In the more than 50 years since its release, THE GRADUATE has remained and endured within the American cinema cannon—it is meme-able, quote-able, endlessly referenced, and brilliantly relevant after all these years. Dustin Hoffman’s recent college graduate Benjamin Braddock is achingly, relatably disillusioned, and his affair with the seductive and assured Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft) is as ill-advised and complicated as it was in 1967. An exploration of identity and self-realization, with a dash of commentary on capitalism and mediocrity, THE GRADUATE, which won the late, great Mike Nichols his only Academy Award for Best Director, concludes with wedding bells, a punch to the gut, a smack in the face, and a defiant bride. As Simon & Garfunkel’s haunting The Sound of Silence begins, two lovers board a bus bound for an unknown destination and settle into the unease and anxiety of an undefined future.