{"id":1161,"date":"2025-08-01T03:12:48","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T07:12:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=1161"},"modified":"2026-01-06T11:50:04","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T16:50:04","slug":"harold-and-maude-1971","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=1161","title":{"rendered":"Harold and Maude-1971"},"content":{"rendered":"

Harold and Maude-1971<\/strong><\/p>\n

Director Hal Ashby<\/strong><\/p>\n

Starring Bud Cort, Ruth Gordon<\/strong><\/p>\n

Top 250 Films #70<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Scott’s Review #208<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"60000591\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Reviewed December 30, 2014<\/p>\n

Grade: A<\/strong><\/p>\n

Harold and Maude (1971) is the bravest and most left-of-center film that I have ever had the pleasure of viewing. A subject matter so taboo that it had never before been explored in cinema and, to my knowledge, has not since.<\/p>\n

The film challenges so many mainstream views of aging, sex, and relationships.<\/p>\n

Ruth Gordon and Bud Cort give performances of a lifetime.<\/p>\n

The film tells the story of an unhappy, wealthy teenager named Harold (Cort) whose mother- hilariously played by Vivian Pickles- is a cold socialite attempting to reform Harold from his rebellious adolescent behavior.<\/p>\n

Harold frequently plays suicide pranks on her and the numerous females she tries to set him up with, reducing them to tearful exits from the family mansion in frightened hysterics.<\/p>\n

Obsessed with attending funerals for fun, one day, Harold meets Maude (Gordon), an older woman, at a funeral, and it turns out that both share the same fascination, but for vastly different reasons, as the story shows.<\/p>\n

They embark on a tender romance despite their age difference of over sixty years.<\/p>\n

In many ways, Maude is the real adolescent of the film, which I love. It is a role reversal of sorts. On the cusp of age eighty, she has a pure zest for life, living each minute as if it were her last, unconcerned with the consequences of her actions- she is a true free spirit.<\/p>\n

She gleefully steals cars parked on the street, and her erratic driving is comically brilliant.<\/p>\n

Harold becomes the more responsible one despite being the tender age of only nineteen. He cares for Maude, and her shocking revelation towards the end of the film floors Harold.<\/p>\n

It will also shock the audience.<\/p>\n

Harold and Maude deal with death, but the film is not a downer. It is hilarious at times, brilliantly written, and Maude, a Nazi prison camp survivor, does not fear death- she has seen her share of it and almost embraces it.<\/p>\n

Harold is just beginning his life, and the contrast of the characters and their growing bond is what works best in this film.<\/p>\n

The aforementioned Vivian Pickles knocks it out of the park with her portrayal of Harold\u2019s mother- her comic wit and timing are excellent- she callously hosts a dinner party. She boasts to the guests about her travels to France while Harold sits ignored, bored, and depressed, staring at his mother in disbelief.<\/p>\n

He wants nothing to do with her or her trivial lifestyle. She makes an unimportant phone call while Harold dangles from the ceiling in a faux suicide attempt- clearly a cry for attention from his mother.<\/p>\n

This is a total black comedy.<\/p>\n

The implied intimacy between Harold and Maude was too much for many viewers in 1971. I find it sweet and quite tastefully done. They fall in love, and it feels wonderful for both of them.<\/p>\n

I would be remiss not to mention the fantastic, lively soundtrack by Cat Stevens.<\/p>\n

Edgy, laugh-out-loud, unusual, and witty are words to describe Harold and Maude (1971)- one of the most intelligent comedies in film history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Harold and Maude-1971 Director Hal Ashby Starring Bud Cort, Ruth Gordon Top 250 Films #70 Scott’s Review #208 Reviewed December 30, 2014 Grade: A Harold and Maude (1971) is the bravest and most left-of-center film that I have ever had the pleasure of viewing. A subject matter so taboo that it had never before been … Continue reading Harold and Maude-1971<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8002,132,1855,9023,49,6016,179,9024,922,45,827,3554,7530,7464,9022],"tags":[8003,133,1861,9026,252,6018,180,9027,923,95,830,3559,7533,7460,9025],"class_list":["post-1161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-70-favorite-film","category-1971-films","category-bud-cort","category-charles-tyner","category-comedies","category-cyril-cusack","category-darkcomedies","category-ellen-geer","category-hal-ashby","category-romcoms","category-ruth-gordon","category-tom-skerritt","category-top-100-films","category-top-250-films","category-vivian-pickles","tag-70-favorite-film","tag-1971-movie-reviews","tag-bud-cort","tag-charles-tyner","tag-comedies","tag-cyril-cusack","tag-dark-comedies","tag-ellen-geer","tag-hal-ashby","tag-romantic-comedies","tag-ruth-gordon","tag-tom-skerritt","tag-top-100-films","tag-top-250-films","tag-vivian-pickles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1161"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22411,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1161\/revisions\/22411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}