Day 37: If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out

HAROLD AND MAUDE (1971)
Directed by Hal Ashby
Starring: Ruth Gordon, Bud Cort, Vivian Pickles, Cyril Cusack, Charles Tyner

Harold Chassen (Cort) is twenty years old, wealthy, bored and obsessed with death.  He stages mock suicides and attends funerals of people he doesn't know.  While at one of these funerals, he meets 79-year-old Maude (Gordon), who is the freest of free spirits.  The two form an unlikely bond, as Maude shows Harold how to live life to its fullest.  Meanwhile, Harolds mother (Pickles) sets Harold up on three blind dates, whom he manages to alienate through his use of elaborate suicidal fakeries.  Maude's lust for life eventually takes Harold by storm, and he announces his plans to marry her.  Unfortunately, Maude has other plans...

It's a very poorly kept secret that I hate romantic comedies.  So I was really taken aback by Harold and Maude, which is the antithesis of the genre.  Their romance is so unlikely and the humor so dark that I immediately came to love it.  It takes the same "boy meets girl" trope and turns it on its head in a wonderful way.  In fact, there is nothing conventional about this film.  It's a product of it's time and counterculture in nearly every way.  And more that that, it is proud of its counterculture stance; it makes no apologies.  I have to say I dig that.

Bud Cort does very well in his role as the melancholy and somewhat demented Harold.  His innocent baby-faced look belies a much darker side to the character, which makes his fake suicides and fascination on death that much funnier.  But it is Ruth Gordon who absolutely shines as the free-wheeling Maude.  As the film progresses, we see that she too has a dark side that comes from what very likely was an extremely hard life, which is only hinted at.  On paper, it doesn't look like these two should have anything to do with one another.  But one of the rules of writing that I find works best is not to create scenes, but to create characters, and put them in a situation.  And it works wonderfully here.

There are those who, I'm sure, would rate this film lower, what with its dark comedy and quirky love story.  But I am a fan of any film that bends a genre and does it well.  If you're not careful, you can turn your film into a parody very quickly and without meaning to.  But this film is a beautiful portrait of an unlikely pair.