Harold and Maude (1971)

I watched Harold and Maude when it came out in the 70's and I will NEVER forget it for every worthwhile reason! The personalities of those two were loaded and bursting at the seams with a uniqueness so special you would blessed to meet just one person that original in a lifetime and they found each other. Good people to me and hilarious! You must see it! Your life can only be made better for it! Truly!

I can't stand these two characters - and it's not what I expected when I decided to watch this film. I only enjoyed the scenes of Harold scaring his wannabe fiancees and driving his mother mad. I kept thinking - why is this boy not in an institution? When Maude explains to Harold how special they are and why this world does not understand them, I just cringe. I love crazy characters, but only when they are unapologetic. However, it's a lovely production design and I want Harold's car.

Hal Ashby's Harold and Maude attained cult status for its portrayal of a morbid youth who falls in love with a spirited woman not twice, but four times his age. Harold is a withdrawn rich boy who has a proclivity for staging elaborate - often gory - "suicides" to torment his very-proper control-freak of a mother, who remains blissfully unaffected by his theatrics. When he is not trying get a rise from his maternally inept mother, he is attending funerals of complete strangers, just for the fun of it. It's at one of these staid ceremonies that he meets the free-spirited octogenarian Maude. It turns out that attending strangers' funerals is about the only thing they have in common, which is why they turn out to be a match made in heaven. Soon they are spending time together, and Maude's full-throttle zest for life opens Harold up to its possibilities. His death obsession remains, but it begins to recede as Maude's life-affirming philosophies, however oddly enacted in her anything-goes lifestyle, cuts through his malaise. She speaks in hippie-friendly aphorisms, but coming from the mouth of such a delicately poised octogenarian, they take on the weight of accumulated wisdom. More than a friend or lover, Maude infects Harold with her carpe diem attitude, freeing him from the inner demons of boredom and self-pity. The pair soon fall into a romantic relationship that shouts in the face of societal mores. It's a disquieting premise for a movie, certainly, but to dwell on the age difference of the characters is to miss the movie's point. Part of the beauty of Harold and Maude is the way you quickly lose sight of the age difference between Harold and Maude and begin to see them simply as people who connect and love each other. They are oddballs in a world that doesn't understand or appreciate them, although the film sidesteps simple us-versus-them banality by portraying the establishment as kooky in its own right. The film spends much of its time in a unique space between reality and farce, towing a fine line that director Hal Ashby maintains with seemingly effortless grace. Its bleak morbidity is uncommonly matched by its over-the-top hilarity (Harold's long series of faux suicide attempts are hysterical), buoyed by Cat Stevens' amazing pop soundtrack, providing just the right wistful, mournful touch for this glimmering jewel of a movie. The casting is impeccable. With his baby face and elfin eyes, Bud Cort looks much younger than his age, which makes some of his antics seem even more childlike. Yet, once he spends time with Maude, he seems to mature in front of us, losing the angry-child glint in his eyes and becoming a reformed innocent. Ruth Gordon's sprightliness lends the perfect counterbalance to Bud, as she plays Maude as a one-of-a-kind without turning her into a kook. She evinces such sweetness and genuine care for what she loves that you can't help but admire her constancy.By turns funny, moving and outrageous - sometimes all at once - the film is Hal Ashby's masterpiece, thanks in no small part to Colin Higgins' nearly perfect screenplay and the incredible performances by everyone. If you've never seen Harold and Maude, that needs correcting.

My brother told me this was one of his favorite movies, so we watched it together. It was not at all what I expected, not that I had really any expectations to begin with. I'd heard the name mentioned, but never known anything about it, nor cared enough to do any research.As stated in the summary, it was a little to weird for my taste. Sure, it was funny (in a dark way) at points, and the relationship between Harold and Maude was all fine and dandy, but it went a little too far. And it was weird to witness. The ending was unexpected though, which added to it. I felt that the movie was a little rushed, with none of the intended change in Harold being found until the very end of the movie. The movie felt like it wasn't particularly paced well in this sense. Overall, this just isn't my kind of movie. Sure, it was enjoyable enough, but it really just didn't click with me. If you liked it, great. If you loved it, good for you. It's not for everybody, and it certainly wasn't for me. If your looking for something different and have a darker sense of humor, then take a look at Harold and Maude.