There be SPOILERS ahead, matey!
I first became aware of H&M through Jane Goldman’s Twitter stream sometime last year. I subsequently rented the film through LOVEFiLM on DVD and was astonished at just how good this film was. I immediately took to Spotify and added all the songs from Cat Stevens to a separate playlist. I meant to buy the film on DVD, but never got around to doing so.
I had – to my shame – forgotten about this film for a while.
So I was very pleased to see that [CENSORED] carries this fine, fine film. I just had to watch it again. It plays exceptionally well the second time around. In fact, I’d say that Harold and Maude is one of those movies that is infinitely re-watachable. I just love this film. Perhaps more so now I’ve seen it again.
Everything about it is great. It’s dark humour (Harold staging fake suicides all the time – even when his mother sets him up with dates from a computer dating agency – and the reactions from his mother and the girls are just outrageously funny) and ironic twist (Maude, having reached 80, deliberately commits suicide for real) and the advice dished out from Harold’s psychologist, preacher and uncle are so funny (especially when they find out that Harold plans to marry Maude) that it’s hard to believe that this was a film that was shot in 1971. This film is practically timeless.
Maude’s final words to Harold, “love some more” is both profound and deeply moving. You’d be hard pushed not to feel for Harold’s loss – but ultimately this is a film not about death, but about life – and living every single minute of it to the full.
Harold & Maude must now be one of my absolute favourite American movies ever made. And to think that it very nearly came close to never being so. And who can blame Jane Goldman for buying a similar hearse/sports car (one almost feels a deep loss when the car in the film is driven off a cliff)? Great film. Fantastic cast. A script that you could never possibly reboot or remake.
Perfect.
“Well, if you want to sing out, sing out
And if you want to be free, be free
’cause there’s a million things to be
You know that there are ”
