My Movie Challenge

The Graduate (1967): For a woman who loves Simon & Garfunkel as much as the wife does, it was stunning to hear her tell me she hadn't seen this movie all the way through. "yeah, there is the great music, the guy gets hit on by the mom and it's kinda creepy and depressing" was her basic summary. I'd like to think she could come up with something stronger for this coming-of-age classic, but at least she had the main themes down pat. Obviously most everyone knows the deal: Dustin Hoffman is a college graduate who has no idea what to do with his life. A family friend (Anne Bancroft) decides to mack on him in every way possible, taking advantage of him and teasing him until he finally buckles and schtoops her. It's weird watching this in 2012 and thinking how weirdly unrealistic this plays out in the movie. Alas, their relationship is destined for drama, and soon enters Bancroft's daughter and Hoffman falls for her in about one day, but not after an epic first date where he originally tries to get the daughter to hate him. It's epic, I tell ya, as far as wickedly cruel first dates go. In the end, a guy and a girl make a crazy decision and you are left never knowing how things ended. After watching it, the wife had two reflections: 1) How crazy it is that the Wayne's World movie recreated nearly every damn scene from this movie without missing a beat and people took that seriously; and 2) Her original summation of the movie was still to the point, only with it being even more depressing than she thought.