# 17 The Graduate

1967
Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, Katharine Ross

Director: Mike Nichols

Recent college grad Ben Braddock, played by Hoffman, doesn't know what he is going to do with his post-college life.  After a run in at his homecoming party with Mrs. Robinson, he begins an affair with her, only to then fall in love with her daughter Elaine.  After Elaine learns that Ben had slept with her mother (who tells Elaine that she had been raped by Ben), she wants nothing to do with him.  Ben follows Elaine to Berkley, hoping to win her back.  But to be honest, he turns into quite the stalker there for a bit.  Eventually, Elaine is set to marry someone else, and Ben finds the church to take her away.  The two run out of the church together and hop onto a bus.  It's all joy and elation at first, but the last shot of the movie shows the two of them on that bus with a look of "what the hell did we just do" on their faces.  I'm left with the feeling that it may not work out in the end.

Up next: Sunset Boulevard