Appraising The Graduate: The Mike Nichols Classic and Its Impact in Hollywood in Bloomington, MN

The popular success in 1967 of
The Graduate
was immediate and total; at the time, only
Gone with the Wind
and
The Sound of Music
were bigger box-office winners. Yet such phenomenal success came at a price: On the film's 40th anniversary, director Mike Nichols claimed that
had been "whipped away" by a young audience hungry for countercultural documents. This study, the first monograph on
, explores how popular and subsequent critical reception deflected a full understanding of the film's complex point of view, which satirizes everything in its path—especially Benjamin and Elaine, its young "heroes." The text explores how the film offers not the happy ending some imagine, but a corrosive and satirical vision of humanity.
Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.