The Graduate 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		0.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		5.0
Overall		4.5

The Graduate 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov August 19, 2025

Mike Nichols' "The Graduate" (1967) arrives on 4K Blu-ray courtesy of StudioCanal. The supplemental features on the release include multiple archival audio commentaries; archival cast and crew interviews; archival documentary; scene analysis; screen tests; and a lot more. In English, with optional English SDH, German, and French subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

The Graduate is a film about two dreamers. One is a young man, Ben Braddock (Dustin Hoffman, All the President's Men), who has just graduated from high school and suddenly realized that he is unhappy. The other is an aging housewife and ex-alcoholic, Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft, The Turning Point), who has wasted the best years of her life pretending that she is happy.

Ben and Mrs. Robinson have known each other for years. Ben’s father (William Daniels, The Parallax View) and Mrs. Robinson’s husband (Murray Hamilton, The Boston Strangler) are good friends and successful business partners. They often golf and have backyard barbecue parties together. They also have large houses in the same wealthy suburban area of Los Angeles.

During his graduation party, Ben is seduced by Mrs. Robinson and the two begin a strange affair -- the sex isn’t particularly good, but the conversations between the two are. Ben also falls in love with Mrs. Robinson’s daughter, Elaine (Katharine Ross, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid), who is getting ready to go to Berkeley. Naturally, this creates all sorts of ripple effects that shatter the quiet and peaceful life the Braddocks and Robinsons have been enjoying.

Based on Charles Webb’s novel, The Graduate is a groundbreaking American film that has the identity of a French New Wave film. It is structured as a casual comedy about a young man who becomes involved with an older woman and then falls in love with her daughter, but it is actually a deadly serious film about a society with outdated and compromised values and morals.

Director Nichols could not have selected a better actor to play the young and claustrophobic Ben -- Hoffman is absolutely superb as the graduate. He looks remarkably ordinary, unpolished, and naive. He wants to be different but does not know how -- and the only way to figure out how is by befriending someone older than him who belongs to the world that terrifies him. This is why he becomes involved with Mrs. Robinson.

Mrs. Robinson is everything Ben isn’t. Early in the film, she is a powerful, elegant, and sexy woman. She knows exactly what she wants and goes after it. After she and Ben begin seeing each other, however, she undergoes a shocking transformation -- now she looks frustrated and hurt, a woman who has realized that her life has been a disaster. She finds Ben’s naivety attractive only because it reminds her of herself -- the once young and free girl who became pregnant and married a man she did not love.

Elaine brings much-needed balance to The Graduate. She likes Ben but is also content to live in the world of her parents. Before she goes to Berkeley, she is humiliated by Ben because he senses that. Then he realizes how much he loves her, which is what causes all the drama in the film.

The Graduate was released in 1967. At the time, large-scale anti-war protests and race riots are held in big cities all across America. A year later, French students begin rioting in Paris, the Soviet Army invades the former Czechoslovakia and puts an end to the Prague Spring, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy are assassinated -- the world is changing. There is something new, something different in the air, and Ben, the young man in The Graduate who symbolizes an entire generation of Americans, senses it.

*In 1968, The Graduate won an Oscar for Best Director (Mike Nichols). A year later, the film also won a Grammy Award for Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture (Dave Grusin, Paul Simon).

The Graduate 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

StudioCanal's release of The Graduateis a 4K Blu-ray/Blu-ray combo pack. The 4K Blu-ray is Region-Free. However, the Blu-ray is Region-B "locked". Also, the Blu-ray has only bonus features.

Please note that all screencaptures included with this article are taken from the 4K Blu-ray and downscaled to 1080p. Therefore, they do not accurately reflect the quality of the 4K content on the 4K Blu-ray disc.

The 4K Blu-ray release offers a native 4K presentation of the recent 4K restoration of The Graduate. This 4K restoration was completed for the film's 50th anniversary in 2017 and is already available on Blu-ray. In native 4K, the 4K restoration can be viewed with Dolby Vision and HDR grades. I view it with HDR.

If you like The Graduate, you already know that the 4K restoration that was prepared for it is excellent. It looks wonderful on Blu-ray, too. So, how does it look in native 4K?

I think that it looks fantastic. However, there are only two areas where most viewers are likely to see meaningful improvements from the transition to 4K. First, on a big screen, it is not difficult to recognize that the native 4K visuals maintain superior density levels. In 1080p, some areas of the film do not look ideal, and while less-than-optimal encoding is a contributing factor, some native fluctuations are simply more convincing in native 4K. Second, color reproduction is better, helping the visuals impress with a superior dynamic range, which on a big screen is an unmissable upgrade. I think that color reproduction is very convincing in 1080p as well, but the expanded color gamut of 4K moves the primaries and supporting nuances in what I consider to be 'ideal territory'. On my system, with HDR enabled, I felt that this was the most satisfying aspect of the transition to 4K. Delineation, clarity, and depth are very pleasing, but I think that on the 1080p presentation they are similarly good. In summary, if you have a big or very big screen, you should consider an upgrade.

