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Despite the prevalence of fake suicides and funerals, Harold and Maude is one of the happiest movies ever made. Its zest for life, its belief in the goodness of people, and its optimism are infectious. It is one of those movies that had to wait to find the right audience. Most critics in 1971 were too shocked to notice the film’s heart. Its quirky indie sensibility is more in line with many hip eccentric filmmakers of today including Wes Anderson, the Farrelly Brothers, Spike Jonze, and Cameron Crowe. What amazes about Harold and Maude today is that its fan base spans generations. It’s a cult classic to be sure, but now it’s beginning to be accepted as a classic, period.
Harold and Maude is the first modern independent film, and Harold was the first cultural representation of an emo kid before the emo movement even existed. He isn’t just upper-middle class but outright wealthy, living with his mother (Vivian Pickles) in an affluent suburb of San Francisco.
The fake suicides performed by Harold Chasen (Bud Cort) are intended to be darkly comedic while also revelatory of Harold’s sense of boredom. In his youth, Hal Ashby had lost his father to suicide and he was left with a deep understanding of his desperation. Harold is rich but his life is deadening.
His mother is lost in her own world and out of tune with her son’s yearnings. The family psychologist seems unaware that the profession was liberating itself from Freudian analysis by 1971 and Harold’s respected Uncle Victor (Charles Tyner) is a comically overbearing military man. He is as obsessed with death as Harold but in a socially acceptable way. His zealotry turned against him makes for the funniest scene in the film. But Harold and Maude doesn’t take cheap shots at the rich, as Harold’s father was said to have been something of a free spirit.
Like his father, Harold will blossom from a lovable boy to into a man and Bud Cort does an impressive job maturing as Harold. Cort was the Michael Cera of his day ever since he became an indie hero with Robert Altman’s Brewster McCloud, but later chose to lay low, perhaps realizing that the best way to maintain his quirkiness was to stick to television.
Harold’s obsession with death is immature because he sees it as an escape from his oppressive life. Maude (Ruth Gordon), meanwhile, also attends funerals but does so in appreciation of the cycle of life. Their first encounter at a funeral will be the event that awakens Harold’s latent rebellious side, teaching him that rebellion is more than simply annoying his mother with fake suicide attempts.
At 79, Maude is a vivacious lady, finding joy everywhere. Ruth Gordon does her plum role justice, which is fortunate since roles for women over fifty continue to be so scarce in Hollywood. As they exit the church, a marching band disrupts the funeral procession just as Maude will disrupt Harold’s droll life. Life (represented by the band) triumphs over gloom (the funeral). Harold’s life will never be the same after Maude takes him on a tour of joy, love, and surprises.
With Harold and Maude Hal Ashby transcends basic fundamentals of the counterculture philosophy, especially their distrust of people over thirty. In the movie, it is the older woman who has found fulfillment and rescues the youth from an empty life. Ashby even challenges the counterculture’s claim of liberation. Would they recoil at a love affair between a 79-year-old woman and a twenty-year-old man? Their attraction feels realistic enough to raise that question legitimately thanks to the great chemistry between Gordon and Curt.
Ashby develops their romance quietly and subversively. He doesn’t hammer us with the shock value of their age discrepancy. Their romance just is and neither of them have any objection to falling in love.
Harold himself realizes the good that Maude does for him and tellingly he takes the initiative to see Maude again. Even his fake suicides are taking on a more rebellious nature and are losing their annoying sense of self-pity. In Maude he even finds the perfect partner in crime.
Maude breaks many stereotypes; it’s not everyday you see an elderly woman messing with a police officer. She likes watching things grow, as it is more hopeful than watching things end. In a comical scene she rescues a tree growing in the city, which is being destroyed by pollution and smog. With her, Harold begins to smile more often and as he matures he learns to take pleasure in the land of the living.
He also starts to open up more and there is a great acting moment from Bud Cort when he tells Maude a story of the time his mother thought he had really died in a college accident and wept. It’s our first insight into Harold’s past and hints that there is love between mother and son but no communication. She only showed affection toward him when she thought he was dead.
There is a sweet scene in which Harold and Maude sing “If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out”. It is cathartic to see Harold so happy and we realize the effect of Maude’s presence. But there is also a hidden sadness to Maude that we get little hints of. She talks of a man named Frederick who we assume to have been her husband. Later, we see numbers inscribed on Maude’s wrist, indicating that she is a Holocaust survivor. Frederick, we come to understand, was not so lucky. Perhaps this is why she secretly wants to die. She would have liked to have died with her husband but has made a pact with herself to go on living as a testament to those who died in Europe.
Harold and Maude challenges preconceived notions of love with beautiful poetry. Ashby makes great use of long shots to convey the greater scheme of things, all punctuated by a perfectly suited soundtrack by Cat Stevens. The ending is one of the saddest, but helps us realize how much we have come to care about Harold and Maude. It is also bittersweet because Harold has learned to love. He gets rid of his morbid hearse and we last see him walking away playing the banjo Maude gave him. He will go on and love some more, just like Maude wanted. In asking us to abandon silly notions about love, Hal Ashby made one of the most romantic and life-affirming movies ever. Why don’t movies this original come around more often?

To be perfectly frank, I LOVE everything about this movie. The quirky comedy, the unbelievably romantic leads, the perfect soundtrack, and even the unique style of cinematography. Not only does Hal Ashby bring us into the depressing and lost life of Harold Chasen, but he shows us that life is always worth living and love has no boundaries.

No other movie has made me feel so good or want to live so much as “Harold and Maude.” The more I watch it, the more I adore it, and the farther up on my list it goes. And the crazy thing is, I don’t really understand why I feel the way I do after watching it. I couldn’t begin describing my emotions or pure joy of watching this film. The wonderful story mixed with Cat Stevens music charms me practically to death. I love the music and listen to it often. There is something so earthly, so real, and so golden about the music, and the same could be said of the movie.

Bud Cort and Ruth Gordon give some of the best performances of a lifetime, and never once did I doubt their growing love for each other. But I think one of the hidden gems in the film is Vivian Pickles. She makes me laugh so hard it hurts. Her expressions, her voice, her mannerisms, everything. It’s truly wonderful. And however depressing the ending of the movie is, it never fails to lift me up and send me out on a high note. That speaks for itself. It’s not meant to be a tear jerker, or a tragedy, but you want to cry, you want to see Harold happy so badly! And by the end he knows how to be happy.

The brilliance of this film truly remains intact even today. I never feel as good as I do watching “Harold and Maude.” And a movie that can do that, clearly speaks for itself.