The Graduates (1986) User Reviews

The success the movie had and still has isn't just chance.

[impy4ever · 8/10 · 5 March 2005]

Nowadays, this movie is being looked at with detrimental eyes. I just have to admit that I had this very attitude until today, when I had the chance to watch the movie again.

I've read now how the director chose a soundtrack and found out that the lyrics we all know - and consider them as naive or even foolish - provoked several arguments and were about to be censored. It wasn't comfortable at all to do a film about the 'madding' teenagers together with their hopes and beliefs. Yet the script hasn't touched any problems but the ways of building relationships between students, love matters and a few nasty things the children were doing (although those seem to us as no big deals today, they were biting against the regime of those years).

It is obvious (and not only to me) that the film hasn't got any real merit with the way it was directed and none of the actors tells apart (although there were involved great performers, they weren't given the occasion to be remarkable here). I found that the real value is held in the way the script came to reduce all the emotional tension of the characters altogether in some simple schemes without dissolving them into caricatures. I'll take for support the reveries that conceal Mihai at all times when he thinks it'd fit to approach Dana. I think the most interesting moment in the movie is the very end - the flash just before the two kiss. The director Corjos tried to prove by this that it would have been pointless to let the action prolong, while we could guess much of the subsequent minutes. (As a matter of fact, the two haven't actually kissed not a single time during the shooting.)

Having all these in mind, I marked the film with 7 stars out of 10, and don't say I'm too demanding - just think that I've started from 1 to 10 by increasing the score and not the other way round. I mostly hope this will be read by those who had a bad opinion towards the movie - maybe they'll have their minds changed a little.

One of the best Romanian teenage movies

[tzejea · 10/10 · 4 April 2005]

An excellent movie. Maybe it's relevant only for ex-communists countries, because the action takes place in a communists country, and you can see lots of those elements. If you ignore all this, it reminds you of your days as a high school teenage. Beside that the actors like Tamara Buciuceanu or Ion Caramitru are very good actors and they fit being teachers. Comparing to US movies on this subject (high school teenage), it's not a big difference and the main ideas are pretty much the same, the understanding teacher, loved by students and the sever teacher who scares students, or the love stories between the students are all seen in US movies. But the particularity of this movie is that it's more closer to me or to other ex-communists countries because my days being a high school student are pretty much like those in movie. That's why I rated this movie with 10/10

Not for Lonely Planet-travelers

[throbi · 10/10 · 29 September 2008]

I only saw this movie this week, which could mean about twenty years late. But no. Not too late. I would say, just in time. It brings back the time, when I went to school. It brings back exactly the way it happened. Yes, it was hard, sometimes brutal, sometimes grotesque. But those years were so beautiful for so many of us. And this movie manages to show us all the good things, but none of the bad ones we remember from that time. Yes, the acts seem pale or even fake sometimes. But only we know, why it does. We know and we feel it. And we are grateful to the makers of this movie. Most of those who will read these words have no idea, what it took to make a movie like this in the late eighties in Romania. One risked not only his/her career, but the very existence. People were actually imprisoned for not giving up artistic ideals. Yet, this movie works! But only for those, who had to "privilege" to grow up during the communist era in eastern Europe. You can find breath-taking sights with a Lonely Planet book in your pocket, but it takes years of day-to-day life among the locals, to start understanding what you see. The same way, one would have to go back in time, go back to Romania, to understand, to feel this movie.

excellent highschool saga

[vayl · 18 January 2001]

The movie is a highschool love story involving two young freshmen. Mihai, just arrived from a province city to the capital Bucharest falls in love with Oana, a young and modern girl. Their love story is full of passion and naturalesse and almost makes you cry. I wold say the movie is a young version of the classic Love Story.

love during a strange era

[latent_18 · 10/10 · 2 March 2005]

One of the few movies made during the communist era that has as a subject the life of a group of high-school children(are they?)that have to deal with the changes life has prepared for them.I have to admit that I was just a year old when this movie was released,so for me it is hard to understand some of their habits because I have never lived in their time, but I guess that this movie has a common plot that we find in every teenage movie:LOVE.Although the actors don't play their roles very well, I have to say that this movie is one of my favorites (and all my friends love it as well),because it's Romanian,it's our language spoken in the film and it's ours.My generation loves this film mainly because we've lost most of their innocence and we've become too mature, without going through all the stages.I'm also convinced that foreigners will hate it because they could't understand as we do.

