Given the hundreds of films that were part of the American New Wave (or 'New Hollywood' era) of the late 1960s/early 1970s, it's hard to say if one film is a favourite. But if I had to pick one that was closest to my heart, the one that hits me in the feels and soul every time, that film would be Harold and Maude.
Directed by Hal Ashby and written by Colin Higgins, Criterion has re-issued the 1971 film with both a 4K restoration and a blu-ray, complete with extras. If you're been waiting to wach this film, now is the time. If you have an earlier edition and are a completest, this new version looks and sounds amazing. And even after more than 50 years, it is still radical, strange, more than a little taboo, and unlike much of the cinema of that era, holds up even better now. It feels more necessary now.
18-year-old Harold (Bud Court) is a very unhappy young man. The child of wealthy parents, it seems he has been having suicide ideation for some time. And not just ideation: he has been 'performing' suicidal acts so often that his mother either ignores him or lightly admonishes him. To call these great cries for help is putting it mildly, and his only joy (in this case, an exaggeration) comes from attending the funerals of strangers. But it seems he's not the only one to partake of this particular pastime. He is approached by Maude (Ruth Gordon), an 80-year-old woman who seems the opposite of Harold: she's full of life and laughter, and decided to take Harold along for her literal and proverbial ride.
It seems at first that, indeed there could be no more opposite people than Harold and Maude. Harold seems so old for his age, wearing dark-coloured suits that are just a little too big (even considering the fashion style of the time), with a look in his eyes of sadness that belies his somewhat babyface, a slouch in his shoulders that suggests he knows that he shouldn't be carrying all this weight, but he doesn't know how to handle it, and no one in his life wants to help him. Maude seems a textbook eccentric: she wears bright colours, she lives in a converted railway car, she gives the impression of being a little absent-minded, she has energy to spare.
But Maude is no shrinking flower: her 'eccentricity' is a rebellion. If she needs to drive somewhere, she takes whatever car happens to be at hand. When a cop tries to stop her, she knows exactly how to give him the runaround. Harold's suicidal performances are in part a cry for help, but also his own form of rebellion against her mother and other adults in his life who insist that he act a certain way and take a certain path in his life. You could call this a kind of resistance in a minor key; if the counterculture of the USA was at this point over, Harold and Maude are finding a way to counter the growing right-wing culture that comes after it.
So what do these souls do, one weary and one revving? They explore the Bay area, they talk about life; well, mostly Maude talks about the beauty of life and the world. We don't learn much about Maude's life, though it seems to have been filled with adventure, and perhaps she is lonely too, as she seems to relish the time she can spend with Harold, imparting her wisdom. Harold is a willing sponge to all of this, as crazy as he thinks she is sometime; there is a sense that he is something of the (brief) voice of serious reason while she is the 'young' one full of rebellion. At her age, she has, as the expression goes, no more fucks to give. What she tries to teach Harold, is that there is so miuch beauty to experience in the world, and this is even before he confesses his darkest thoughts to her.
This was in the later stages of Gordon's career, and the beginning of Cort's. The latter clearly had a maturity beyond his years, and he leaves you in no doubt of Harold's pain, or his genuine love for Maude. In turn, Gordon shows us a woman who has lived a life on her own terms, and therefore, will exit it on her own terms. Both actors have such compassion for their characters, and their bond shines through the screen. The supporting actors — Vivian Pickles as Harold's mother, Ellen Greer as a possible paramour, Eric Christmas as the family priest — are just the right level of comically absurd that they are also completely believable.
But that most taboo part of the film is, of course, that Harold and Maude fall in love, and have sex. Even today, when it's more common to see relationships between older women and younger men, this is a 62 year difference. We could ask why the screenwriter didn't just give them a close friendship, a kind of grandmother/grandson bond. But even as nice as that relationship is, it isn't the same, and this is not the journey of these characters. These are two souls who have found each other at points in their life where that romantic and sexual connection is part of their journey: for Harold, at a beginning, and for Maude, at the end. The shot of Maude happily sleeping, with her crown of hair, and Harold sitting up, blowing bubbles with an expression of deep happiness, is so essential to the story. This might be a sudden love, but it is deep and rich and makes both Harold and Maude whole.
There is debate over whether the ending of Harold and Maude is happy or not. I don't want to spoil it for those who might not have seen the film yet; suffice to say, there is, as in life, sadness with it, a great deal, and perhaps not joy, but a realization of needing to find contentment and not constant joy, but those moments that make you happy and bring the best to your soul. That is its own quiet rebellion, expressed in this unique film.
Special Features
The team behind the master have, as usual, done an amazing job to retain the look of the film while keeping it to its original print vision. The 4K was created from the 35mm original camera negative, and there is a choice of either an umcompressed monoaural sountrack or 5.1 surround DTS-HD master audio soundtrack. It also includes a great audio commentary by Hal Ashby biographer Nick Dawson and producer Charles B. Mulvehill.
There are a number of text extras in the nice, fat booklet. First, a reprint of Matt Zoller Seitz's wonderful essay from the 2012 disc release. Zoller Seitz looks at the film's central romance as a metaphor for the beleagured political and social sentiments of the time, Harold and Maude as different kinds of innocents in a cruel, and the film's steadfast humanist statement. A great article from 1971 around the time of the film's release, by Leticia Kent, features a conversation with Ruth Gordon (who sounds like the coolest woman imaginable), how she felt about the part, her own career trajectory, and her impressions of Bud Cort. An interview with Cort and cinematographer John Alonzo highlights the connections and care that formed on set, between the two actors, and the cast and crew. And an interview with executive producer Mildred Lewis in which she discusses how she met the screenwriter and discovered his work.
These texts are complemented by a few video extras. One video features Hal Ashby discussing how he got started in film through editing, his thoughts on collaboration, what scenes need, casting, music, and how to work with a team; another one features Colin Higgins talking about the origins of the screenplay, getting financial help through the GI bill, and influence of stage productions. Both of these talks are accompanied by photos of their speakers and the film. An interview with Yusuf (formerly Cat Stevens) highlights his music contributions and how that set the tone of the film.