Review of Harold and Maude (1971) by Randall M — 18 May 2010

Harold and Maude Review.

The Movie Harold and Maude, directed by Hal Ashby in 1971, is an entertaining movie and also has a very well written screenplay that was written by Colin Higgins. It is about 18 year old boy, Harold played by Bud Cort, who is always just looking for attention from one person, his mother during the beginning of the movie. He does some outrageous things like pretending to kill himself in different ways to try to get some kind of reaction from his mother. The first time Harold pretends to kill himself is also the first time his mother com into the movie. His mother gets sick of all the acts of death so she sends him to a psychiatrist to get help for his problems. He says "I go to funerals" at the end of the scene in the psychiatrist office. This is when the movie really begins because we learn more about Harold's life. He goes to funerals of people he never knew but at these funerals is when he meets Maude, a 79 year old lady, played by Ruth Gordon. This woman teaches Harold a lesson about life. This lesson is a very important one to Harold because it makes him live life to the fullest and he is a lot happier because of it.

            Even though this movie changes Harold's life while he learns a lesson, the film still has a good amount of humor and can keep an audience wondering what is going to happen next. Harold's mother sets him up on different dates, but he has no interest in these women because he has already met the love of his life, Maude. Even though there is about a 60 year age difference between them it doesn't affect Harold and he still wants to spend his time with her other then his mothers dates. Harolds ways to get out of these dates was to perform acts that would freak out the women and make them not want to be with him and want to leave. On his first blind date Harold pretends to light himself on fire and this freaks out his date and she leaves even though he enters right after the flame goes up. During Harold second date he pulls out a meet cleaver from his shirt and pretends to chop off his hand and this also freaks out his new date and she leaves. Finally on his final date his mother sets up for him he doesn't seem to care about anything she is saying and then he does an act and pretends to stab himself. This women is also a little out there just like Harold and she stabs herself because she is doing a Romeo and Juliet reenactment. Harold does successfully get out of all of his dates that he is set on and gets back as soon as he possibly can to Maude. At the end of this film just about all of Harold's life revolves around being with Maude because she is the one that can make him happy almost all of the time. Harold falls in love with Maude and while doing this she teaches him a lesson about life and how to make the best out of it. She plays him a song "If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out" by Cat Stevens that is all about what she is teaching him. About not getting attached to much to anything, but Harold does with Maude so she does a dramatic thing on her 80th birthday that really gets to Harold and he learns the lesson more then then any other time. This really affected him and makes him do crazy things that end the movie.

As this movie goes on it starts to become more interesting. At the beginning I thought that this film was a little weird and I wasn't sure if I was going to like it. The movie just starts off weird with Harold performing a fake suicide and his mother walks in and she doesn't even have a reaction to him. I wasn't reall sure about how this was going to turn out. As the friendship of Harold and Maude grows so does the movie. I think just by them being together more make more natural humor occur and this overall makes the entire film more enjoyable and better to watch. I really think that if you like a good overall story line with a good amount of hummer then you should definitely watch Harold and Maude.