Harold and Maude
by Hal Ashby
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Actor: Bud Cort, Charles Tyner, Cyril Cusack, Ruth Gordon, Vivian PicklesDirector: Hal Ashby
Brand: GORDON,RUTH
Cinematographer: John A. Alonzo
Editor: Edward Warschilka
Editor: William A. Sawyer
Producer: Charles Mulvehill
Producer: Colin Higgins
Writer: Colin Higgins
Producer: Mildred Lewis
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 91 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2000-06-27
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Paramount Home Video
DVD Reviews of Harold and Maude
DVD Review: Harold and Maude: A Review. Film: 5 Stars; Disc: 1-1/2 Stars.
Summary: 5 Stars
THE FILM: 5 Stars
"Harold and Maude," a film from the early-1970s which started humbly but grew to become a cult classic from one of Hollywood's golden ages, can be classified as many things: a comedy that runs both dark and light, a romance that is at once offbeat and charming, a satire about society, class, and politics, a cliché-buster about nonconformity, and, finally, a movie that takes any preconceptions you may have and tosses them away.
Directed by Hal Ashby from a screenplay written by Colin Higgins, the focus of the story is a wealthy, quiet, and profoundly morose young man named Harold Chasen (played by turns serious and sincere, deadpan and charmed by Bud Cort, in perhaps his best-remembered performance), who is absorbed with the notion of death--specifically his own. He is so obsessed with it that, when he is not attending the funerals of people he never knew, for his own "special sense of satisfaction," he feigns suicide. He pretend-kills or -maims himself numerous times during the film, in fact. So many times that it seems to be, for him, a recreational sport, a bleak hobby of sorts. Rather than the dashing Jaguar he could easily acquire, his preference is for the black hearse, which, as you may have rightly deduced already, he drives to those funerals he is so fond of.
His morbid episodes are rather imaginative (it turns out there are many, many techniques a man can use to harm himself, and Harold, apparently, is a master of most of them, at least as far as dress rehearsals) but, above all, a theatrical spectacle performed especially for an audience of just one: his mother. But, his antics, no matter how showy they may be, are little-appreciated by Mrs Chasen, a fashionable and humorously conceited society lady (relishingly portrayed, with her upper-crust English accent and her metaphorical nose held too high, by the British theater actress Vivian Pickles) who, half the time, is annoyed with her son's devious pleas for attention and, the remainder of the time, hardly registers them in the midst of her need to entertain her well-heeled guests or live her life of entitlement in her sprawling estate. We learn that Harold's behavior stems largely from his mother being too distant. Yet, one senses that seemingly unbridgable gap between them widening with each "deadly" incident. If all of this sounds too heavy, don't worry. This movie is, without doubt, a comedy; Harold's incidents and the reactions of his mother and her occasional company to them--shocked, irritated, resigned or, simply, preoccupied--are quite funny. And many of them happen abruptly, with no warning, thus surprising the audience as well.
Enter Maude, who, like Harold, enjoys visiting funerals and, indeed, befriends him at one. But, far from sharing Harold's bleak outlook on life, Maude uses them as one more excuse to live life to its fullest. Amidst a crowd of people who mourn in their near-uniform sea of black garments and umbrellas, she stands out, with her yellow umbrella, a small sign of her vivacious, carefree soul.
After they spot each other, their relationship builds relatively slowly. She makes the first moves, taking the trouble to close in on him mid-ceremony, in the church, to offer him, of all things, licorice. They gradually talk more and more. He's rather timid at first but she is so flirtatious and free-spirited that the shy Harold soon begins a slow emergence from his shell. Before long, he's driving her around in his hearse (which she has just stolen--not that it really bothers anyone; everyone has their little quirks, right?), to her home, an old roadside rail car, bursting with plants, music, bric-a-brac, art, scents that smell like snow in New York, and a sculpture Harold finds particularly intriguing as he falls for her, this woman of spontaneity who acts as a counterweight against his feelings of mortality, with those of life. Just as he dwells on death and knows a hundred ways to find it, she finds life and its inspiration in seemingly everything and every place, some of them unexpected. A greenhouse filled with white dasies that look the same at first glance but, on closer inspection, are each different from the next. A cemetary filled with row upon row of identical white headstones. A scrawny tree clinging to life on the side of a city road--they unearth it and whisk it to the forest, where it can thrive. They find amusement and, thus, life at upstaging Harold's uncle, a military man who was General MacArthur's "right-hand man,"--and lost his own, with its arm, at some point during his long career. He salutes, when he is so moved, by pulling a string that extends the sleeve of his phantom arm into the air. And, of course, they still partake in more conventional dates. An outing to an amusement park reveals how completely smitten they are with each other. Harold surprises Maude with cake, champaigne, and more on her eightieth birthday.
