Harold and Maude

Rating:
Summary: One of my favorites
Review: I happened to catch this movie accidentally while sitting at home bored one day. Didn't know anything about it, it just happened to come on the TV while I was watching. The first part of the movie hooked me because it was just so weird, I had to see what was next. By the end, I was crying, it was so beautiful, I loved it!

It's a wonderful story about a young man who is in love with death and an old woman who is in love with life -- and how they change each other's lives for the better. As others have said, though, this movie isn't for everyone. I asked my parents to watch it (I was about 17 or 18 at the time) and all they talked about was how disgusting it was that a 19 year old was with a 79 year old! They totally missed the point of the movie! In fact, that I like the movie so much is a great source of humor for them.

Anyway, if you can get passed the age difference, this is a beautiful story. I own the VHS and the DVD version and have watched this movie a dozen times. I even used part of it (where Maude is talking about the daisies) as a motivational speech in college. (And I was sooo excited when I heard it mentioned in "Something About Mary"!!)

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Must See!
Review: I saw this film when it was new, and each time I watch it, I feel renewed. Bud Cort, the bored rich kid who cannot find anyone or anything in life to relate to, meets a woman who's eccentricity surpasses anything weird Harold ever did, only she plays with life, where Harold plays with death. They meet at a stranger's funeral and Harold's fascination with Maude with her unabashed lust for life slowly learns how to live. She shows him things to be heard, touched, seen, tasted, smelled, and explored ... she engages every ounce of her being in LIFE. Her famous "Gimme an 'L'" speech is still a wonderful motivator. This film is guaranteed to open your eyes to the world we live in, and inspire you to take ahold of it.

Rating:
Summary: After waiting 20 years to see it - disappointed
Review: I was watching 'Something About Mary' the other day; when she mentioned this movie,I thought gee, I never have seen that.

Every character was just Soooo over the top - as another viewer mentioned, it just tried too hard. Funky, free-spirit Grandmas are always endeering but this woman was just crazy. I found her dispicable and when she died, felt nothing.

And Harold.. what a loser. So funny pretending to chop off your hand. I thought he was about 12 years old,not 19. He wasn't even attractive - just a dull, moon-faced jerk.

I hated this movie - it was poor even by the 70's standards. I found myself sneering at the tv the entire time.

Rating:
Summary: In my All-Time Top Ten
Review: The editorial review of this film is a fair enough description of the plot. One should add that, despite being made in 1971, the movie manages not to look dated, precisely because it makes such fun of the early 70s style. It also has to be said that the acting by the three main characters (Harold, Maude and Harold's mother) is simply inspired. Ruth Gordon is splendid of course, while Bud Cort (virtually a one movie wonder) makes the most of his one great chance. But it is the portrayal of Harold's mother by Vivian Pickle's (what a splendid name for someone in the role) has to be the most undercelebrated aspects of this film. Her breezy blitheness, outraged exasperation and British accent are simply pure filmic joys to experience. Filling out a dating questionnaire for her son, in response to the question "Do you find the idea of wife-swapping offensive" she answers, "I find the question offensive." In response to the question, "Do you feel the women's liberation movement has gone too far," she replies, "It certainly has." Even such a simple line as, "Harold, eat your beets" is enough to bring up bubblings of mirth. Eric Christmas also makes the bit-part of a priest into something genuinely memorable, principally by one splendid monologue.

But is this really a black comedy? Personally, I think of black comedies as being morbid and mordant, which Harold & Maude certainly has elements of, but also ultimately cynical. One should not mistake grimness in a film as a sign of nihilism; as the Japanese proverb runs, the ending is all-important. The film ultimately is not about an intergenerational love affair (surely the most "shocking" aspect of the film), but about Harold learning to embrace life. And it is precisely to make as effective as possible Harold's decision to live life to the fullest (rather than continue to prefer to be dead) that it is first necessary to make his life miserable.

