Plastics

The Graduate

(1967)

I have just one topic to discuss with you, just one: opening credits sequence. Mike Nichols exploits an airport moving walkway to craft one of the most perfectly composed--in both artistic and practical terms--such sequences ever. The right third of the screen is occupied by Dustin Hoffman's Benjamin Braddock, simultaneously and appropriately static and in motion; that leaves two-thirds of the screen for the titles, and because Hoffman (or, later, his suitcase) stays put, the viewer can read every credit, alternately looking right to follow the subtle changes in Benjamin's face. Meanwhile, Simon and Garfunkel are singing about "people talking without speaking," in a soundtrack filled with songs so dated that they perfectly mirror this great document of the late '60s. The film never gets better than this, but it doesn't need to.