Harold and Maude: The Perfect Marriage Of Music & Moving Pictures

It was only a matter of time before I got around to posting a review of my favorite film of all time, Hal Ashby’s 1971 black comedy, Harold and Maude. Sure, there is no shortage of more contemporary pictures available for a good panning and a current film called Avatar seems to be all the rage right now. But this movie is my fave of faves and rather than put off the inevitable review I'll eventually be compelled to write, I figured I could just pound it out now and check it off my “To Do” list.

Considered a cult classic in most circles, Harold and Maude is an underrated dynamo that features thoroughly lovable characters, gorgeous cinematography, an incomparable soundtrack (featuring the best stuff Cat Stevens ever cut into a vinyl groove) and a final sequence that will stick in your mind as well as any ever made.

Bud Cort is Harold, the brooding teenage son of an L.A. socialite. A woman whose schedule of entertaining dinner guests and flitting about unseen high-profile gatherings takes precedent over her responsibilities as a mother. In response to his mother’s detachment, Harold develops an obsession with death, staging a number of elaborate and sometimes gruesome fake suicides for his mother’s “benefit” and attending funeral services for people he doesn’t know. It is at one of the these services that he meets Maude, played by the incomparable Ruth Gordon, a 79 year-old widow with a penchant for stealing cars and a unique philosophy on life, death and the time spent stumbling from one to the other. After stealing Harold’s car following a graveside service, Maude backwardly solicits a ride home from the bewildered Harold. Thus begins a series of life lessons for the lonesome and morose Harold and a charming romance between two people at the opposite ends of the journey.

Punctuated by the terrific soundtrack, the film moves with the speed of a music video and features plenty of memorable moments like Harold taking a blowtorch to a very expensive gift from his mother (resulting in an epic “Gee, I wish it were mine” moment in American cinema) and a series of coordinated efforts to scare off several dates that she arranges for him. Yet despite the humor, Harold and Maude is a deeply touching film with a universal message. With this film, Hal Ashby truly manages to construct that rare, flawless cinematic gem; An ideal marriage between his cast, script, music and images that together transcend time and continue to deliver the goods with each and every viewing.