HAROLD AND MAUDE (1971)

Country: U.S.A.

Genre(s): Comedy / Romance

Director: Hal Ashby

Cast: Bud Cort / Ruth Gordon / Vivian Pickles

Plot

Rejecting the life of wealth and boredom set out for him by his overbearing mother, depressed teenager Harold meets 80-year-old free spirit Maude, who teaches him to value life and love.

What I Liked

I can still remember watching this movie for the first time back in 1997 with my friend Neenie Hendricks.  Neenie introduced me to several terrific cult movies; the first time I saw one of my absolute favorites, “Better Off Dead,” was with her as well.  Until that point, I had never heard of “Harold and Maude” but I absolutely loved it upon watching it.  Strangely, I have never watched it since.  I don’t know why.  However, watching the film a second time just now, I found so much of the movie still very familiar because it is so unlike anything else that even a single viewing is enough to install many of its scenes permanently in one’s memory.

What grabs the audience at first is the bizarre, black humor found in Harold’s many staged suicide attempts for the “benefit” of his self-centered mother.  As can be imagined, these are the most shocking and violent moments in the film and they consequently make the quickest impression.  Getting beyond the morbidity, there is still a great deal about “Harold and Maude” that is poignant, funny, and enjoyable.  The interactions between Harold and his mother, who cannot fathom that she might be responsible for his depression and social awkwardness, are marvelously scripted and acted.  They are the source of a complex and painful humor, where one feels guilty for laughing at how badly they repeatedly hurt one another.  Their lifeless relationship serves as a foil for the beauty of that between Harold and Maude, which is filled with warmth, excitement, acceptance, and intimacy.

Bud Cort and Ruth Gordon both make the fantastically unusual title characters absolutely believable and likable.  Each endows their character with a complex mind and a wounded soul to keep them from becoming the one-dimensional caricatures they might have become if played by less capable actors.  Somehow the filmmakers take two thoroughly unconventional people and make them both relate-able.  A love affair between a very young man and an 80-year-old woman would be repulsive in the hands of most filmmakers.  Yet their story is developed so well that in this case the viewer not only accepts their romance, but envies it.  What could have been a movie made purely for shock value is instead a beautiful love story with thought-provoking lessons on life.

Better even still, it all comes with a wonderful Cat Stevens soundtrack.

What I Didn’t Like

There is absolute nothing to dislike about this movie, as long as you go in with an open mind for quirky but moving cinema.  Those who are easily offended, prepare yourself for self-immolation, jabs at the military, and a granny who poses nude for artists.

Most Memorable Scene

*spoiler alert*

Well, to be honest, the scene I most remembered from my initial viewing all these years later was the opening one, where Harold fakes hanging himself and his mother basically ignores him, setting the off-kilter tone for the rest of the movie.  The viewer is so shocked to see a young man kill himself in the opening moments that it becomes even more shocking when his own mother has no emotional reaction whatsoever.  Once we realize Harold is faking, we’re even more confused.

But, on my second viewing, I think the scene that will stick with me the most is one that is far less ostentatious.  Harold and Maude look at flowers and discuss which flowers they would be, if they were flowers.  Their conversation reveals a great deal about their characters and, even more importantly, leaves us with valuable words from Maude about the value of life and individuality, followed by a powerful graveyard image that drives the point home.

My Rating: 5 out of 5