University of Virginia Library

Wide Acclaim

With a film of such wide popular
acclaim, it is tenuous at best to
attempt a delineation of the strands
which formed the successful whole.
The interesting point about The
Graduate is that because the popular
acclaim was reinforced by
favorable critical commentary, any
analysis of contributing factors is
allowed a comfortable latitude.
This analysis of the comic elements
is necessarily only one dimensional:
it alone cannot explain the nature
of the film itself nor its success. But
it can, and hopefully does, provide
an historical context for serious
evaluation.

The Graduate, finally, might
have caused James Agee to add
Dustin Hoffman to his coterie of
archetypes.