“One of the ’70s quirkiest comedies, and its bleak morbidity” — Harold and Maude Movie Review, “uncommonly matched by its over-the-top hilarity.”
Books and Movies
Harold and Maude
1971 – PG – 1h 31m
Director – Hal Ashby
Writer – Colin Higgins
Stars – Ruth Gordon, Bud Cort, Vivian Pickles
Harold is a morbid rich kid with a hearse for a car and fakes his own death in front of his own mother and potential romances. While his overbearing mother shops for brides like she’s filling a shopping cart, Harold finds his own match in the last place most people would expect, but the best place for him: a funeral.
Maude is a 79-year-old anarchist with a zest for life and a habit of doing whatever the hell she wants. She’s chaos wrapped in sunshine—and Harold is hooked.
As Harold and Maude’s bond deepens, the film shoves society’s rules about age, love, and what’s considered “normal” into the nearest grave. Harold and Maude is a cinematic middle finger to conformity, especially the norms around death.
It’s a story about how to live while you’re alive and die while you’re still dancing. Funny, weird, touching, and gloriously inappropriate, this cult classic dares to show death as a part of the journey of life.
This film is not for everyone and can offend sensitive minds or bore modern attention spans. Take this cult classic for the over-the-top, morbid fairy tale that it is.
Reviews:
“The picture is anti-war, anti-repression, and full of fun; a charming hour and a half of black humor.” – Rosalyn Drexler, Vogue
“A philosophical black comedy for grandparents and grandchildren, or what Walt Disney and Lucille Ball might have thought up if they’d taken courses in the Absurd at UCLA.” – Robert Mazzocco, The New York Review of Books
“It’s not quite a romance, not quite a buddy picture. It is, however, one of the ’70s quirkiest comedies, and its bleak morbidity is uncommonly matched by its over-the-top hilarity.” – Christopher Null, Filmcritic.com