I did not enjoy Harold and Maude, and I have no idea how it ended up in my queue. Harold is a rich young man who fakes suicide to get attention and is obsessed with death. Harold’s mother unsuccessfully tries to fix the problem by setting him up on computer-matched dates at home and arranging visits with his general uncle and a psychiatrist. Harold meets Maude, a 79-year old woman, when they repeatedly see each other crashing funerals. She isn’t faking her rebellion for attention. She is sweet, but has spent a lifetime literally doing what she wants with varying consequences. They become close, and Harold slowly sheds his dark demeanor and embraces life thanks to Maude’s joie de vivre. I see what he sees in her, but not vice versa. The soundtrack is by Cat Stevens-a lot of Cat Stevens. A LOT!
I don’t get what Maude sees in Harold other than company and a willing playmate, which maybe is enough. He is acting out against his bourgeoisie lifestyle and rejecting his superficial surrounding by being superficially mentally ill-NOT Goth, mentally ill. He has no other trait than wanting attention. I loved that he met his annoying match on the last computer date-a much needed taste of his own medicine. I’m not sure if it is exploitive, but I felt like I knew more about Maude and instinctively felt sympathy for her antics because of a couple of brief allusions to her past than I did for Harold.
I can objectively see Harold and Maude’s contribution to film today. Winona Ryder and Christina Ricci owe a portion of their careers to Bud Cort-a pale, younger version of Dark Shadows’ Jonathan Frid. Instead of a manic pixie girl, Harold and Maude gives us a manic pixie elderly woman, but at least Maude existed long before meeting Harold and has an existence other than making him happy. I feel like Wes Anderson and Better Off Dead may owe Harold and Maude some money, but they wore it better.
Harold and Maude is strongest in its depiction of Harold’s pro-military uncle, and his scenes feel inspired by Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Harold and Maude’s real point is to rebel against society’s standards of what is appropriate because the appropriate is monstrous, but frankly the rebellious is pretty terrible too. Skip it!