Charming indeed!

[Mihnea_aka_Pitbull · 10/10 · 21 August 2009]

As it happens, I was an assistant director to this movie - so my comments will provide some really valuable inside info.

Not surprisingly at all, the script was quite lousy. George Sovu, an education department inspector, was trying his hand at screen-writing, careful not to offend the communist authorities... I remember so well how exasperated Stefan Banica was - during the rehearsals, he was telling me: "I should paste on my brow the Communist Party status!"

...But what really saved the movie, was Nicolae Corjos' talent - his unique feeling of making it true. While shooting the most sensitive scenes, he used to say: "Now, silence, please... we must concentrate... and a sort of magic gets created, helping our actors to play their roles..." So, it's not surprising at all that this movie had such a box office success. Nick Corjos really knew how to talk to his audience.

Amazingly charming

[tributarystu · 6/10 · 9 April 2004]

Times really have changed, that's for sure. Unity is gone and so, who cares for more but himself? Too few, that's for sure. This is the only piece of fact I was able to extract intact from the film. The only intriguing idea. The rest is easily forgettable.

The story itself did make me raise my eyebrows in disagreement, but I can hardly criticize things which I could not live through. As a whole, the story isn't even the real issue. It will make you smile, grin and maybe think a bit, but I consider this to be a film for the youth, a message to a certain extent. It's easy to connect to it, in this regard, but I fear the movie falls far short of delivering to its full potential. The fault lies at the actors, who are terribly stiff and almost repugnant in their ignorance. The closest to being an actor comes the one who plays Ionica, the troublesome best friend of lead actor Stefan Banica. By far the worst acting performance I have seen in a long, long while is the one of Oana Sarbu who is so distant and so lacking expressivity that all her charm and beauty can not compensate enough.

In total contrast to the disastrous acting is the main theme which simply reaches exhilarating heights. In a funny kind of way, that is. It generally gives the monotonous scenes some flavor and were it not for this, I don't think I could've bared to watch the whole movie.

Sure, it isn't something you'd necessarily be proud of. I wouldn't. Still, it's fine enough not to bore to the core and, despite those terrible acting performances, I'd suggest it for a beautiful summer day. I suppose it's got an undeniable charm - innocence and youth in the system, or something like that. 5.5/10

high school in nice nuances

[Vincentiu · 7 April 2012]

after Declarație de dragoste and Extemporal la dirigenție, it is basis of ambitious project. high school is not only place of life, passions, adventures and confrontations between teachers but scene for ideological drops. it is a good movie and it must be OK in condition of its time. because more than mirror for teenagers life , it is lesson about freedom at different levels. and, for present, testimony of refuges in dark period. it is nice, smart and interesting. for cast, presence of children of great names in Romanian theater, hopes yesterday, important names today - Ștefan Bănică, Tudor Petruț, Mihai Constantin are few examples - and for fresh air . nothing fake, nothing strange. personal histories and levels of self definition.

about an age spirit

[Kirpianuscus · 2 December 2016]

like many other films from the same period, it is part of a way to discover and present the reality, not inspired for the taste of today , but useful. for the public of "80 years and for to resist to the pressure of propaganda. its success is not surprising in the context of Ceaușescu regime - "Liceenii" was a fresh air mouth and one of the small escapes from the circle of official speech. sure, it is naive and uses clichés, sure, the situations are not always credible but it was the beginning of admirable actors and proposes interesting, maybe seductive, in few cases, characters. it represents the first part of a link. and reminds, to few generations, the atmosphere, the feelings and the enthusiasm of high school years. and its music "Ani de liceu" is so well - known than represents, against the not most inspired lyrics - but it is not surprising for Romanian musical industry - a brand.so, a film about the spirit of a beautiful age.