Rental Review: Harold and Maude

By Ryn Gargulinski
Anyone who thinks it’s gross if a 20-something dude who looks 13 were to fall in love with and marry an 80-year-old gal is right.
It is.

Unless it’s Harold and Maude.

This movie not only erases society’s baseless initial shock and repulsion at such a match, but it opens the doors to examine other societal “rights” and “wrongs” that all of a sudden seem ridiculous. Like why is it OK when Anna Nicole takes on an 80-year-old lover but disgusting to some when Harold does the same thing? Why is it disgusting at all when love transcends everything, even death?

This entertaining and wholly kitschy 70s flick also opens other doors with more questions and varied interpretation. Is Maude a real person or just a figment of much needed love for Harold’s imagination? Does Harold really die during one of his “suicides?” Is Harold alive in the first place? Is Maude? Is he really only 13?

These and many other inquiries, like how the heck Harold could weld a really cool mini-hearse out of a Jaguar in less than two hours, prey on our minds.

They make us think. They awaken our senses. They make us look at love, maybe even experience it. Heck, one of my friends said he'd marry Maude in a second (but alas, Ruth "Maude" Gordon died in 1985). (Bud Cort, who played Harold, simply got all obscure like child actors even though he wasn't a child but just looked like one.)

This is not your average sit-and-absorb-things-like-a-fat-blob-eating-popcorn movies. Nor is it annoyingly philosophical, yet it does tend to preach.

I won’t ruin the film by either revealing the ending or telling you what Maude likes to preach about. But I will say you won’t mind sitting in the pew.

Highlight: Opening scene that leaves Harold hanging himself from a rafter and his subsequent string of suicides.
Lowlight: Imagining life with a mother like Harold has.
Rating (1-10): 80,888