Harold and Maude (1971) Review

 

Harold and Maude (1971)

Harold and Maude follows Harold, a suicidal young man obsessed with death, who meets Maude, an eccentric 80 year old, who in turn teaches him the importance of life. 

There’s something really beautiful about this film, perhaps it’s grasp on the themes of life and death, or true love, or just what it means to be and exist. Darkly humorous in it’s content, Harold is a fascinating character. The thought of death, suicide, funerals and the like excites him and is his only real reprieve in a world he doesn’t understand, or quite fit into. Maude, conversely, is as full of life as it gets, grateful for each and every second life has to offer, later letting us in on why, as a Holocaust survivor. Their meeting at a funeral (of which neither have any reason to be at), really details the duality of these two characters destined to meet and subsequently fall in love—one to be closer to death and one to be closer to life. Their relationship is a fast burn, meant to pump as much meaning from life, as death, in what little time Maude has left on Earth.

For Harold, this sparks a newfound love for life; a void once only filled by the gloom overcast of funerals is now filled with a law breaking, fast driving, and tree stealing old woman. This internal change is most noticeable after Harold and Maude first lay together. Where one would normally (cinematically anyways) puff on a cigarette, quite literally sucking in death, Harold blows bubbles, breathing life out into the world. 

Tying it all together too is the beautifully intrinsic soundtrack from Cat Stevens (my reason for ever finding and watching this in the first place), that happened to make up much of his first several albums. It’s so emotionally packed and you feel the depth and rawness in his voice and with every chord. There’s a life weary reassurance to each song, further emboldening Maude and her perspective.

 

The film sports as lovely cast as well, starring Charles Tyner, Vivian Pickles, Ruth Gordon, and Bud Cort. Cort and Gordon have such a sincere chemistry. You truly feel the life being pumped into Harold and Gordon’s portrayal makes you really feel and understand the importance of life. 

Harold and Maude, directed by Hal Ashby, is a simplistically taboo film that is lovable, quirky, and darkly hilarious, leading us, and Harold, to accept life and the inevitable death that comes with such life. Seeing it as this beautiful and essential thing that should only encourage us to live harder and love even more.

 

10/10