"The Graduate" was originally billed as a comedy. But is it? It's sort of like saying "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" is a Western. Both films have some of the traditional elements of their respective genres. However, at crucial moments they do u-turns away from the traditional story-lines which push their movies into new territory quite removed from their traditional forebears. They are almost in their own sub-genres.
Romantic comedies before "The Graduate" were lighthearted escapist affairs, often with Doris Day pouting and saying "Oooo!" to her would be significant other, usually Cary Grant or James Garner. Or guys going gah-gah enamored with Marilyn Monroe. In Hepburn-Tracey romantic comedies of the 1940's, Spenser was always ultimately in charge and got the final say in the situation. If "The Graduate" is a romantic comedy, it's basically in reverse in which the initial "significant other" is someone the protagonist shouldn't be involved with and didn't initially pursue.
"The Graduate" is in fact the quintessential cougar-cub story. He becomes the prey and she is the predator, a role reversal that may have not been done in American cinema previously, or at least very rarely. Maybe the closest film with a similar "bite" to it with both comedy and serious sexual overtones prior to "The Graudate" is "The Apartment", directed by Billy Wilder. But even here, it's the males who are more or less in charge.
When Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) arrives home in the Los Angeles from a nameless university back east, everything seems comedic but also a bit disturbing. The one "word" of advice from one of his parents' friends regarding his "future" has become one of several classic lines in the history of American cinema originating from this film. It certainly drew laughs from the first audiences but in retrospective it offers a caustic commentary on American life and goals of that time. The world, not just physically, but morally and culturally, is becoming synthetic at best and bankrupt at worst.
The first sequence involves Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft), wife of Mr. Robinson, Ben's father's business partner, trying to seduce young naive Ben only hours after he's disembarked off the plane. The scene in which Ben tries to get a room from the concierge at the Taft Hotel is one of the funniest scenes of the late 1960's. (Buck Henry who plays the concierge is one of the screenwriters.) But very quickly it becomes understood it's an affair for sexual satisfaction but not love.
The stark undertones of the seduction and the eventual affair become less comedic as the film progresses. Water is a recurring presence throughout, and there are interesting interpretations of what the water means and represents. Ben's aquarium, the Braddock's swimming pool, even rain. The first time Mrs. Robinson asks Ben to drive her home she throws her car keys into his aquarium. Online Film Critics Society ranked Mrs Robinson 84th in the top 100 villains in cinematic history. (Biff from "Back to the Future" ranked 85th.)
So the original question: Is "The Graduate" a romantic comedy? I would say not really. It sort of begins innocently enough but the loveless affair makes everything far darker and more disturbing. And when Ben begins dating Mrs. Robinson's daughter Elaine, the tale takes a much darker turn. The wrath of the cougar comes to the fore, and it becomes a story involving high human drama.
Romantic comedies before "The Graduate" were lighthearted escapist affairs, often with Doris Day pouting and saying "Oooo!" to her would be significant other, usually Cary Grant or James Garner. Or guys going gah-gah enamored with Marilyn Monroe. In Hepburn-Tracey romantic comedies of the 1940's, Spenser was always ultimately in charge and got the final say in the situation. If "The Graduate" is a romantic comedy, it's basically in reverse in which the initial "significant other" is someone the protagonist shouldn't be involved with and didn't initially pursue.
"The Graduate" is in fact the quintessential cougar-cub story. He becomes the prey and she is the predator, a role reversal that may have not been done in American cinema previously, or at least very rarely. Maybe the closest film with a similar "bite" to it with both comedy and serious sexual overtones prior to "The Graudate" is "The Apartment", directed by Billy Wilder. But even here, it's the males who are more or less in charge.
When Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) arrives home in the Los Angeles from a nameless university back east, everything seems comedic but also a bit disturbing. The one "word" of advice from one of his parents' friends regarding his "future" has become one of several classic lines in the history of American cinema originating from this film. It certainly drew laughs from the first audiences but in retrospective it offers a caustic commentary on American life and goals of that time. The world, not just physically, but morally and culturally, is becoming synthetic at best and bankrupt at worst.
The first sequence involves Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft), wife of Mr. Robinson, Ben's father's business partner, trying to seduce young naive Ben only hours after he's disembarked off the plane. The scene in which Ben tries to get a room from the concierge at the Taft Hotel is one of the funniest scenes of the late 1960's. (Buck Henry who plays the concierge is one of the screenwriters.) But very quickly it becomes understood it's an affair for sexual satisfaction but not love.
The stark undertones of the seduction and the eventual affair become less comedic as the film progresses. Water is a recurring presence throughout, and there are interesting interpretations of what the water means and represents. Ben's aquarium, the Braddock's swimming pool, even rain. The first time Mrs. Robinson asks Ben to drive her home she throws her car keys into his aquarium. Online Film Critics Society ranked Mrs Robinson 84th in the top 100 villains in cinematic history. (Biff from "Back to the Future" ranked 85th.)
So the original question: Is "The Graduate" a romantic comedy? I would say not really. It sort of begins innocently enough but the loveless affair makes everything far darker and more disturbing. And when Ben begins dating Mrs. Robinson's daughter Elaine, the tale takes a much darker turn. The wrath of the cougar comes to the fore, and it becomes a story involving high human drama.