Sick Product of a Sick System

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Impressed by its beautiful style, its moving soundtrack, eccentric characters, sharp acting, smart dialogue,interesting philosophy, and clever metaphors, if they are presented very directly. But it's so cold and bland, so, simply, I didn't care about anything.If you were wondering how a Wes Anderson movie would be like if it lacks heart, Harold and Maude is the answer to your question. It's a very sweet and classy candy yet not tasty! (7/10)

I didn't know where this film was going when I first started watching but am so happy that I went along for the ride. The main characters darkness originally seemed very far from my own reality and experiences but as the story progressed I realized that our paths may not be that far apart, it's just that each of us chooses to express ourselves differently. Of course Ruth Gordon is excellently cast for this role and together her and Bud Court make a dynamic and engaging pair. Vivian Pickles as the mother is also pitch-perfect. The Cat Stevens score is really a third character in this film as it represents to me a perfect pairing of music/lyrics and story. I spoke with some other viewers who found this film dark and depressing, but to me it was a joyful and life-affirming work of art that I suspect with linger within me for a very long time.

I watched Harold and Maude when it came out in the 70's and I will NEVER forget it for every worthwhile reason! The personalities of those two were loaded and bursting at the seams with a uniqueness so special you would blessed to meet just one person that original in a lifetime and they found each other. Good people to me and hilarious! You must see it! Your life can only be made better for it! Truly!

Several Cat Stevens songs appear in this film which were never released on an album until Stevens' greatest hits albums. The song, arguably debuted by Ruth Gordon about midway, carries the message of the film: "If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out". Harold (Bud Cort), the only child of a filthy-rich family, a disturbed college-age youth engages in black-humor episodes: he fakes committing suicide. As the film progresses his suicides become more elaborate, beginning with hanging, but then moving onto drowning and shooting himself. His second "suicide" is so gruesome, his single mother doesn't know what to do with him, so she hires a psychologist who becomes as flustered with Harold as his mother.For fun, Harold buys a used Hearse and attends funerals of people he doesn't know. There he notices Maude (Ruth Gordon), an older woman with the spunk of a 25-year-old. She also likes to attend funerals but she has other habits as well. She likes to steal cars, not the least of which is a Volkswagon Bug driven by the priest at a couple of the funerals. She then starts driving Harold's Hearse after one of the funerals and offers to give Harold a ride home. He explains the Hearse is his car to which Maude replies "Then you should give me a ride home." And so begins a rather quirky relationship between a reclusive youth and an older woman who could make Madonna seem like a fuddy-duddy. At one point she even one-up's a motorcycle cop played by Tom Skerritt.The most insufferable character of the film is neither Harold nor Maude but Harold's mother. Mrs. Chasen (Vivian Pickles) never engages with her son except to be outraged at his suicide episodes. More often she knows what he's up to and simply speaks with him normally when he appears to be "dead". What makes her insufferable is her detachment from him. She decides Harold needs to meet women and she signs him up for a computer dating service. She fills out the questionnaires and chooses the women without his input. At several of the meetings with the "prospects", Harold yet again engages in his "suicides", often with horrific consternation on the part of the dating prospect.Although definitely not for all tastes, "Harold and Maude" has become a cult classic. While there's not really a "plot" per se but more of a character study, themes of death and life permeate the entire story. At film's beginning, we learn that Harold seems to be going through life on autopilot except for his suicide episodes. Because of his interest in funerals, he seems preoccupied by "death". The origin of this compulsion is finally revealed to Maude about 2/3rds through the film. On the other side, Maude is a free spirit and Harold learns that he may need to take risks to enjoy life fully. While I wouldn't recommend trying to outdo a motorcycle cop, the point of Maude's behavior is that we often spend too much time worrying about the approval or disapproval of others instead of just doing those things that let us "be free" as the song goes. In other words, death is the price we pay for living life.