Rating of
3/4
The ten best years of American Cinema Starts Here
Gabe - wrote on 09/05/07
"Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me. Aren't you?" From there, it just keeps getting better. Mike Nichols, perfectly captures one man, Hoffman, and a country in a transitional period. Dustin Hoffman, is not only caught between an older woman and her daughter but at a crossroads in life. He's just graduated college and he doesn't know what he wants to do. America as a whole was also in a transitional period. It was a time when the old gaurd was coming to terms with the fact that their way wasn't going to work anymore. Protests were popping up everywhere, fighting for civil rights, equal rights, or the Vietnam War. This film, along with Bonnie and Clyde (1967), was also the start of what most consider the best ten years of American cinema, beginning here and ending with Star Wars in 1977. Prior to this time the studio system, though starting to show its cracks, was still in control as was the Hays Code. Most movies in America at the time, to get made had to follow fairly strict guidelines to get a film made. So, in America we had a lot of musicals and other harmless films. In Europe though they had a lot more freedom to do as they pleased. It wasn't until 1966, when MGM released Antonioni's Blowup without an approval certificate that the tide started to turn. So, this film, is not only a great story put film, but one that broke a lot of barriers and made other American films possible.
