Harold and Maude (TV)
"Harold and Maude" is a film that explores the unconventional relationship between Harold, a disenchanted teenager, and Maude, a vibrant elderly woman nearing her eightieth birthday. The narrative begins with Harold's attempts to gain attention from his wealthy and unresponsive mother, which include staging elaborate suicide attempts. Despite these efforts, his mother's focus remains on material solutions, highlighting themes of alienation and societal disconnection. Harold's life takes a transformative turn when he meets Maude at a funeral; she introduces him to a more fulfilling approach to life, encouraging him to live authentically and embrace joy.
As their friendship deepens into romance, Harold learns to appreciate the beauty of existence, yet faces heartbreak when Maude chooses to end her life on her birthday. This poignant moment leads to a symbolic climax where Harold, seemingly devastated, ultimately finds himself celebrating life again. The film, directed by Hal Ashby and released in 1971, became a cultural touchstone for those feeling alienated from a materialistic society, resonating with audiences seeking deeper meaning during a period of social upheaval. "Harold and Maude" serves as a reflection on the value of life, love, and embracing one's individuality against societal expectations.
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Subject Terms
Harold and Maude (TV)
Identification Motion picture
Date Released in 1971
Director Hal Ashby
This dark comedy and social satire exploring antiestablishment themes became an instant cult classic by commenting on the stifling conformity of materialist culture in modern society.
Key Figures
Hal Ashby (1929-1988), film director
In Harold and Maude, Harold (played by Bud Cort) is a depressed teenager alienated from his mother’s rich, materialistic, and intellectually shallow world. He stages suicide attempts at their opulent mansion to try to get her attention, but the gestures never work. She ignores him, buys him expensive cars, and sets him up with women from a dating service. She decides that the solution to his problems is for him to join the military and sends him to visit his uncle, who is an army colonel with only one arm. Their meeting becomes a commentary on the absurdity of war and represents a protest against the conflict in Vietnam.
Harold attends funerals of people whom he does not know, and at one of them, he meets Maude (Ruth Gordon), a full-of-life free spirit who is about to turn eighty. Maude and Harold become friends, and she shows him how life is meant to be embraced fully and to be lived on one’s own terms. The film intersperses scenes of Harold and Maude together in beautiful settings with scenes of Harold at home, where he continues to stage suicides.
Harold falls in love with Maude, and they become lovers. He comes to understand the wonders that life can hold, but thinks meaning and beauty come only from being with Maude. When she ends her own life on her eightieth birthday, Harold is devastated and drives off a cliff. For a moment, it seems that he is also dead, but then the camera pans to the top of the cliff and Harold is seen playing a banjo and dancing through a field. He has embraced life on his own.
Colin Higgins’s screenplay of the film originally was written to be thirty minutes long and intended to be his master’s thesis at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), but he expanded it to a full-length script and sold it to Paramount executives. Paramount chose Hal Ashby as the film’s director because they felt Higgins did not have the experience to direct a feature film. Shot in thirteen weeks and entirely on location in the San Francisco Bay area, Harold and Maude opened to mixed reviews in 1971.
Impact
Harold and Maude represented something around which people alienated from a society based on materialist values could rally. Among some people who had seen the film, there was an instant bonding, an acknowledgment of common values, and a connection to something vital. Harold and Maude offered hope during a time of turmoil and confusion in American society.
Bibliography
Elsaesser, Thomas, and Noel King, eds. The Last Great American Picture Show: New Hollywood Cinema in the 1970’s. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2004.
Higgins, Colin. Harold and Maude. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1971.
Sigoloff, Marc. Films of the Seventies: A Filmography of American, British, and Canadian Films, 1970-1979. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2000.