This is Benjamin. He’s a little worried about his future.
A disillusioned college graduate finds himself torn between his older lover and her daughter.
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Character
Spare, intimate, classical in form and character-led.
- sparerichly built
- intimateepic
- classical in formformally daring
- character-ledplot-driven
- rawmeticulous
Who loves it, who doesn't
79 profiled raters. Loved most by The Prestige Hunters; disliked most by The Sinceres.
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Reviews on TMDB
Written by TMDB members; each links to the original. Not part of Tastebuds's numbers.
- Filipe Manuel Netoon TMDB · Oct 20234/10
**A good example of a film that was extremely notable in its time, but that is not very relevant today.** This film is considered by some to be one of the best that US cinema has given us. It is also the film that catapulted to fame the discreet Dustin Hoffman, one of the most consistent and solid actors of his generation. There is no doubt that he deserved the status, in this and other films that followed. However, considering this film as one of the best ever made in the USA doesn't seem fair to me: the film is satisfactory, it was a huge success at the time and had an impact on pop culture, but it has aged poorly, and today it seems like nothing more than a minor work. The script is, perhaps, the key point to understanding the film: a love triangle between a young man inexperienced with women, a seductive older woman and her young daughter, with whom he falls in love. Released in 1967, in the wake of the Sexual Revolution and a growing challenge to society's values and morals, it is a film with a strong focus on the characters' sexuality and which places women in the role of seductress before a beardless, clumsy male figure. The sexual evocations are discreet in our eyes – we ar
Read the whole review on TMDB - CinemaSerfon TMDB · Feb 20237/10
Dustin Hoffman is great in this as the impressionable twenty-one year old "Ben" who falls prey to the wiles of the woman immortalised by Simon & Garfunkel. "Mrs Robinson" (Anne Bancroft) is married to the husband of his father's business partner. She is sexy, alluring, sophisticated - and he, well he is just young, naive and horny. Their assignations proceed with few problems but in parallel, his own family are trying to hook him up with her daughter "Elaine" (Katharine Ross). The plot thickens and poor old "Ben" finds him self more and more conflicted, Whom might he choose? Whom might he be allowed to choose? Can their secret stay just that? What, I think, keeps this stylish effort from Mike Nichols relevant fifty-odd years later is it's ability to expose the human, visceral, need for sex, for love, for "more" - without graphically demonstrating it! How characters evolve into more rounded, measured, less "instant" human beings - and Hoffman carries that development role off perfectly. Bancroft is simply a class act. She manages to morph from glamorous wife and mother to seductress and back again with a distinct panache and chic that is both menacing and tantalising in equal measur
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Cast
- Dustin HoffmanBen Braddock
- Anne BancroftMrs. Robinson
- Katharine RossElaine Robinson
- William DanielsMr. Braddock
- Murray HamiltonMr. Robinson
- Elizabeth WilsonMrs. Braddock
- Buck HenryRoom Clerk
- Brian AveryCarl Smith
- Walter BrookeMr. McGuire
- Norman FellMr. McCleery
Crew
- Mike NicholsDirector
- Calder WillinghamScreenplay
- Buck HenryScreenplay
- Charles WebbNovel
- Robert SurteesDirector of Photography
- Sam O'SteenEditor
- Lawrence TurmanProducer
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Pairings
Companions we picked from the closest works, and how to take them.
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Carnal Knowledge 197180% alikeClose across the board.
Manhattan 197979% alikeClose across the board.
Harold and Maude 197179% alikeClose across the board.
Dinner at Eight 193379% alikeClose across the board.
The History Boys 200679% alikeClose across the board.
Freaks and Geeks 199972% alikeTelevision · Close across the board.
Thomas Was Alone 201270% alikeGame · Close across the board.
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