Harold and Maude (1971)

Fresh and Exciting

best movie i've ever seen.

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Absolute unique this odd and dark comedy supported by a fine screenplay put together two generation between fifty years old,about a shy boy lived by the newcomer Bud Cort who has an existential crisis quite often in mother's disagreement,even trying a psychiatric treatment with any apparent results,make all effort to avoid of young girls which supplied by his unaffected mother,he actually glads to be at cemetery's funerals,there he finds a other side of human nature,a fresh outgoing old woman played magnificently by Ruth Gordon,probable his best work in your career,one the most daring and rare movie of all time,funny and weird,then become a cult!! Resume: First watch: 1988 / How many: 4 / Source: TV-Cable TV-DVD / Rating: 8.5

Several Cat Stevens songs appear in this film which were never released on an album until Stevens' greatest hits albums. The song, arguably debuted by Ruth Gordon about midway, carries the message of the film: "If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out". Harold (Bud Cort), the only child of a filthy-rich family, a disturbed college-age youth engages in black-humor episodes: he fakes committing suicide. As the film progresses his suicides become more elaborate, beginning with hanging, but then moving onto drowning and shooting himself. His second "suicide" is so gruesome, his single mother doesn't know what to do with him, so she hires a psychologist who becomes as flustered with Harold as his mother.For fun, Harold buys a used Hearse and attends funerals of people he doesn't know. There he notices Maude (Ruth Gordon), an older woman with the spunk of a 25-year-old. She also likes to attend funerals but she has other habits as well. She likes to steal cars, not the least of which is a Volkswagon Bug driven by the priest at a couple of the funerals. She then starts driving Harold's Hearse after one of the funerals and offers to give Harold a ride home. He explains the Hearse is his car to which Maude replies "Then you should give me a ride home." And so begins a rather quirky relationship between a reclusive youth and an older woman who could make Madonna seem like a fuddy-duddy. At one point she even one-up's a motorcycle cop played by Tom Skerritt.The most insufferable character of the film is neither Harold nor Maude but Harold's mother. Mrs. Chasen (Vivian Pickles) never engages with her son except to be outraged at his suicide episodes. More often she knows what he's up to and simply speaks with him normally when he appears to be "dead". What makes her insufferable is her detachment from him. She decides Harold needs to meet women and she signs him up for a computer dating service. She fills out the questionnaires and chooses the women without his input. At several of the meetings with the "prospects", Harold yet again engages in his "suicides", often with horrific consternation on the part of the dating prospect.Although definitely not for all tastes, "Harold and Maude" has become a cult classic. While there's not really a "plot" per se but more of a character study, themes of death and life permeate the entire story. At film's beginning, we learn that Harold seems to be going through life on autopilot except for his suicide episodes. Because of his interest in funerals, he seems preoccupied by "death". The origin of this compulsion is finally revealed to Maude about 2/3rds through the film. On the other side, Maude is a free spirit and Harold learns that he may need to take risks to enjoy life fully. While I wouldn't recommend trying to outdo a motorcycle cop, the point of Maude's behavior is that we often spend too much time worrying about the approval or disapproval of others instead of just doing those things that let us "be free" as the song goes. In other words, death is the price we pay for living life.

Harold and Maude was one of the all too rare film experiences in which I immediately added it to my monthly film schedule without knowing anything about it. I knew nothing of what the 1971 film was about but had heard so much about it and was aware of its legacy as somewhat of a cult classic, so I took the chance to include it on my watchlist. I really enjoy going into a film blind, but it simply doesn't get to happen that often. Hal Ashby's film about the attraction of opposites caught me by surprise, and I am grateful for it.Harold (Bud Cort) is a 20-year-old who seems to be afraid of the future, so afraid in fact that he spends a majority of his time thinking of and staging his own death. In his spare time, when he's not "committing suicide" in front of his mother, Harold attends funerals. At one of the funerals he attends, Harold meets Maude (Ruth Gordon) a 79-year-old woman with a thirst for life. Harold is stunned upon meeting his polar opposite that one can enjoy and find such fulfillment in a temporary state that appears so pointless. Maude is able to expose Harold to the world that has previously been closed to him by his mother who is too busy planning Harry's life to take interest in what he wants to do. The more time Harold and Maude spend together, the more complicated their relationship becomes. Harold has fallen in love with Maude and wishes to be with her over the women his mother attempt to set him up with. Maude, however, has been keeping a secret from Harold, that has devastating consequences for the both of them.Granted, I had no expectations for this film, however, if I had expectations they could have only been exceeded. Harold and Maude is a brilliant coming-of-age tale and I am so glad to have had the opportunity to see it. In a Woody Allen-esque film, Harold and Maude deals with death and the pointlessness of life in a beautiful way. There is no happy ending to life. Every good thing we experience is temporary, as we all eventually die. The narrative of Harold and Maude doesn't ignore this fact and the audience is the better for it. In an ending reminiscent of a personal favorite, Jules and Jim, Harold and Maude is a breathtaking portrait of two different individuals and their perception on the temporary state that life is.

My Mother loved this movie and so do a lot of older baby boom women I know. However as a baby boomer man when I finally it saw recently I was struck by the fact that to me Harold was obliviously gay and not interested in women except for Maude in a very weird non sexual grandmother way. True they sleep together but I suspect that was just some non erotic hugging and keeping each other warm. Harold is like Sheldon in the Big Bang Theory a man child that doesn't know he is gay or even what that is about just that he is not interested in women in a hetero way.The movie however is fun and quirky, but please keep the romance out of the way this is really about friendship at any age not love/lust way. It is worth seeing as an adventure of 2 people who need and like each other- nothing more