Hoffman, Dustin

Advice given to the young graduate played by Dustin Hoffman in the 1967 movie The Graduate. 

I just want to say one word to you. . . just one word. (Spoken by Mr. McGuire, played by Walter Brooke, to Benjamin Braddock, played by Dustin Hoffman)... 

This scene was particularly funny in 1967 when Mr McGuire advised recent college graduate Ben to pursue a career in plastics. A then-young Dustin Hoffman as Ben tried to answer politely, but the dismay and bewilderment of his reaction made this scene one of the most memorable in film history. (If you aren t familiar with this classic movie, talk to someone older—they will be.) The replacement of conventional materials with polymers that began in... 

Charlize Theron, Halle Berry (Moon in Leo) v0 Madonna, Dustin Hoffman, J. K. Rowling (Moon in Virgo) Sandra Bullock, Beatrix Potter (Moon in Aquarius) Coco Chanel, Robert De Niro (Moon in Pisces)... 

No matter. The film won Academy Awards for Best Actor in a leading role (Dustin Hoffman as the autistic man, Raymond Babbit), Best Director, Best Picture, Best Writing—and it became the highest grossing film of the year that it appeared. The film also won the Golden Bear at the 1989 International Film Festival, and remains the only film to have won both the Golden Bear and the Academy Award for Best Picture. 

In the classic 1967 film The Graduate, the protagonist, Benjamin (Dustin Hoffman), is attempting to plan his postcollege path. His neighbor provides one word of advice, Plastics. This counsel has become part of American culture and is often parodied. But, it is good advice, because not since the transformations from stone to bronze and then to iron have new materials so completely transformed a society. Plastics made from synthetic polymers are ubiquitous, from Tupperware to artificial hearts. About half the world s chemists work in polymer-related industries. 

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