A disillusioned college graduate finds himself torn between his older lover and her daughter.A disillusioned college graduate finds himself torn between his older lover and her daughter.A disillusioned college graduate finds himself torn between his older lover and her daughter.
- Won 1 Oscar
- 22 wins & 17 nominations total
- Hotel Guest
- (uncredited)
- Church Member
- (uncredited)
- Hotel Guest
- (uncredited)
- Bellhop in Hotel Lobby
- (uncredited)
- Boarding House Resident
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaWhen Dustin Hoffman showed up at producer Joseph E. Levine's office for a casting interview, Levine mistook him for a window cleaner. So Hoffman, in character, cleaned a window.
- GoofsWhen Ben is seen crossing the Oakland Bay Bridge on his way to Berkeley he is driving on the upper of the two decks of the Bridge which only carries traffic westbound from Oakland to San Francisco and thus would be taking him away from Berkeley. The only way to get to Berkeley by way of the Bay Bridge is to drive Eastbound, and all such traffic is carried only on the lower deck of the Bridge.
- Quotes
Benjamin: Oh, my God!
Mrs. Robinson: Pardon?
Benjamin: Oh no, Mrs. Robinson. Oh no.
Mrs. Robinson: What's wrong?
Benjamin: Mrs. Robinson, you didn't... I mean, you didn't expect...
Mrs. Robinson: What?
Benjamin: I mean, you didn't really think I'd do something like THAT.
Mrs. Robinson: Like what?
Benjamin: What do you think?
Mrs. Robinson: Well, I don't know.
Benjamin: For God's sake, Mrs. Robinson. Here we are. You got me into your house. You give me a drink. You... put on music. Now, you start opening up your personal life to me and tell me your husband won't be home for hours.
Mrs. Robinson: So?
Benjamin: Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me!
Mrs. Robinson: [laughs] Huh?
Benjamin: Aren't you?
- Crazy creditsThe original long-form trailer for the film (ending with a credit line for prints by Pathe), as shown by Turner Classic Movies, garbled the Roman lettering of its 1967 copyright as "MCMLVXII" instead of MCMLXVII. The trailer was later revised, as seen in the IMDb version available here, to remove the Pathe prints credit and correct the Roman lettering of the copyright year.
- Alternate versionsThere are two versions of the first encounter between Ben and Mrs Robinson. When Ben turns around after Mrs Robinson locks the door to her daughter's bedroom to make a proposition to him. In one, Ben says "Jesus Christ," and "Oh, my Christ" as he views Mrs Robinson in the nude. In another version the words Ben says have been dubbed to "Jesus God" and Oh, my God".
- ConnectionsEdited into Comic Relief (1997)
- SoundtracksThe Sounds of Silence
(uncredited)
Music by Paul Simon
Lyrics by Paul Simon
Performed by Simon & Garfunkel
Courtesy of CBS Records
First of all, Benjamin is a naive 21-year-old who falls for the mature charms of Mrs. Robinson, who, along with her husband, is part of his parents' social circle, but in real life Dustin Hoffman was 30 and Anne Bancroft was 36, so she wasn't all that much of an older woman. I'm guessing part of the reason for this (the rest being the talent of the actors, who both did a great job in their roles), is that if they had cast a younger actor as Benjamin and an older actress as Mrs. Robinson, audiences might have been bothered by the bed scenes. Having them be real life age contemporaries prevented that.
Also, if the bored, unhappy, frustrated Mrs. Robinson wanted the fun in the sack her husband obviously wasn't providing, why turn to the son of people you play bridge with? She could have trolled the local college campus if she had it bad for young guys, or whatever. She had to know that, sooner or later, they'd be caught. (Unless that was a turn-on?)
And can we really believe for even a minute that Elaine (Katherine Ross) could possibly be happy with a guy that slept with her mother? It may have been the swinging sixties, but she seemed more of a family fifties girl.
There was one scene that's kind of poignant. It's when Benjamin wants to see if he and Mrs. Robinson have something besides sex, and tries to get her to talk about something, anything. She casually mentions art, and then she reluctantly reveals that's what she was studying in college when she got pregnant with Elaine and had to drop out to get married. The regretful tone in her voice when she said the word "art" said it all.
- ldeangelis-75708
- Mar 21, 2023
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official site
- Language
- Also known as
- Die Reifeprüfung
- Filming locations
- 607 North Palm Drive, Beverly Hills, California, USA(Mrs. Robinson's house)
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $3,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $104,945,305
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $37,948
- Feb 17, 1997
- Gross worldwide
- $105,015,318
- Runtime1 hour 46 minutes
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1