pace it, you know? It's more than that. 778 00:40:33,080 --> 00:40:37,160 It's actually capturing the underlying thought really. 779 00:40:37,200 --> 00:40:40,480 More than the tension, it's like the underlying thought that he's having. 780 00:40:40,520 --> 00:40:42,640 I think it captures the film so perfectly, 781 00:40:42,680 --> 00:40:46,680 but also it captured Simon and Garfunkel at their absolute best. 782 00:40:46,720 --> 00:40:49,640 Simon and Garfunkel only had a short golden age. 783 00:40:49,680 --> 00:40:55,040 It wasn't long before they stopped getting on so well, let's say. 784 00:40:55,080 --> 00:40:59,080 For that period when you've got Art Garfunkel's pure voice, 785 00:40:59,120 --> 00:41:01,120 which has got a playfulness to it, 786 00:41:01,160 --> 00:41:04,200 and Paul Simon's incredible writing skills 787 00:41:04,240 --> 00:41:08,880 where he can just take a simple riff on a guitar or a simple piano line 788 00:41:08,920 --> 00:41:13,160 and build this really universal song with a universal quality to it. 789 00:41:13,200 --> 00:41:14,960 It only lasted for a couple of years. 790 00:41:15,000 --> 00:41:17,160 And I think The Graduate was the... 791 00:41:17,200 --> 00:41:19,560 It was almost the perfect film, 792 00:41:19,600 --> 00:41:21,640 and they were the perfect band for it. 793 00:41:21,680 --> 00:41:23,560 (SMOOTH PIANO MUSIC) 794 00:41:23,600 --> 00:41:25,800 Hello, Benjamin. Oh, hello. 795 00:41:26,680 --> 00:41:31,120 Bancroft, I think became well-known in Hollywood, 796 00:41:31,160 --> 00:41:33,320 quite justly, for that performance 797 00:41:33,360 --> 00:41:35,840 because it was funny, 798 00:41:35,880 --> 00:41:37,800 it was moving, 799 00:41:37,840 --> 00:41:40,240 and it was absolutely right for the part I think. 800 00:41:40,280 --> 00:41:43,320 And there's a wonderful story also that she was told by everybody, 801 00:41:43,360 --> 00:41:45,080 her agent, all the people around her, 802 00:41:45,120 --> 00:41:47,120 "Don't take this. You're playing an older woman. 803 00:41:47,160 --> 00:41:49,040 "This is the worst thing you could possibly do. 804 00:41:49,080 --> 00:41:51,520 The one person who said, "This is a great script" 805 00:41:51,560 --> 00:41:54,640 was her husband, Mel Brooks. Was it? I didn't know that. 806 00:41:54,680 --> 00:41:56,240 He went "This was a good script. 807 00:41:56,280 --> 00:41:58,360 "This is very funny. You should do this." 808 00:41:58,400 --> 00:42:02,520 It's very amazing because Buck Henry hadn't done much before.No. 809 00:42:03,080 --> 00:42:05,960 He wasn't really a scriptwriter. 810 00:42:06,920 --> 00:42:11,280 I think it's Nichol's almost improvisational instinct, isn't it? 811 00:42:11,320 --> 00:42:13,160 That he just had the right idea 812 00:42:13,200 --> 00:42:16,600 and between them, they could play off each other as writer and director. 813 00:42:16,640 --> 00:42:18,240 Yes, it's true. 814 00:42:18,280 --> 00:42:21,400 The Graduate would be nominated for seven Oscars, 815 00:42:21,440 --> 00:42:24,200 with Mike Nichols the only winner on the night. 816 00:42:24,240 --> 00:42:27,480 But alongside fellow nominee Bonnie and Clyde, 817 00:42:27,520 --> 00:42:30,320 it'll be at the vanguard of New Hollywood, 818 00:42:30,360 --> 00:42:34,440 vivid and vibrant new directors with radical material. 819 00:42:34,480 --> 00:42:36,840 Film had something to say. 820 00:42:36,880 --> 00:42:38,880 In June 1968, 821 00:42:38,920 --> 00:42:42,360 with Simon and Garfunkel at number one with Mrs Robinson, 822 00:42:42,400 --> 00:42:47,320 Robert Kennedy was assassinated in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel, 823 00:42:47,360 --> 00:42:51,120 where they had filmed scenes of Benjamin and Mrs Robinson 824 00:42:51,160 --> 00:42:53,280 meeting for their affair. 825 00:42:53,320 --> 00:42:55,200 Vietnam had begun. 826 00:42:55,240 --> 00:42:58,720 And in that famous last shot of the film... 827 00:42:58,760 --> 00:43:03,000 where Benjamin and Elaine are on the back of the bus... 828 00:43:03,040 --> 00:43:05,960 there is just a hint of something else going on. 829 00:43:06,000 --> 00:43:09,000 We are left to wonder, "Is this a happy ending?" 830 00:43:09,040 --> 00:43:11,360 They are gazing in different directions. 831 00:43:12,240 --> 00:43:14,280 What will become of them? 832 00:43:14,320 --> 00:43:20,400 that was planted in my brain 833 00:43:20,440 --> 00:43:23,600 834 00:43:23,640 --> 00:43:28,600 835 00:43:28,640 --> 00:43:33,520 I walked alone... 836 00:43:33,560 --> 00:43:38,360 AccessibleCustomerService@sky.uk