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THUNDERDOME
Why ‘The Graduate’ is The Quintessential Summer Movie
Mike Nichols’ 1967 social commentary comedy captures a summer feeling we’ve all had: “What do I do now?”
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Thunderdome is a Fanfare series where our writers good-naturedly debate some matter of pop culture and then leave it to the readers to decide. Read each post and vote at the bottom!
For those who have never seen it, The Graduate is an Oscar-winning 1967 (yes, that old!) film beloved of cinephiles across generations. It’s part quirky delayed coming-of-age, part love story, part subtle comedy, and many parts social commentary on upper middle class America in the 1960’s — and a young man’s rejection of its expectations of him.
Why is it my Quintessential Summer Movie? At this point, it gets personal.
The film’s protagonist, Benjamin Braddock (played by a brilliantly cast young Dustin Hoffman), upon graduation from college finds himself directionless and unmotivated to do anything. He passes the time over the long hot summer by floating on an inflatable lounger in his well-to-do parents’ pool in Pasadena.