Oh, did I forget to mention her age? It's actually the detail about Harold and Maude's relationship that most would find unconventional, moreso than the sharp contrast in their respective outlooks on life (and death). At least that's what the film seems to think. Indeed, it is unusual to mainstream Americans, but certainly not unheard of. The history of films and that of many of their makers, not to mention the populace at large, are peppered with similar stories. What truly makes "Harold and Maude" interesting, fun, and refreshing even after all these years is it takes a seemingly odd arrangement and stretches it to its extreme ends (an age difference that almost couldn't be greater, virtually no inhibitions), more than other films did before and since, without sheepishness or apology. It asserts that people must not have their choice of life partner, a most personal and intimate decision, dictated or judged by society merely to conform to the generally accepted "norms" or other such rules. Fortunately, it seems that a great deal more people have, by and large, accepted this most reasonable of philosophies, though we still have a long way to go.
Harold's older and, in some ways, wiser significant other is marvelously portrayed by Ruth Gordon, the Academy Award-winning actress ("Rosemary's Baby"), in one of her signature screen roles, and she does anything but "act her age." Every so often, for instance, she still models in the nude, with obvious pleasure and an utter lack of hesitation, for her ice-sculptor friend, Glaucus (Cyril Cusack). If only we could all be as uninhibited and full of vigor after eight decades.
Meanwhile, Harold's mother--though I'm inclined to refer to her more formally as Mrs Chasen, so tersely formal, comically self-centered and oblivious to him is she that one almost doubts they are truly related--unaware of her son's exploits with a woman who is old enough to be Mrs Chasen's own mother, does everything she can think of to make him, if not more "normal," then, at least, less of an embarrassment to her. She does what, perhaps, most parents would do with their wayward teenaged kids. For starters, she tries the obvious fix and has him see a psychiatrist (a somewhat baffled G. Wood). Stepping up the pressure, she then sends him to his uncle, the aforementioned right-sleeve-saluting General Victor Ball (a boisterous Charles Tyner) of the U.S. Army, into whose ranks Harold is drafted.
But the main endeavor Mrs Chasen pursues to set her boy on what she feels is the proper path to manhood is to arrange a series of blind dates with the intention that he will ultimately marry one of them. The scene in which they answer the computer dating service's questionnaire--rather, she answers it for him--is one of the funniest and memorable in the film. The result is three more or less conventional women (Judy Engles, Shari Summers, and Ellen Geer) who each arrive at the Chasen mansion, in turn, as the film progresses, for a date that is cut too short and ends basically the same as the others, all to humorous effect, the last date easily the most inspired by Harold's weird nature but, in the end, no match for him. Another character steeped in convention who we meet briefly is the priest (an often shocked Eric Christmas) who gives the sermons at the funerals Harold and Maude attend. Among all the reactions to the news of Harold and Maude's devotion to each other, his is the most hilarious.
The overall feel of the film swings between moody (any of Harold's "little eccentric moments," as Mrs Chasen prefers to refer to them) and freewheeling (the title couple's encounters with police officers), but always with a comic sensibility. The director of photography, John Alonzo, helps create mood with the dim spaces and subdued colors of the mansion's interiors, to light-filled scenes with Maude. The film editing by William A. Sawyer and Edward Warschilka, is frequently imaginative, particularly in the cuts between scenes, such as the cut from Harold practicing his music at Maude's place to him doing the same outside his mansion, or a scene-transition cut that involves Harold opening the doors of his hearse. This type of editing, in its subtle ways, helps drive the continuity of the story.
Beyond that, one of the most clever and effective devices used in the film is the soundtrack, comprised mainly of original songs performed by Cat Stevens. It's not only that the simple yet catchy numbers, accompanied chiefly by piano and guitar, would make a memorable experience all by themselves. It is also the fact that the songs provide something of a window into Harold's mind, clarifying what he feels at particular moments of importance. Ashby, known as a director who uses music to powerful effect (see "Being There"), also includes a brief rendition of Tchaikovsky's classical "Coronation March," used well in relation to this film.
