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Harold and Maude Customer Reviews (1 - 3 of 68 Reviews)

Still Quirky and Funny Black Comedy Tells the Ultimate Opposites-Attracts Love Story
This 1971 black comedy is still a stitch, even if it doesn't feel as audacious as I'm sure it once did. Directed by the maverick Hal Ashby, it is the epitome of all opposites-attract love stories as a twenty-year old depressive connects with a 79-year old life-loving woman. They actually bond over their mutual interest in death, as they keep showing up at the same funerals. However, the root of their respective interests couldn't be more different - Maude shows up to reconfirm how lucky she feels to be alive, while the hearse-driving Harold simply likes the morbidity of it all.

The plot is really about their burgeoning relationship, while his mother constantly attempts to make the death-obsessed Harold more socially acceptable. First, she uselessly sets him up on a series of blind dates. To foil any hope of romance with these women, however, he stages mock-suicides which simply perturbs rather than disturbs his mother. She then recruits an ineffectual analyst and even has her brother Victor, a hawkish officer and Vietnam War amputee, to try to convince Harold to join the Army. The episodic structure of the story by Collin Higgins (years before becoming a director in his own right with "Foul Play" and "Nine to Five") allows the characters to develop in subtle ways with a completely deadpan approach despite the outward shenanigans of the characters' actions. The movie eventually moves toward a greater gravitas but despite some soap opera elements, surprisingly not at the expense of the pervasive whimsical tone.

Ruth Gordon is her typically pixilated self, an archetype she played for years afterward, while Bud Cort is terrific in conveying his particular brand of wide-eyed cynicism. It's really their unforced chemistry that keeps the film feeling fresh 35 years later. There are funny sideline performances by Vivian Pickles as Harold's eye-rolling mother, Ellen Geer as an overly actressy blind date named Sunshine, and Eric Christmas in a very funny cameo as a disapproving priest. Cat Stevens' soundtrack hasn't aged as well as, say, Simon and Garfunkel's music in "The Graduate", but it still works as a folkish commentary on the quirky proceedings. Unfortunately, the 2000 DVD contains a rather compromised print and there are no extras included.

You will either love it or Hate it.
People who watch this movie either love it or hate it.

VH1 renewed interest
I saw this movie when it first hit the movie theatres in the early 70's. Some friends of mine mentioned the movie to me and I am surprised that VH1 had played it on the television.
Ruth Gordon is excellent in the part of Maude.
It is a morose film, but because of the times when it was written and released, it is appropriate.
It was great to see the old Bay area Landscape which today is nearly a cement jungle.
Any teen who is struggling with parental control issues may relate to this movie. I did way back when.
Not a bad flick.

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