Film Review: Reviewed By Tom Hutchinson; 5 out of 5

This landmark satire on America's bourgeoisie thrust the unknown Dustin Hoffman into the limelight and won a best director Oscar for Mike Nichols. In his first major role, Hoffman is sensational as the innocent college graduate who is seduced by older married woman Anne Bancroft and then falls for her daughter Katharine Ross. The humour in Calder Willingham and Buck Henry's screenplay has the bite of a dry martini, Robert Surtees's stunning, innovative camerawork contributes telling visual ironies (especially in the scene where Hoffman runs to the church) and the Simon and Garfunkel soundtrack perfectly captures the mood of disaffected youth seething beneath the laid-back exterior of 1960s California. Nichols's Oscar was well deserved, launching him into the top rank of Hollywood directors, though the film missed out in six other categories - best picture, actor (Hoffman), actress (Bancroft), supporting actress (Ross), screenplay and cinematography.

Plot Summary

Satirical comedy drama, starring Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft and Katharine Ross. Recent college graduate Benjamin Braddock returns home and discovers a new "tutor" in the attractive form of Mrs Robinson. The alcoholic Mrs R decides that Benjamin needs instruction in more physical matters after his intellectual struggles.