The wit and socially aware humor that characterized the best of Mike Nichols's early work as a writer and performer (along with the equally gifted Elaine May) find a thoroughly cinematic vehicle in his masterful satire The Graduate. The film follows the picaresque adventures of the young graduate of the title (Dustin Hoffman, in the role that launched his career), who is fresh out of college and back in his parents' home in Beverly Hills. His Ivy League education, however, has ill-prepared him for the vagaries, vulgarity, and hypocrisy of the adult world he encounters-from the alientating state of communications with his parents to the unsettling seductive behavior of Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft), the wife of his father's law partner. With vivid location shooting by Robert Surtees and a soundtrack filled with tunes by Simon and Garfunkel, The Graduate spoke with affection to viewers about the disaffection of this new generation.