Stars: Bud Cort, Ruth Gordon, Cyril Cusack, Vivian Pickles, Ellen Geer

Director: Hal Ashby

Summary: Black comedy tale about a young man who falls in love with an older woman. He is obsessed with death, but she helps him see the positive side of things.

In the long ago days before video when access to anything but first-run Hollywood movies was limited to repertory houses and college film societies, Hal Ashby's HAROLD AND MAUDE, while not what one would call an underground film, achieved cult status, becoming one of the most popular American films of its time. It is, interestingly, a very simple story. He's shy and morose; she's spunky and full of life. The film is a cliched love story about how opposites attract, except that he's 19 and she's 79. Harold, played with deadpan humor by Bud Cort, is under extreme pressure from his overbearing mother, Mrs. Chasen (Vivian Pickles), in a performance that is a sheer delight, to enter the dating world in hopes of marriage, but he would rather spend his time going to funerals, which is where he meets Maude (Ruth Gordon). She feels he needs to come out of his shell and enjoy life, so she includes him in hers, which is one long, unending series of lunatic adventures, ranging from saving trees to grand theft auto. Their love affair celebrated the spirit of an experimental generation guided by the mantra "If it feels good, do it." The soundtrack, with songs and lyrics by Cat Stevens (which Pauline Kael called "mush minded"), provides an effective thematic bridge as Harold crosses from extended adolescence to manhood.

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Black comedies don't come much blacker than cult favourite, Harold and Maude(1972), and they don't come much funnier either. It seems that director Hal Ashby was the perfect choice to mine a load of eccentricity from the original Colin Higgins script, about the unlikely romance between a death-obsessed 19-year-old named Harold (Bud Cort) and a life-loving 79-year-old widow named Maude (Ruth Gordon). They meet at a funeral, and Maude finds something oddly appealing about Harold, urging him to "reach out" and grab life by the lapels as opposed to dwelling morbidly on mortality. Harold grows fond of the old gal--she's a lot more fun than the girls his mother desperately tries to match him up with- -and together they make Harold and Maudeone of the sweetest and most unconventional love stories ever made. Much of the early humour arises from Harold' s outrageous suicide fantasies, played out as a kind of twisted parlour game to mortify his mother, who has grown immune to her strange son's antics. Gradually, however, the film's clever humour shifts to a brighter outlook and finally arrives at a point where Harold is truly happy to be alive. Featuring soundtrack songs by Cat Stevens, this comedy certainly won't appeal to all tastes (it was a box-office flop when first released), but if you're on its quirky wavelength, it might just strike you as one of the funniest films you've ever seen. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

Aspect Ratio:	1.78 Anamorphic Wide Screen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	2 Theatrical Trailers
Subtitles:	Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish
Year:	1971
Release Date:	May 13, 2002
Runtime:	87 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	P H E 8224
Keywords:	Comedy, General, Harold, Maude
Genre:	Comedy