Hoffman Graduates Again

I love the ambiguity of the ending of The Graduate: Dustin Hoffman stops Katherine Ross’s wedding, “rescues” her and they escape on a bus. But instead of unbridled joy and the prospect of a “happily ever after,” once the bus takes off and they are on their way Hoffman and Ross exchange nervous glances and laughter, and unspoken but clearly running through both of their heads is, “What the hell did I just do?”

Now Hoffman is making a commercial for Europe parodying that fateful scene:

In the final scenes of “The Graduate,” Hoffman’s breakthrough film, his character, Benjamin Braddock, pulls Katharine Ross’ character, Elaine Robinson, from the church as she’s getting married. They fight off parents and guests before riding away in a bus.

In the car commercial, directed by Michael Bay (“Pearl Harbor”), Hoffman again rescues the bride [his daughter], but this time returns to a 2005 Audi. [AP]

Sounds pretty funny. By the way, whatever happened to the lovely Katherine Ross? I don’t remember much after Butch Cassidy and The Stepford Wives. Her bio says she married Sam Elliott in ’84 and they have a daughter – she has a bunch of credits since then, but I don’t remember any of them.