As insanely amusing as much of the movie is, it is also full of profundity after profundity from Maude, who is a nearly continuous font of wisdom, with laughter and humor being simply the most crucial values in her wisdom. When she asks Harold what he does for fun, he takes her to a picnic in a wrecking yard. She replies, "I'll grant you, it has a certain something. But is it enough?" When Harold declines her offer of wine, she replies, "Oh go on, it's organic." And most beautiful of all, when Harold says, "I don't want you to die, Maude. I love you," she replies with perfect calmness, "Harold, that's wonderful. Now go out and love some more." If you've been caught up in the genuine spirit of this movie, the line will not seem like some breezy brush-off, but may instead bring tears to your eyes.

The scene of Harold's grief after Maude's death, intercutting silent images of him waiting in a hospital room and driving recklessly around the Marin headlands in the Jaguar he has converted into a hearse while Cat Steven's song, "Trouble" plays, is very well-done and sets up the climax of the film beautifully. Cat Steven's soundtrack throughout, in fact, is a splendid selection of songs, and certainly makes clear that, however morbid things might seem, this film is ultimately life-affirming in a very profound way.

Having watched this movie many, many times and having yet to tire of it, it seems to me there is more to it than meets the eye. And not just because, when Harold gives Maude an engraved birthday gift, she says, "This is the nicest gift anyone has given me in a long time," and then throws it into the San Francisco Bay saying, "That way, I'll always know where it is." And not just because one eventually notices, in the briefest of passing shots, the tattoo of a concentration camp inmate on Maude's arm. In the final analysis, it seems to me that Harold is actually already dead. That his theatrical suicides aren't faked at all, but also don't succeed because he himself is not aware that he's actually dead. It's probably more accurate to say that the director pushes the narrative to the point where Harold seems to be actually dead and not just faking, precisely to make his choice of life at the end all the more inspiring.

And inspiring it is. Harold & Maude is not (alas) for everyone. A viewer who is hidebound like the movie's priest, colonel or mother (read church, state, authority) will find Maude's sometimes gentle, sometimes brash mocking of convention more annoying than enlightening, just as the (not depicted) sexual relationship between Harold and Maude is the thing many people who miss the point remember about the movie. To this, Maude might say, as she does to a police officer, "Don't be officious. You're not yourself when you're officious. That's the curse of a government job." Or as she says, when the priest replies that he didn't like the way she'd painted his statue of the Virgin Mary, "Give it time. It'll grow on you. Some things take a while to appreciate."

Rating:
Summary: If I have to choose, this is the best
Review: I know people who have visited Venice and Prague and seen only the graffiti. I know people who have watched Harold and Maude and seen only an affair between a young boy and an old woman. I suspect they're the same people, and I feel for them.

I love movies. I love a lot of movies for a lot of reasons. My "top ten" probably includes about a hundred. But if I have to choose one, I can never think of one more complete, sweet, amazing or satisfying than Harold and Maude.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful! A diamond in the rough.
Review: This movie was made quite a few years before I was born and I would never have known about it if not for AMC's constant rotation. I admit that the macabre humor perplexed me at first, but the superb cast pulls it off wonderfully. Vivian Pickles, who plays Harold's blissfully clueless mom, is so funny that she could've stolen the movie from the two title characters if she had appeared in more scenes. One of the movie's funniest moments is when she signs Harold up for a dating service and then tells him, "They screen out the fat and the ugly, so obviously this is a firm of high standards." All the other great things about 'Harold & Maude' have already been said by the other reviewers. I'm glad that this film is so beloved by so many people. It's a great legacy for Colin Higgins, who wrote such a beautiful book in 1970. Sadly, he passed away in 1988.

Rating:
Summary: Harold and Maude Revealed
Review: This film is so beautiful. Evokes the confusion, fear and joy of being young. Portrays the transcendant power of love. This film would be incomplete without the score by Cat Stevens, who carries the emotions along just right. Laconic, terse, cryptic and ironic comic genius. Open your heart and mind, and this film may change your life. I know it did mine.

Rating:
Summary: 18 to 80 - There are many beautiful years of life inbetween!
Review: We all know the expression "like Harold & Maude", even if we haven't seen this great film. The expression, coined by this movie, refers to a friendship or love-affair between a very young man and a much older woman. The two main characters are not only very different in age, but also in their personalities. Young Harold, excentric, spoiled, suicidal, is almost the exact opposite of old Maude (brilliantly played by the ever-feisty Ruth Gordon), who is vibrant and full of life's spirit.

