Great reaction. I love this movie. When I was 16 I couldn't cope with the idea of Harold and Maude having sex, even though I knew it put me on the side of the old squares who disapproved. Older and wiser now, and as you say - no judgement.
The film is also about war. 1971 was one of the peak years for US involvement in Vietnam, and the year it was revealed that the US had also invaded Laos. Protests against the war were escalating and in 1971, the Vietnam Vets Against the War became a strong political movement. The self-immolation which Harold appears to stage for the potential girlfriend is a reminder of what Buddhist monks were doing across Asia in protest of war. Maude would have been about Harold’s age for WW1 and would have known about the women’s protests for voting rights in those years - her black outfit when they stage her fall into the water is similar to what some of those women wore. Since we learn that she is a Holocaust survivor, she must have been living in Europe in the 1930’s-1940’s and would have known immense suffering in those times. War accepts killing, death, disfigurement, destruction, etc as part of the necessary process, but when those same actions take place outside of war, (such as Harold’s staged deaths) they can be seen as brutally painful losses with less rationale. At the end Harold is finally faced with the consequences of actual suicide and realizes the pain involved. By discarding his “hearse-car”, he leaves the obsession with death behind and moves forward into hope and life, represented by the wide open fields of plants, sky, an unlimited horizon with mountains to cross but recognizing the beauty all around him.
This movie is so quirky on its surface, and probably too weird for many! I first heard of the film as a midnight movie when I started to go see Rocky Horror in the late 70s. It was screened at a local multiplex, along with Quadrophenia, Phantom of the Paradise and Rocky Horror for years. I knew of Ruth Gordon and Bud Cort and the general plot (they showed the trailer before Rocky Horror each time) and location but that was it. Became a “thing” that I’d never seen it so I finally saw it around 2017. I had no idea (or recall) that it was shot in the Bay Area, where I was born and still live, so I became instantly sentimental and appreciative! What a wonderful, darkly funny, meaningful message on life, love and death. Everyone in the cast is spot-on fantastic; Hal Ashby started as a film editor of such classics as In the Heat of the Night and The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming. As a director, other works of note include Shampoo, Coming Home, Bound for Glory and Being There. Harold and Maude is visually stunning, beautifully paced, and the Cat Stevens soundtrack is gorgeous and special. Thank you for reacting to this special gem! I recommend looking up Ruth Gordon - fascinating career - she was also a successful screenwriter with her husband, Garson Kanin.
Shandor, if you have time check out the TCM short doc/interview about Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s (film makers 50s-70s/The Archers) with Thelma Schoonmaker (Scorsese's long-time film editor). Just posted on youtube. Fascinating, and I think you'll want to view some of their films!
A reminder that men in their 70’s, 80’s and more marry or date young women, some as young as in their 20’s all the time. Al Pacino had a child at age 83, Robert De Niro at age 80, with women many decades younger than themselves. The tradition of much older men, (white-haired, perhaps bald, wrinkled, and showing the same effects of age which women are condemned for having,) with much younger women is an accepted age-old and global phenomenon. But for some reason, when the reverse is considered, society shudders and condemns it as distasteful. This film was controversial for many reasons, and the filmmakers wanted to boldly portray their points of view on all those themes, and the social hypocrisy about inter-generational relationships was one of those themes.
Classic! One of my favorite 70's movies! Great reaction!
Oh my! I adore this film!
It's so great to see this on UA-cam! The ending scene fooled me the first time watching this and, in today's lingo, it broke me.
You get it!!
John Alonzo was one of the all-time greats!
Great reaction. I love this movie. When I was 16 I couldn't cope with the idea of Harold and Maude having sex, even though I knew it put me on the side of the old squares who disapproved. Older and wiser now, and as you say - no judgement.
A great reaction to a great movie.
Bonnie and Clyde, 1967... a classic.. would love to see your reaction
The film is also about war. 1971 was one of the peak years for US involvement in Vietnam, and the year it was revealed that the US had also invaded Laos. Protests against the war were escalating and in 1971, the Vietnam Vets Against the War became a strong political movement. The self-immolation which Harold appears to stage for the potential girlfriend is a reminder of what Buddhist monks were doing across Asia in protest of war. Maude would have been about Harold’s age for WW1 and would have known about the women’s protests for voting rights in those years - her black outfit when they stage her fall into the water is similar to what some of those women wore. Since we learn that she is a Holocaust survivor, she must have been living in Europe in the 1930’s-1940’s and would have known immense suffering in those times. War accepts killing, death, disfigurement, destruction, etc as part of the necessary process, but when those same actions take place outside of war, (such as Harold’s staged deaths) they can be seen as brutally painful losses with less rationale. At the end Harold is finally faced with the consequences of actual suicide and realizes the pain involved. By discarding his “hearse-car”, he leaves the obsession with death behind and moves forward into hope and life, represented by the wide open fields of plants, sky, an unlimited horizon with mountains to cross but recognizing the beauty all around him.
Now you have to see Being There also.
This movie is so quirky on its surface, and probably too weird for many! I first heard of the film as a midnight movie when I started to go see Rocky Horror in the late 70s. It was screened at a local multiplex, along with Quadrophenia, Phantom of the Paradise and Rocky Horror for years. I knew of Ruth Gordon and Bud Cort and the general plot (they showed the trailer before Rocky Horror each time) and location but that was it. Became a “thing” that I’d never seen it so I finally saw it around 2017. I had no idea (or recall) that it was shot in the Bay Area, where I was born and still live, so I became instantly sentimental and appreciative!
What a wonderful, darkly funny, meaningful message on life, love and death. Everyone in the cast is spot-on fantastic; Hal Ashby started as a film editor of such classics as In the Heat of the Night and The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming. As a director, other works of note include Shampoo, Coming Home, Bound for Glory and Being There.
Harold and Maude is visually stunning, beautifully paced, and the Cat Stevens soundtrack is gorgeous and special.
Thank you for reacting to this special gem! I recommend looking up Ruth Gordon - fascinating career - she was also a successful screenwriter with her husband, Garson Kanin.
Shandor, if you have time check out the TCM short doc/interview about Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s (film makers 50s-70s/The Archers) with Thelma Schoonmaker (Scorsese's long-time film editor). Just posted on youtube. Fascinating, and I think you'll want to view some of their films!
A reminder that men in their 70’s, 80’s and more marry or date young women, some as young as in their 20’s all the time. Al Pacino had a child at age 83, Robert De Niro at age 80, with women many decades younger than themselves. The tradition of much older men, (white-haired, perhaps bald, wrinkled, and showing the same effects of age which women are condemned for having,) with much younger women is an accepted age-old and global phenomenon. But for some reason, when the reverse is considered, society shudders and condemns it as distasteful. This film was controversial for many reasons, and the filmmakers wanted to boldly portray their points of view on all those themes, and the social hypocrisy about inter-generational relationships was one of those themes.
So weird to listen to my name on a movie