Am I Missing Something?

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

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!

As someone who rarely writes reviews, I must say that this is most definitely the most beautiful movie of all time. I started it with very low hopes and by the end I was stuck looking at the stunning masterpiece. I must also say that I had never cried during a movie or television show before. I've watched many movies. This was the only movie I've ever cried and it wasn't just a tear, I mean I was in full baby mode. The movie shows Maude teaching Harold something about life that I've never seen a movie, or even person, be able to teach anyone. You sit there as a viewer thinking you're watching Maude teach Harold but before you know it, Maude has taught you.

Hal Ashby's Harold and Maude attained cult status for its portrayal of a morbid youth who falls in love with a spirited woman not twice, but four times his age. Harold is a withdrawn rich boy who has a proclivity for staging elaborate - often gory - "suicides" to torment his very-proper control-freak of a mother, who remains blissfully unaffected by his theatrics. When he is not trying get a rise from his maternally inept mother, he is attending funerals of complete strangers, just for the fun of it. It's at one of these staid ceremonies that he meets the free-spirited octogenarian Maude. It turns out that attending strangers' funerals is about the only thing they have in common, which is why they turn out to be a match made in heaven. Soon they are spending time together, and Maude's full-throttle zest for life opens Harold up to its possibilities. His death obsession remains, but it begins to recede as Maude's life-affirming philosophies, however oddly enacted in her anything-goes lifestyle, cuts through his malaise. She speaks in hippie-friendly aphorisms, but coming from the mouth of such a delicately poised octogenarian, they take on the weight of accumulated wisdom. More than a friend or lover, Maude infects Harold with her carpe diem attitude, freeing him from the inner demons of boredom and self-pity. The pair soon fall into a romantic relationship that shouts in the face of societal mores. It's a disquieting premise for a movie, certainly, but to dwell on the age difference of the characters is to miss the movie's point. Part of the beauty of Harold and Maude is the way you quickly lose sight of the age difference between Harold and Maude and begin to see them simply as people who connect and love each other. They are oddballs in a world that doesn't understand or appreciate them, although the film sidesteps simple us-versus-them banality by portraying the establishment as kooky in its own right. The film spends much of its time in a unique space between reality and farce, towing a fine line that director Hal Ashby maintains with seemingly effortless grace. Its bleak morbidity is uncommonly matched by its over-the-top hilarity (Harold's long series of faux suicide attempts are hysterical), buoyed by Cat Stevens' amazing pop soundtrack, providing just the right wistful, mournful touch for this glimmering jewel of a movie. The casting is impeccable. With his baby face and elfin eyes, Bud Cort looks much younger than his age, which makes some of his antics seem even more childlike. Yet, once he spends time with Maude, he seems to mature in front of us, losing the angry-child glint in his eyes and becoming a reformed innocent. Ruth Gordon's sprightliness lends the perfect counterbalance to Bud, as she plays Maude as a one-of-a-kind without turning her into a kook. She evinces such sweetness and genuine care for what she loves that you can't help but admire her constancy.By turns funny, moving and outrageous - sometimes all at once - the film is Hal Ashby's masterpiece, thanks in no small part to Colin Higgins' nearly perfect screenplay and the incredible performances by everyone. If you've never seen Harold and Maude, that needs correcting.

The most indie-esque film to come out of the '70s that I have seen, "Harold and Maude" wallows in irreverence. Suicide is played around with as a theme - never trivialised, but used frequently as a source of dark humour. The unlikely relationship between the titular characters is remarkably sweet and loving, if a little rushed, and the jaunty folk soundtrack uplifts the mood despite the heavy themes. The script is superlative, counterbalancing all the incidents of gore; the film almost comes across as a pre-emptive "Breakfast Club" for the "Fight Club" generation. Desperation and listlessness weighs Harold down, until Maude lightens his existence by showing him how to live for once. Her bubbly persona is the yang to his yin, and the film's quirky comedy cheers the audience as well as Harold with its subtlety. A true unexpected pleasure, "Harold and Maude" is surprising and charming throughout, with enough dark substance to mark it out as truly unique.