Better Late Than Never on "Harold and Maude"

I finally had the time to sit and watch "Harold and Maude". This movie has been on watchlist for a long while now. Timing never seemed to work out. Then I wanted to watch it with my wife, but she had already seen it and was not into the movie. She saw it when she was younger and she remembered not enjoying it all that much. But my kids had longer than usual days at school, so I finally pulled the trigger and pressed play.

I loved this movie so much. I get it, "Harold and Maude" is a coming of age love story, but there is so much more going on in this movie. Bud Cort is wonderful as Harold. He plays the bored rich kid so well. His fake suicide attempts felt so real and looked real too. The whole movie starts off with Harold fake hanging himself, but I thought for a moment that it was real. I thought this was how the movie was going to start. Luckily for me this whole schtick is a running bit throughout the movie. After he has fake hanged himself, his mom walks in and seems so unimpressed by all of this. Harold's mom was my favorite person in this whole movie. Vivian Pickles plays his mom and she is a treasure. The way she accepts, but also controls Harold is so funny and so perfect. I actually kind of felt for her. There's one scene in which she is trying to set Harold up with the 70's version of online dating, and all the while she is filling out the questionnaire, she starts to answer the questions for herself. She all together stops asking Harold for answers and just answers how she feels. I was howling at this scene. And every setup she gets going for Harold, her reactions to Harold's shenanigans are pitch perfect. Vivian Pickles was tremendous in this role. For a movie that is about two people, the third actor, Pickles, left such a great, lasting impression on me.

Speaking of Harold, Bud Cort really owned this role. Like I said before, he played the bored rich kid to perfection. He is so underwhelmed with life and obsessed with death. He goes to funerals for the fun of it. He sets up these horrifc, fake suicide attempts. He doesn't take therapy seriously. He wants nothing but to float through life unassuming and unaware of what happens around him. At these funerals is where he meets Maude, played by Ruth Gordon. This has to be the first time we have ever seen a "manic pixie dream girl" in the movies. Gordon is living life to the fullest. She steals cars, she flirts with cops, she collects things during her endeavors and Harold falls for all of this, Gordon is the first to speak and make a move on Harold, but Harold is all in, hook line and sinker. Gordon was so tremendous in the movie. I rooted hardest for her. She made me appreciate life and living it to the fullest. The scene where she and Harold sing a Cat Stevens song was beautiful. I loved all her little quips and her joy for life. You could tell early on in the movie that she wasn't long for this world, but she made her time last and made it fun. I appreciated most the transformation Harold goes through after first meeting Maude. Harold is quiet and grim and looks like a ghost. He wants out. But as his relationship grows with Maude he becomes more outgoing. He starts to play the banjo. He makes jokes with his new dates. His face starts to get more and more color and he starts to love life. The final scene, spoiler alert for a movie that is about 50 years old, after Maude dies I was certain Harold would kill himself. Instead he crashes the Jaguar he owns, which he turns into a hearse, and walks away from the crash playing the banjo that Maude gave him. This was the perfect way to end the movie. Harold grew an appreciation for life after meeting Maude. She wouldn't have wanted him to die. She told him to continue to love more and more. She wanted him to grow the same appreciation for life that she had. That was wonderful and I'm so happy they ended the movie that way.

"Harold and Maude" is a classic for a reason, and I'm so glad that I finally watched it. This movie made me laugh, was heartbreaking, beautiful and gave me a brand new appreciation for life. I wonder if that was the whole idea behind this movie, because it works on every level so well. I love this movie and I highly recommend it to anyone who has not watched it as of yet and it is on their list. Check it out. "Harold and Maude" rules. 

Ty 

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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