Following the pair on their "outings" is both hilarious and provocative. To see the fearless Maude playfully "deal with" irritating police officers, or responding to a suspicious priest whose car she had recently "borrowed", or to pose nude for an elderly ice sculptor, to ensure he retains the memory of the female body, or to simply rejoice in the beauties of nature, is an inspiration to viewers at any stage of life.

Harold's countless fake suicides are hilarious, but he eventually meets his match in a young prospective "date" sent by a matrimony agency. The young woman was a devout fan of "Shakespearean" Theatre, responding to Harold's "Harikari" suicide by doing one of her own favorite death-scenes from Romeo & Juliet. - The character playing Harold's idle-rich, not much less excentric mother, had a brilliant line here: "Harold, that was your last date!"

Assosiating with this "odd friend" teaches Harold many lessons about life. For the first time he realizes that his life had only just begun, while Maude is nearing the end of her days. The ending is heartbreaking. -- "Harold & Maude" has been an instant classic immediately after its release in 1971. Since then it has gained cult status. This is a must-see film!*****

Rating:
Summary: AFI's Great Love Stories: #69 Harold and Maude
Review: First off you cannot tell me that the people at the American Film Institute did not know exactly what they were doing when they had to pick a film for this particular slot on their Top 100 Love Stories. I certainly have found memories of "Harold and Maude," which must have been one of the first black comedies I ever saw (along with "M*A*S*H" and "The Hospital"). This is a film where a lot of people must have had their heads explode trying to decide if they were more offended by Harold's hobby of committing fake suicides for the "benefit" of his mother or the fact that the 20-year old Harold has an affair with the 79-year old Maude.

That is basically all you know about this particular film to decide if it is even remotely close to your cup of tea. Screenwriter Colin Higgins, who went on to write the "Foul Play" and "Nine to Five," and director Hal Ashby, who went on to do "Coming Home" and "Being There," hit a pair of bullseyes with the casting of this quirky little story. Bud Cort plays Harold and you almost forget how good of a job he does with his part because Ruth Gordon has the part of her life as Maude. Rediscovered in her Oscar winning Supporting Actress role in "Rosemary's Baby," Gordon certainly was not going to find a lot of plumb roles for somebody her age--then along came this script because sometimes good things happen to good people. You are guaranteed that you will never forget this movie.

Maude's Words of Wisdom: (1) "Vice, virtue, it's best not to be too moral--you cheat yourself out of too much life. Aim above morality." (2) "Harold, everyone has the right to make an ass out of themselves. You can't let the world judge you too much." (3) "A lot of people enjoy being dead. But they're not dead, really, they're just backing away from life. Reach out. Take a chance. Get hurt, even! Play as well as you can. Go team! GO! Give me an L! Give me an I! Give me a V! Give me an E! L-I-V-E! LIVE! ...Otherwise, you got nothing to talk about in the locker room."

If you enjoy "Harold and Maude," then check out these other films on the AFI's list: This is a hard one. I am thinking #17 "Moonstruck," because of the age difference between the two main characters, and #52 "The Graduate," because of the folk music soundtrack. But there is really nothing truly compatible on the AFI list if you stop at #100.

Rating:
Summary: Harold and Maude ¿ a movie with a difference
Review: I am not a movie buff or a great connoisseur of movies - I occasionally watch movies here and there. Once in a while I come across a movie, which touches me, and make me think about that movie again and again - Harold and Maud is one such movie. It is a movie with a difference for the fact that the story is somewhat bizarre. This is a love story between a rich young man (Bud Cort) in his twenties and a poor old lady (Ruth Gordon) in her eighties. Once you start watching the movie you will definitely finish it before you can do anything else. Ruth Gordon is just amazing and will not bore you for a second. Actually after watching this movie you start rethinking about your own old age and how you would like to spend it. This movie may change the philosophy of living.