Entertainment | January 18, 2021

Harold And Maude, starring Ruth Gordon and Bud Cort, wasn't a box-office hit. When director Hal Ashby's story of a May-December romance between a young man named Harold (Cort) and the 79 year old Maude (Gordon) was released in 1971, the film's gallows humor and surreal tone turned off audiences in droves. People were sickened by the very idea of a young man making love to a woman who could be his grandmother, so much so that even the soothing sounds of Cat Stevens couldn't save the movie.

Time has been kind to Harold And Maude. The film remains a cult classic, and its influence can be seen in the work of some of the most beloved directors of the '90s and 2000s. As silly as the film can be, it's got quite a lot on its mind: life, death, love. Harold And Maude deals with it all and through the tears and the heartbreak it always has a wry smile on its face.

Harold and Maude is above all a love story

Harold And Maude lets the audience know exactly what they're in for in the opening tracking shot of the film. As Cat Stevens sings over the opening credits, Harold Chassen sets the stage for what we're meant to believe is his suicide. The audience even sees the young boy step onto an end table and step off before the scene cuts to a wide shot of him hanging by a noose.

People also search for. Features Song Lyrics for Cat Stevens's Harold and Maude album. Includes Album Cover, Release Year, and User Reviews. Popular Song Lyrics. Billboard Hot 100. Upcoming Lyrics. Top Lyrics of 2011. Top Lyrics of 2010. Top Lyrics of 2009. All Music News ». An official soundtrack containing all of the Cat Stevens songs used in the movie Harold & Maude has never been released. However you can compile your own soundtrack from three Cat Stevens albums - Tea for the Tillerman, Mona Bone Jakon and either the Box Set or the Remember Cat Stevens Import CD.

With an absurd sense of humor and obsession with death, Harold attempts to shake up his upper class life by attending the funerals of people he doesn't know, faking suicide, and driving around in a hearse. It's only after he meets Maude, a 79 year old woman played by Ruth Gordon who sees life (and more importantly death) as a ridiculous experience full of both cruelty and beauty.

When Harold falls in love with Maude, a woman who could be his grandmother, he doesn't just find a reason to live, he realizes that life doesn't have to be bleak, and that growing old doesn't mean that he has to grow up.

Here today, gone tomorrow, don't get attached

The absurdity at the heart of Harold And Maude isn't something that wears off as the film grows along, but its first act isn't just incredibly weird, it's somewhat bleak. For instance, after meeting Maude at a funeral, Harold shoots himself with a gun filled with blanks while his mother tries to get him into a dating service. That's just one of many scenes that can absolutely put people off of this picture.

Hal Ashby didn't just make a 'quirky' movie, with Harold and Maude he made a meditation on death -- one that seeks to remind the audience that death isn't something to fear, it's simply a part of life. Sadly, people only understand the absurdity of life when they reach its end. The film posits that the faster we learn this fact of life, the faster we can really begin living.

Harold And Maude Soundtrack Cd

Do you often get the feeling that life isn't worth living?

Bud Cort looks back on the making Harold And Maude as a special time in his life. He won the part of Harold by telling Ashby that he was going to be the film's star, and once on set the cast felt comfortable experimenting with one another - that's how the film got its fourth wall breaking moment where Harold grins directly at the camera.

While the cast and crew grew close, studio interference nearly torpedoed the whole show. Ashby nearly quit the film because of changes that they constantly requested, one involved cutting a kiss between the title characters, but this interference just bonded the cast and crew even more. Vivian Pickles, who plays Harold's overprotective and (rightfully) worried mother, wrote that Harold And Maude is the only film where she's felt like it came out just as it should be, fully formed like Diana out of Zeus' skull:

Harold And Maude is the only job I’ve done where I haven’t wanted to change something after I’ve seen it. Hal was so inspiring, with a most wonderful, genuine, appreciative smile of warm approval that spurred you on. He really loved my ideas—particularly for my favorite scene, where Mrs. Chasen fills out the application form for her son’s dating service... Bud, like so many young American actors of the day, was very influenced by the Method, all that warming up and getting into the role, which is not my way at all—I find it very alienating—but it was right for him and it was right for the character and right for the scene. The difference in the styles works beautifully.

