emotionally too much,” admits Turman. “But
we were lucky, it didn’t.” Murray Hamilton
— Mayor Vaughn in Jaws — eventually played
a more placid Mr Robinson. And the decision
clearly didn’t affect Hackman and Nichols too
strongly — they would finally work together on
The Birdcage nearly 30 years later.
THE LOOK
The rehearsal period also weeded out another
stellar talent: cinematographer Haskell Wexler.
At the end of the three weeks, Wexler decided he
hated the book and left. Turman looked around
and replaced him with old-timer Robert Surtees,
best known for Ben-Hur. “I remember telling
Mike, “He’s a generation older than we are” —
everybody else on the movie was young, including
me at that point,” says Turman. For all that
The Graduate is a showcase for precocious talent,
the veteran Surtees is the film’s unsung hero,
employing a radical (for ’60s Hollywood) use of
handheld cameras, a wide variety of lenses and
filters, plus an elaborate use of POV shots. Turman
remembers Surtees gave Nichols a compliment,
telling the director, “‘You’re not asking for any
over-the-shoulder shots. Neither did John Ford.’
That’s quite something coming from a guy like
Surtees.” But it wasn’t just the visuals of The
Graduate that were ground-breaking.
THE SOUNDTRACK
Turman had tried and failed to hire Paul Simon
and Art Garfunkel to write music for his previous
film The Flim-Flam Man. Independently, Nichols
was sent the duo’s album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary
And Thyme by his brother and became obsessed.
“Mike and I had a two-minute conversation,”
remembers Turman, “and then I made a deal for
Simon and Garfunkel to write three new songs.
But they became so busy in their recording career
they ran out of time, so we used the old songs.”
The Sound Of Silence famously accompanies the
opening titles with Benjamin on a moving
walkway at LAX, while Scarborough Fair and
April She Will Come proved the perfect
soundtrack to Benjamin’s ennui. Yet Nichols was
interested in a peppier ditty Paul Simon was
working on. “It was called Mrs Roosevelt and
Mike asked them to change the title to Mrs
Robinson,” says Turman. “I can’t take any credit
for that.” Mrs Robinson hit number one on the
US chart, helping The Graduate become the
highest-grossing film of 1968. Yet, 50 years on,
Turman has no explanation for its success.
“Clearly it hit the centre of the zeitgeist,” he offers.
“But if I knew the answer, I would have done it
again!” Charles Webb wrote a sequel called HomeSchool but Turman left wisely alone. Perhaps he
knew, like Benjamin, you can only pop your
cherry once.THE GRADUATE: 50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION IS
OUT 16 AUGUST ON DVD AND BLU-RAYAbove: Ben takes
a moment to
appreciate the pool
while attempting to
figure out life after
college. Here: Let’s
talk: Ben with
Mrs Robinson.What we said: “‘We’re
all fucked up,’ Nichols’
bravura poem sang to
us. ‘Is there any hope?’
This was satire at its
most biting.”
Notable extras: Archival
commentaries, Hoffman
interview, documentaries
and screentests — sadly
not Redford’s.THE
GRADUATE
HHHHH
RATED MTHE
VERDICT