The Graduate Limited Edition Boxset is now out in a 4K Special Edition release, and stars Dustin Hoffman (Megalopolis, Twiggy) in the title role as a young man about to step out into the big, wide world, but one who is far from ready to do so.
Guests at his graduation party want to offer him jobs in industry but it’s not for him, but what is?
Taking one of his mother’s friends home, Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft), is about to give Benjamin Braddock a life-changing experience. Old enough to know better, she starts flirting with him making him feel very uneasy, especially when she strips naked in front of him. From initial bed-romps to booking a room in a hotel for the night, they go about their affair without gaining attention from anyone.
Problems are abound when her daughter Elaine (Katharine Ross) returns home and Ben is persuaded to take her out. The question is – how long can he string along a girl he begins to love while carrying on with her mother before the truth comes out?
In his first major film role, Hoffman is totally convincing as the naive young graduate entering a new playground where the rules are different, while Bancroft plays it cool as the married woman doing what she shouldn’t be doing while maintaining a facade when other people are around. The script is also first-rate with clever turns of phrase and witty one-liners, such as when Ben arrives at the hotel ahead of Mrs. R., and I didn’t realise until now that Dustin is having the conversation with co-screenwriter Buck Henry!:
- Room Clerk: “Can I help you, sir ?”
Ben: “What? No.. I’m just..”
Room Clerk: “Are you here for an affair, sir ?”
Ben (shocked): “What ?!?”
Room Clerk: “The Singleman party, sir ?”
Ben (relieved): “Oh, yes. The Singleman Party!”
Room Clerk: “It’s in the main ballroom.”
Ben: “Ah, thank you. Hmm.”
That’s just one of many classic scenes in this incredible film, but did you know that William Daniels, who plays Ben’s father, was the voice of KITT the car in Knight Rider? And he’s still going strong at 98!
The film is presented in its original widescreen ratio of 2.35:1 which is the only way to watch this film. Director Mike Nichols utilises the full widescreen frame to great effect throughout the whole of the film and to even crop it to 16:9, would destroy many an excellent composition. The picture quality is stunning, and has zero flaws.
For the audio as I watched this time, I chose the Remastered Mix 5.1 DTS-HD MA, but as it’s a dialogue piece, nothing really stood out as requiring it. The Simon and Garfunkel tunes are in stereo, so I guess all this remaster will add is some ambience. Still, what we do have is an aural delight, and the songs include classics such as Scarborough Fair, The Sound of Silence and Mrs Robinson (no relation to anyone in my family).
The extras are as follows, and it’s a mix of some relatively new ones, and some from previous releases. For the featurettes, they tend to have four or five chapters to them, so one comes approximately every five minutes. All bar the first listing below are on the second disc, which is a Blu-ray:
- Audio commentaries: Three of them. One from Mike Nichols and Steven Soderbergh, one from Dustin Hoffman and Katharine Ross, and one from Professor Thomas Koebner.
- Meeting With An Author: Charles Webb (20:13): Shot in 2006, this is quite an old featurette, an oddly framed at the movie’s original 2.35:1 aspect ratio. Still, it’s well-chaptered with five. I didn’t learn too much from him, but I saw online that since he sold the movie rights for around $20,000, he didn’t make the fortune that he could’ve done from the film, and ended up destitute. And although he wrote a sequel, Home School, in 2007 – which hasn’t yet been made into a film – Charles Webb passed away in 2020.
- One On One with Dustin Hoffman (22:41): Shot at the time when the film was 25 years old, he talks about many things about the film, including how to shoot the finale (which I won’t spoil), a casting director’s fascination with Katharine Ross, and thoughts about a potential sequel.
And I’m reminded that the “Director’s Chair” DVD release only had this interview in a five-minute version, so this is much longer. Hurrah!
Like a lot of extras that are quite old, they’re shot in 4:3, so the film clips are non-anamorphic.
- Interview with Producer Lawrence Turman (16:15): He discusses potential other actors who could’ve taken the lead role of Benjamin, including the sadly now, late Robert Redford! And… also sadly, I see Mr Turman passed away in July 2023, at the age of 96.
This extra isn’t dated, but it seems fairly recent. I would guess that it was done for the 50th Anniversary, making it 2017.
- The Graduate: Looking Back (12:57): This extra comes from Michel Muszlak, credited as Film Writer and Director, although he isn’t linked to The Graduate, and there’s scant info about him on IMDB, with no writing or directing credits
- The Graduate at 25 (22:21): This extra features chat from all the industry bigwigs involved, plus a number of film clips.
- Students of The Graduate (25:56): Another archive featurette, this time with interview snippets from filmmakers who loved the film, as opposed to a “What happened next” for all the cast, which is what I was expecting. It’s shot in 16:9, so the film clips are anamorphic, but so many people have since passed away, including Ghostbusters’ Harold Ramis. This was shot in 2007, for the 40th anniversary.
- Screen Tests (7:18): The original screen tests for Dustin Hoffman and Katharine Ross.
- Scene Analysis (12:09): Professor Thomas Koebner pops up again, commenting on several scenes, in German with English subtitles.
- About The Music (7:55): from German musicologist Helga de la Motte, again in German with English subtitles.
- The Seduction Featurette (8:49): Several people from the Students of The Graduate extra talking about THAT famous scene.
- Two A3 Posters: You can see these in the video above.
- 64-Page Book: An absolutely gorgeous work of art that I wasn’t expecting. When I saw it, at first, I thought it was a revised version of the 60-page book that came with the Director’s Chair DVD release, from 2001. I can’t find my DVD of that at the time of writing – and it was some time ago – but this release, albeit without a table of contents, includes new and engaging essays from writers and authors such as Christina Newland, David Jenkins, Helen O’Hara and Simon Brew. Plenty to get stuck into!
- CD Soundtrack: All the classic tunes from Simon and Garfunkel!
The Graduate is out now on 4K Blu-ray Limited Edition, as well as the 2017 50th Anniversary release on Blu-ray, and the 2010 release on DVD.
|
FILM CONTENT PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS |
10 10 8 10 |
|
OVERALL |
10 |
Cert: 
Running time: 105 minutes
Year: 1967
Chapters: 12
Cat.No: OPTUCE4609
Distributor: Studiocanal
Released: September 15th 2025
Picture: 2160p High Definition
Language: English
Audio: English: Original Mono Mix, Remastered Mix 5.1 DTS-HD MA; French: Mono; German: 5.1 DTS-HD MA; Audio description
Widescreen: 2.35:1 (Anamorphic Panavision)
Subtitles: English SDH, French, German
Disc Format: BD100, BD50, CD Soundtrack
Director: Mike Nichols
Producers: Mike Nichols, Lawrence Turman
Screenplay: Calder Willingham, Buck Henry
Novel: Charles Webb
Cast:
Mrs. Robinson: Anne Bancroft
Benjamin Braddock: Dustin Hoffman
Elaine Robinson: Katharine Ross
Mr. Braddock: William Daniels
Mr. Robinson: Murray Hamilton
Mrs. Braddock: Elizabeth Wilson
Room Clerk: Buck Henry
Carl Smith: Brian Avery
Mr. McGuire: Walter Brooke
Mr. McCleery: Norman Fell
Mrs. Singleman: Alice Ghostley
Miss DeWitte: Marion Lorne
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.