With its picturesque mountains and ivy-covered walls, Williams could be a postcard of romanticized college life. Or, at least, that’s what filmmakers seem to have thought for the last 50 years.
Not only have dozens of alums gone on to write, direct, and produce Hollywood classics, but the College itself has been featured in several films over the years. Here’s a look at some of the films that drew inspiration from and took place on campus.
The (Williams) graduate?
“Benjamin Braddock graduated from a small Eastern college on a day in June.” So opens the 1963 novel The Graduate, which went on to inspire the iconic film of the same name five years later.
In 1968, the movie was hailed in a New Yorker article for defining a generation. The coming-of-age film, set to a soundtrack highlighting songs by folk-pop duo Simon and Garfunkel, also launched the acting career of Dustin Hoffman.
But could that “small Eastern college” be our own?
Much like the fictional Hampden College in Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, the true identity of Benjamin’s institution is left ambiguous. But there is evidence suggesting that the unnamed alma mater might be Williams: namely, the author’s relationship with the College.
Charles Webb ’61, a major in American history and literature, started writing the novel during his senior year. While at the College, Webb met his wife Eve Rudd, a Bennington student whose mother’s disapproval of their relationship helped inspire the novel, according to Webb’s 2020 New York Times obituary.
The film begins after Benjamin’s graduation, and, thus, we never see him on his college campus. But in the film’s opening credits, he apparently sports a Williams tie while arriving at the Los Angeles airport. The connection is never made explicit — it’s up for audiences to determine if Benjamin is an Eph after all.
The way we weren’t
The Way We Were, the 1973 Academy Award-winning romantic drama starring Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford, was not filmed at the College — but it almost was.
The film — which the American Film Institute ranked sixth on its list of the 100 greatest love stories of all time — takes place at the fictional Wentworth College. When scouting for locations, the film’s screenwriter sought out his own alma mater: Cornell. But Cornell’s architecture, with a juxtaposition of old ivy-covered buildings and new modern designs, wouldn’t work for the film’s 1937 setting, and Williams was next on the list.
The College reportedly granted permission for three weeks of filming at the end of summer 1972 — but when administrators learned of script delays that meant filming might overlap with the arrival of students on campus, they backed out of the agreement, according to an archival piece published by Union College.
Union — just over an hour east of Williamstown — secured the opportunity. Not only did its campus feature heavily in the film’s college scenes, but Union students were also offered $15 a day to be extras during the two weeks of filming.
Williams may have missed out on the chance to see Redford tossing a football outside Baxter Hall or Streisand walking up Spring Street, but the College is still present in the film. Eagle-eyed viewers might recognize 1972’s men’s crew team in the opening credits: The director used real footage of the Williams team rowing on Lake Onota in Pittsfield to represent Wentworth’s own team.
The Human Stain
In May 2002, production for the film The Human Stain came to campus — along with the film’s stars, Anthony Hopkins and Nicole Kidman. The cast and crew filmed inside and outside campus buildings, as well as in the post office on Spring Street.
“People are already getting excited about this visit by Hollywood,” said Helen Ouellette, then the College’s treasurer and vice president for administration, in a Feb. 20, 2002, article in Williams Today. “The filming should also provide a real boost to the region. It will bring a large crew to town for several days and raise the visibility of the Berkshires worldwide.”
The film, based on the novel of the same name by Philip Roth, takes place at the fictional Athena College, a liberal arts institution in the Berkshires not dissimilar to Williams.
Hopkins had a longstanding relationship with the Town, starring alongside Shirley MacLaine and Bo Derek in A Change of Seasons, which was filmed at the College in 1980. “Townspeople who watched the filming praised Hopkins for being cordial and approachable, posing for pictures, signing autographs,” iBerkshires reported on May 29, 2002.
Over 1,000 hopeful Town residents and students eagerly lined up at the Williamstown Elementary School to serve as extras in the film, according to iBerkshires.
Many business owners, students, and faculty expressed excitement about the film, though one student — who faced a blockade in front of Stetson Hall — angrily told the outlet, “I have to get to Hopkins Hall. This is so obnoxious.”
