The Graduate Collector's Edition - StudioCanal 4K UHD (UK Import)

Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) has just graduated from college, and he doesn’t know what to do with his life. It’s not enough that the uncertainty of his life and future has crippled him with anxiety; no one wants to hear him out. Whenever he begins to talk about his problems, he’s brushed off, and they rush onto the next thing. Worse yet, everyone seems to know his life better than he seems to know it. Everyone has an answer, and everyone knows what he should be doing with his life. Everyone except Benjamin, that is.

The night of Benjamin’s graduation party, he drives home Mrs. Robison (Anne Bancroft), who promptly sets about seducing him. While reluctant at first, he agrees to the affair. Out of a combination of boredom, the uncertainty of his future, and general biological impulse, he begins meeting with Mrs. Robison at a hotel under a fake name, where they spend practically the whole summer meeting up in a secret rendezvous.

Things get messy when Benjamin’s parents set him up on a date with Elaine Robinson (Katharine Ross), Mrs. Robinson’s daughter—much to her extreme chagrin. Things get even messier when he begins to fall in love with her.

Moreso than any other movie I’ve seen, I believe, The Graduate inspires contentious debate about what it really means. Just like Benjamin’s uncertain future, everyone seems to have an answer, and everyone’s so sure of what it means. To me, art is what it makes you feel. A movie like The Graduate allows you to imprint yourself on it, and certain details, left intentionally vague, are open to interpretation. During the famous finale, when the two young lovers rush to the bus and their laughter fades into deadpan expressions, the beauty of that sequence isn’t what it means, it's what it means to us. Whatever happens to Benjamin and Elaine is irrelevant. The relevance is in what that moment means to each individual viewer and how they see their futures.

The Graduate has been called a movie that defined a generation, because it so perfectly captures a feeling of a time and a place that no longer exists. And while that may be, I think that it also perfectly captures a specific awkwardness and loneliness of a specific age. It’s a universal truth embedded into what it means to be alive, to transition into adulthood, and face the fear of not knowing what’s next.

Vital Disc Stats: The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
Studio Canal’s release of The Graduate on 4K UHD Blu-ray will see the film in a three-disc set, including the Simon & Garfunkel soundtrack. For this review, I did not have access to the packaging; we only received check discs for the main feature and extras. Usually, I don’t mind, but the packaging on this one is so gorgeous, I wanted to have it all my own—I love the newly-commissioned poster artwork. This release will also include a 64-page booklet with new essays from Christina Newland, David Jenkins, Helen O’Hara, and Simon Brew and two posters, with both new and original theatrical artwork. If/When we get our hands on the final retail edition, we'll update the listing further. 

The 4K scan used for the video presentation on this release of The Graduate was sourced from the Criterion Collection, from the original 35mm camera negative, and graded in Dolby Vision HDR. The color timing on this release references previous grading that had been approved by Mike Nichols.

What I like about Mike Nichols’ films is that he was part of a new Hollywood that forged a new way of telling stories, but also embraced a classical Hollywood. With Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, he worked with old-school scribe Ernest Lehman on the adaptation. And with The Graduate, he had it shot by Robert Surtees, who had lensed beautiful Technicolor pictures like The Long, Long Trailer. So, you have this film that feels so modern in its sensibilities and how it’s told, with a film stock that makes it look appropriately classic. The color throughout pops without oversaturation, on the hues of skin color and the greenery of the set dressing. The result is an ageless picture that could belong to any time, at the cusp of new beginnings, a running theme of the story itself.

Hello darkness, my old friend, The Graduate is available in both its original mix, presented in a lossless LPCM format, and a 5.1 surround mix, encoded in DTS-HD MA. The surround mix, like the video presentation, was supervised by director Mike Nichols. Both tracks are great, depending on your equipment and sensibilities. The original mono mix will be perfect for audio purists. It’s crisp and well-balanced, favoring dialogue but allowing ambient effects like the murmuring of a crowd to shine through, and the Simon & Garfunkel songs are nice and loud, without being too loud.

The surround option does a great job of honoring its original, theatrical mix. It’s a front-heavy presentation, with the rears used for an occasional sound effect like the rev of a motor when Benjamin is racing to Santa Barbara to stop a wedding. And, of course, the Simon & Garfunkel songs get a lot of great play through the surrounds, too. Like the mono option, all of these elements are mixed perfectly so as to never lose sight of the dialogue.

Studio Canal’s release of The Graduate has an excellent collection of supplemental features, with three audio commentaries on the 4K disc and interviews, featurettes and other features found on the 4K disc:

4K UHD Disc

• Audio Commentary - Professor Thomas Koebner

• Audio Commentary - Mike Nichols and Steven Soderbergh

• Audio Commentary - Dustin Hoffman and Katharine Ross

Blu-ray Bonus Disc

• Meeting with an Author: Charles Webb (HD 20:13)

• One on One with Dustin Hoffman (SD 22:41)

• Interview with Producer Lawrence Turman (HD 16:15)

• The Graduate: Looking Back (SD 12:57)

• The Graduate at 25 (SD 22:21)

• Students of The Graduate (SD 25:56)

• Screen Tests (HD 7:18)

• Scene Analysis (SD 12:09)

• About the Music (SD 7:55)

• The Seduction Featurette (SD 8:49)

The Graduate is a true classic in every sense of the word. The filmmaking is masterful. The performances are unforgettable. And, from beginning to end, there’s not a false note, there’s not one scene that falls short. Studio Canal’s work on this release is impeccable, boosting a remarkable film with an audio and video presentation, allowing it to look, perhaps, the most beautifully it ever has on home video. The Graduate, from Studio Canal, is Highly Recommended.