But, overall the tone of the film is chiefly due, of course, to Ashby's masterful direction, Higgins' brilliant screenplay, and the performances, especially those of Gordon and Cort, at the center of it all. She seems the very definition of free-spiritedness and vitality, as well as the teacher of life. He portrays an old boy who does not realize, at first, how conflicted and lost he is, then proceeds, with the help of a certain young-at-heart lady, to change before our eyes, truly, finally maturing into a young man who irresistably finds life--his life. And that's an experience that we all should find irresistable.
THE DISC: 1-1/2 Stars
This title is one of the numerous examples of outstanding films being slighted by a poor home entertainment release. The disc is characterized by the usual fallacies of such an issue: a too-soft picture quality composed of faded colors; muffled sound that is not as clear as it should be; and no special features, save for a couple of the film's trailers. Not even a commentary. As is generally the case for films originally made with mono sound (like "Harold and Maude"), the Dolby 5.1 stereo sound adds little to the overall experience. One good feature is the fact that it is designed for the widescreen televisions that have become standard (though that alone surely does not save this disc).
It seems Paramount Pictures, the studio behind both the original theatrical release and the home entertainment prints, was determined to invest as little as possible toward bringing one of its classic films of the seventies to disc. I don't wish to actively begrudge Paramount any more than it deserves. Most of the studios are guilty of the same lackluster treatment for certain movies in their own respective libraries. However, it seems Paramount has done this far more frequently than the others, including to many of its best-known films. One hopes that the studio will use the advent of high-definition (i.e., Blu-ray discs), as a reason to finally give the films in its catalog, including "Harold and Maude," a long-awaited home entertainment overhaul, complete with sharp and rich visuals, crystal clear sound, and loads of informative and entertaining special features.
The trailers are amusing. The first one seems to be more of a teaser, chiefly showing a few snippets from the film while Cat Stevens sings the lyrics to what could easily be considered the main theme song to the film: "If you want to sing out, sing out / And, if you want to be free, be free / Cause there's a million ways to be / You know that there are..." The second trailer gives a better sense of the film's premise, portraying more of the supporting characters and including more dialogue (plus, if you pay close attention, you'll notice a few shots that are not actually in the final film). It also, however, is one of those trailers (and many movies have these) that gives away too much of the story, showing glimpses of virtually all of Harold's "suicides" and certain situations that, for dramatic purposes, should have been left for audiences to discover themselves.
Description of Harold and Maude
The self-destructive and needy wealthy teenager Harold is obsessed by death and spends his leisure time attending funerals, watching the demolishing of buildings, visiting junkyards, simulating suicides trying to get attention from his indifferent, snobbish and egocentric mother, and having sessions with his psychologist. When Harold meets the anarchist seventy-nine-year-old Maude at a funeral, they become friends and the old lady discloses other perspectives of the cycle of life for him. Meanwhile, his mother enlists him in a dating service and tries to force Harold to join the army. On the day of Maude's eightieth birthday, Harold proposes to her but he finds the truth about life at the end of hers.Black comedies don't come much blacker than this cult favorite from 1972, and they don't come much funnier, either. It seemed that director Hal Ashby was the perfect choice to mine a mother lode of eccentricity from the original script by Colin Higgins, about the unlikely romance between a death-obsessed 19-year-old named Harold (Bud Cort) and a life-loving 79-year-old widow named Maude (Ruth Gordon). They meet at a funeral, and Maude finds something oddly appealing about Harold, urging him to "reach out" and grab life by the lapels as opposed to dwelling morbidly on mortality. Harold grows fond of the old gal--she's a lot more fun than the girls his mother desperately matches him up with--and together they make Harold & Maude one of the sweetest and most unconventional love stories ever made. Much of the earlier humor arises from Harold's outrageous suicide fantasies, played out as a kind of twisted parlor game to mortify his mother, who's grown immune to her strange son's antics. Gradually, however, the film's clever humor shifts to a brighter outlook and finally arrives at a point where Harold is truly happy to be alive. Featuring soundtrack songs by Cat Stevens, this comedy certainly won't appeal to all tastes (it was a box-office flop when first released), but if you're on its quirky wavelength, it might just strike you as one of the funniest movies you've ever seen. --Jeff Shannon
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