event The Graduate

Mike Nichols’ 1967 film The Graduate placed counterculture angst in a context that upper-middle-class Americans could understand by converting the plasticity of suburban culture into easily mocked grotesquerie and channeling the restlessness of a pre-stardom Dustin Hoffman into a couple of unfulfilling romantic affairs. Even the soundtrack—Simon And Garfunkel, not acid rock—made youth rebellion more palatable, especially since Hoffman’s rebellion amounts to him not wanting to work for a living. He has more in common with Holden Caulfield or a Wes Anderson hero than Abbie Hoffman—then again, so did a lot of the would-be hippies of the time.

Mike Nichols’ 1967 film The Graduate placed counterculture angst in a context that upper-middle-class Americans could understand by converting the plasticity of suburban culture into easily mocked grotesquerie and channeling the restlessness of a pre-stardom Dustin Hoffman into a couple of unfulfilling romantic affairs. Even the soundtrack—Simon And Garfunkel, not acid rock—made youth rebellion more palatable, especially since Hoffman’s rebellion amounts to him not wanting to work for a living. He has more in common with Holden Caulfield or a Wes Anderson hero than Abbie Hoffman—then again, so did a lot of the would-be hippies of the time.