Harold and Maude

Meet Harold, a very strange young man living in a very normal world. Or perhaps it's the other way around. Either way, Harold does not fit in his surroundings and has an immense difficulty relating to other human beings. Harold's mother is caught up in a social, materialistic reality that Harold has no interest in. Throughout the film, she attempts to "normalize" her son (blind dates, military, replacing his hearse with a sports car). The director, Hal Ashby, makes Harold a likable character. This at first puzzled me, because I couldn't relate to this death obsessed kid's interests or personality. However, as I watched his interactions with different people and got to know Harold throughout the film, I realized that we are more alike than I first thought. His inabilities to fit in to his surroundings and live up to his mother's expectations is something many teenagers and young adults can relate to in this transitional phase of their life. Harold's a bit different from the average young person though, so instead of finding comfort in relating to his peers, he meets Maude. Harold's obsession with death takes him to many funerals around town, where he bumps into Maude, a zany old woman who threw away the limitations of society years ago. His second time running into her she offers him a ride home. This day they become instant best friends, despite their age difference and the fact that they seem to be polar opposite. Maude shows Harold how to find purpose in life and enjoy every moment, and he eventually falls in love with her. Despite the disapproval of a priest, psychiatrists, and his mother, he plans to ask Maude to marry her on her 80th birthday. However when the big day comes, Maude tells Harold she has ingested a pill that will kill her by the end of the day. She dies and leaves Harold to play his banjo and find happiness on his own.

Maude's death was foreshadowed earlier in the film when Maude claims that 75 is too young to die, but 85 is almost too old. She says her 80th birthday is approaching and that 80 sounds like a good age to perhaps die. This seemed insignificant at the time however, because it seemed to be slipped into the conversation so subtly, I didn't imagine it was a hint as to how this story would end. Maude's last words to Harold was probably her best line of the entire film in my opinion. Sobbing, Harold tells her that she can't die, because he loves her. Maude smiles and replies, "Good, now go love some more!"
This wraps up their relationship, and the entire film. Maude was near the end of her life and happily chose to leave. Harold's life was just beginning and he wanted to leave too, but Maude changed that. I think any doubts she had about killing herself were gone once she saw that she had changed Harold for the better. The ending where Harold lets his car fly off the cliff, then dances away playing his banjo was the perfect way to show the change that had taken place in him. The car flying off the cliff was a weight being lifted off his shoulders, and the banjo was his new found freedom/happiness.

I enjoyed this film very much. The plot, the characters, the theme, pretty much everything. There was a few parts where I thought that the editing could be better. I'd like to see a modern indie-ish interpretation of this film. I think the advances in not just technology but in style of film could really make this story popular with today's young people.