University of Virginia Library

Significant Similarities

In many ways, in fact, Hoffman
presented in Benjamin Braddock a
combination of some of the characteristics
which so well served the
past masters. This is not to say that
Dustin Hoffman consciously took
something from each of the four,
but some of the similarities are
significant.

For instance, in describing
Charlie-Chaplin, Agee wrote that
"the Tramp is as centrally representative
of humanity, as many-sided
and as mysterious, as Hamlet."
In like manner, Benjamin
universalized the anti-hero of contemporary
society. Hoffman, in his
way, responded to the overwhelming
confusion of his environment
as Chaplin had done in such
classics as City Lights and The Gold
Rush.

Harold Lloyd, Agee explained,
"was especially good at putting a
very timid, spoiled or brassy young
fellow through devastating embarrassments."
Interestingly, Hoffman
played, at different times during
the film, the timid young man (as
at his parents' party), the spoiled
child (with his swimming pool and
Italian sports car), and the brass
adventurer (in the Final chase scene
at the church).

"No other comedian could do as
much with the dean pan," insisted
Agee in his characterization of
Buster Keaton. Yet Keaton's dead
pan may well have been exceeded
by Hoffman's marvelously effective
wheezing - a sort of moan -
during those moments when he was
most obviously at a total loss to
respond to his situation. This bit of
business, unfortunately too often
lost on audiences whose laughter
splashed over it, was far more
effective than any words could have
been. Like Keaton's dead pan, it
expressed in a non-verbal fashion
the reality of a visual dilemma. And
it did so with a mannerism that was
particularly germane to the character's
nature.