The Graduate Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		5.0
Overall		4.5

The Graduate Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov August 26, 2017

Mike Nichols' "The Graduate" (1967) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of StudioCanal. The supplemental features on the disc include multiple audio commentaries; archival interviews with Dustin Hoffman; conversation with author Charles Webb; scene analysis; screen tests; and a lot more. The release also arrives with an illustrated booklet featuring an essay by Time Out film editor Dave Calhoun and exclusive behind the scenes photos, taken by renowned photographer Bill Willoughby, as well as five exclusive cards with reproductions of original film stills. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

Ben Braddock

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an older woman and then falls in love with her daughter, but it is actually a deadly serious film about a society with outdated and compromised values and morals.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 into 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 Robinson 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 Grammy award for Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture (Dave Grusin, Paul Simon).

The Graduate Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.37:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Mike Nichols' The Graduate arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of StudioCanal.

The release is sourced from the same 4K restoration of the film that Criterion produced and used for its recent release of the film in the United States. So basically all of the major improvements that are highlighted in our review of the Criterion release are also present here. Depth and density, for instance, are now a lot more convincing not only during the daylight footage but also during indoor/nighttime footage where light is either naturally restricted or managed in a particular way. The color palette is different as well, boasting better saturated primaries and an expanded range of nuances. However, my feeling is that perhaps saturation is a tad too strong and that in some areas the blacks actually produce light dark crush. There are no traces of problematic degraining or sharpening adjustments. Some encoding optimizations, however, should have been made because while viewing the film I noticed a couple of sequences where the release comes dangerously close to replicating some of the issues that are present on StudioCanal's release of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. Image stability is outstanding. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free player in order to access its content. Also, the main menu can be set for three additional territories, and for two of them there are additional subtitle options).

The Graduate Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: English LPCM 2.0 and English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature. When turned on, they split the image frame and the black bar below it.

I prefer the original Mono track, but the release retains the 5.1 remix that was approved by Mike Nichols so you probably should experiment with both tracks to see which one you prefer. I believe that the Mono track provides the film with a more authentic period ambience, but there is no denying that the 5.1 track very clearly expands the audio field in a number of different sequences. The important thing here is that there are no technical anomalies to report.

The Graduate Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• 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, directors Mike Nichols and Steven Soderbergh discuss the rather unusual history of The Graduate (which initially was supposed to be Mike 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 remarkably ability to act and look genuinely nervous, the three key components that define the film's 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 the many things they did 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 the critical reception of the film, etc. The commentary was also included the 40th anniversary DVD release of the film.

• 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. In English, not subtitled. (21 min).
  
  2. The Graduate: One on One with Dustin Hoffman - in this archival interview, Dustin Hoffman explains how he was cast by director Mike Nichols to play Ben Braddock in the The Graduate, and how the film profoundly changed his career and life. In English, not subtitled. (23 min).
  
  3. Producer Lawrence Turman - in this brand new 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 director Mike Nichols during the difficult funding process, etc. The interview was conducted exclusively for StudioCanal. In English, not subtitled. (17 min).

• The Graduate: Looking Back - in this archival featurette, 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 the film was released. The interview also appeared on StudioCanal's first Blu-ray release of the film. In English, not subtitled. (13 min).

• The Graduate at 25 - in this archival featurette, Dustin Hoffman, Katharine Ross, producer Lawrence Turman, and screen writer Buck Henry recall their involvement with The Graduate, how the film changed their careers and lives, etc. The featurette also appeared on StudioCanal's first Blu-ray release of the film. In English, not subtitled. (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. In English, not subtitled. (26 min).

• Mike Nichols: An American Master - this wonderful documentary feature focuses on the fascinating life and career of Mike Nichols, from his childhood years in Germany as Adolph Hitler was on his way to redraw the map of Europe to his later years in Hollywood. Included in the documentary are clips from archival interviews with the director, musician Alex Hassilev, manager Jack Rollins, and Robin Williams, amongst others. In English, not subtitled. (54 min).

• Scene Analysis - in this archival video piece, Prof. Dr. Thomas Koebner, from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, analyzes different scenes from The Graduate. The piece also appeared on StudioCanal's first Blu-ray release of the film. In German, with optional 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. The piece also appeared on StudioCanal's first Blu-ray release of the film. In German, with optional English subtitles. (8 min).

• Screen Tests - a collection of archival screen tests. In English, not subtitled. (8 min).

• Booklet - a 10-page illustrated booklet featuring an essay by Time Out film editor Dave Calhoun and exclusive behind the scenes photos, taken by renowned photographer Bill Willoughby.

• Collectible Cards - five exclusive cards with reproductions of original film stills. (See the images provided with our review).

The Graduate Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Arguably one of the best American films from 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 new Blu-ray release is sourced from the same excellent 4K restoration that Criterion produced and used for its recent release of the film in the United States. My one and only criticism is that lavish releases such as this one should be produced and sold as double sets -- one disc for the main feature with optimized video and audio, and one disc for the extensive bonus features. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.