The Graduate 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are four standard audio tracks on this release: English LPCM 2.0. English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, German DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, and French LPCM 2.0. English Descriptive Audio DTS 2.0 track is included as well. Optional English SDH, French, and German subtitles are provided for the main feature. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.

I tend to like the 2.0 track a tad more. However, the 5.1 track that was created with Mike Nichols' involvement is quite nice, so it is definitely worth trying. In some areas, it significantly expands the dynamic field, with busier footage benefiting the most. While revisiting the film in 4K, I did not encounter any issues to report in our review.

The Graduate 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

4K BLU-RAY DISC

• Commentary One - in this audio commentary, Prof. Dr. Thomas Koebner offers a fantastic analysis of The Graduate and discusses the complex socio-political climate in the United States at the time when the film was first screened. The commentary was also included on StudioCanal's first release of the film.

• Commentary Two - in this archival audio commentary, Mike Nichols and Steven Soderbergh discuss the rather unusual history of The Graduate (which initially was supposed to be Nichols' first film but he ended up directing Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?), the film's visual style and specifically the use of long takes and scenes that are staged in single shots, Anne Bancroft's transformation as Mrs. Robinson, Dustin Hoffman's remarkable ability to act and look genuinely nervous, the three key components that define the chosen atmosphere (glass, plastic, and water) and its surrealist overtones, the hand-held footage which was quite unusual for the era, etc. The audio commentary was recorded in 2007.

• Commentary Three - in this archival audio commentary, Dustin Hoffman and Katherine Ross casually recall various experiences they had during the shooting of The Graduate, some of their frustrations and fears, the many special scenes that the film is remembered and cherished for, its critical reception, etc. The commentary was also included the 40th anniversary DVD release of the film.

BLU-RAY DISC

• Interviews -
  
  1. Meeting with Charles Webb - a wonderful conversation with author Charles Webb. The Graduate is based on Mr. Webb's famous novel. The interview also appeared on StudioCanal's first Blu-ray release of the film. (21 min).
  
  2. One on One with Dustin Hoffman - in this archival interview, Dustin Hoffman explains how he was cast by Mike Nichols to play Ben Braddock in the The Graduate, and how the film profoundly changed his career and life. (23 min).
  
  3. Producer Lawrence Turman - in this archival interview, producer Lawrence Turman recalls how he became involved with The Graduate, how the original story/the film resonated with him, and his interactions with Mike Nichols during the difficult funding process, etc. (17 min).

• The Graduate: Looking Back - in this archival program, film writer and director Michael Muszlak deconstructs The Graduate and talks about the complex socio-political environment in the United States and Europe at the time of its release. (13 min).

• The Graduate at 25 - in this archival program, Dustin Hoffman, Katharine Ross, producer Lawrence Turman, and screen writer Buck Henry recall their involvement with The Graduate, how the film's success changed their careers and lives, etc. (23 min).

• Students of The Graduate - this documentary film focuses on the tremendous success and cultural significance of The Graduate and the career of its creator, Mike Nichols. Included in it are clips from interviews with directors Harold Raims (Groundhog Day), Marc Foster (Stranger Than Fiction), Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton (Little Miss Sunshine), and David O. Russell (American Hustle), film professor Bruce Block, producer Lawrence Turman, and screenwriter Buck Henry, amongst others. The documentary was produced in 2007. (26 min).

• Screen Tests - a collection of archival screen tests. (8 min).

• Scene Analysis - in this archival video piece, Prof. Dr. Thomas Koebner, from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, analyzes different scenes from The Graduate. In German, with English subtitles. (13 min).

• About the Music - in this archival video piece, Prof. Helga de la Motte, from the Technical University of Berlin, discusses the legendary soundtrack of The Graduate. In German, with English subtitles. (8 min).

• Screen Tests - a collection of archival screen tests. (8 min).

• The Seduction Featurette - this archival program deconstructs Mrs. Robinson's behavior and 'wants' and the reactions of her target before and after he is seduced. (9 min).

ADDITIONAL CONTENT

• Soundtrack - Simon & Garfunkel's original soundtrack is presented on CD.

• Booklet - a 64-page booklet with new essays from Christina Newland, David Jenkins, Helen O'Hara and Simon Brew, as well as technical credits.

• Posters - two posters with original new new art for The Graduate.

The Graduate 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Arguably one of the best American films of the 1960s, Mike Nichols' The Graduate has everything modern American films don't -- charm, character, and wit. It was a real eye-opener that changed perceptions and had a lasting impact on an entire industry. StudioCanal's combo pack offers a wonderful native presentation of the excellent recent 4K restoration of The Graduate. If you choose to acquire it, keep in mind that the Blu-ray disc included in it has only a selection of bonus features. (A Blu-ray copy with the 4K restoration is available here). VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.