I haven't lived, but I've died a few times

In 1971, critics and your average audience hated this movie. Producer Charles Mulvehill explained:

The idea of a 20-year-old boy with an 80-year-old woman just made people want to vomit. If you asked people what it was about, ultimately it became a boy who was f***ing his grandmother. People actually picketed theaters that were playing the film because they found it so distasteful.

Harold And Maude was too dark, too bleak, and too weird for most audiences at the time. The overall tone and concept of the film proved to be box office poison. The New York Times reports that the film didn't make a profit until 1983. Producer Colin Higgins says that he was shocked that the film took so long to make money because it cost a hair over a million dollars. He explained:

Strange the way the game is played. Harold And Maude only cost $1.3 million. That's not even the salary of a major star today. Around 1977, Hal and Ruth and I did an audit of the movie because it cost so little we were sure it must be in profit. It wasn't.

The poor reviews pretty much doomed Cort's career for a few years. The parts that he were offered were just like Harold. Hollywood wanted him to play weirdoes and freaks, but he wanted more. Even though the film essentially encased him in amber, Cort looks on the film fondly. In 2014, he told The Guardian:

I'm so proud of it. I'm so lucky that I had the break I'd been dreaming of. The material matched my life so deeply, it was like giving birth to an elephant.

L-I-V live, otherwise you've got nothing to talk about in the locker room

By the late '70s the surreal, tragicomic tone of Harold And Maude was all over cinema. Taxi Driver, Network, Badlands, all of these films have a similar mix of comedy and darkness as that of Ashby's film that was so maligned upon its release. By 1977, college students were flocking to the movie whenever it played on campuses. Ruth Gordon said that she never spoke to someone who saw the film just once. She told The New York Times:

I got a marvelous letter from a young fellow who said, 'I've seen Harold And Maude 12 times and I wasn't sure why. I finally realized the lesson of the film is that everybody in the world has to have someone to tell it to.' Harold with all his fears could tell anything to Maude. I've had love affairs, romances, other marriages, but my husband Garson Kanin is the one person I can tell it to.

Today, it's easy to see how Harold And Maude fits into the tapestry of film history. Filmmakers like Wes Anderson and Richard Ayoade clearly love Ashby's rumination on life and death (Rushmore and Submarine are basically alternate versions of the film), but the film has influenced more than the directors who pull directly from the movie. Ashby's use of music in Harold And Maude, not just as a soundtrack but as a way to further communicate the themes of the film with the audience has become commonplace whether you're watching Garden State or Shaun of the Dead. Hal Ashby's ageless cult classic may be a film about embracing death, but it can still teach how to sing out and be ourselves.

From the Web

Rarely Seen Photos From The 70s for Mature Audiences Only

History Daily

67 Colorized Photos Captured Way More Than Expected

History Daily

Tags: Bud Cort | Cult Films | Hal Ashby | Harold And Maude | Movies In The 1970s | Ruth Gordon

Like it? Share with your friends!

Jacob Shelton

Writer

Title: Harold and Maude

Year: 1971

Writer: Colin Higgins

Director: Hal Ashby

Actors: Ruth Gordon, Bud Cort, and Vivian Pickles

Sound is an important element of film. Dialogue is the spoken form of the words in the script. Dialogue helps the audience find out about the characters and use the words that are spoken to understand what is happening in the movie. Sound effects are sounds made from conventional and unconventional techniques to add realism to a scene. Music in film can be a score or a soundtrack. A score is a collection of instrumental pieces of music used for a film. Soundtracks are songs by an artist or artists created or given for use in the movie. Any of these forms of sound can be used together or as the only sound in a scene.

Harold and Maude is considered a dark romantic comedy. In the dialogue there are many moments that are funny. There is a scene in which a priest is discussing his opposition to Harold (Bud Cort) having a relationship with 79 year old Maude (Ruth Gordon). This is one of the funniest scenes in the movie. The music used in the movie is created by Cat Stevens. The songs flow well with the scenes. There are also sound effects used in the movie. Maude loves to steal people’s cars. After she is done talking with the person she encounters, she will put her foot on the pedal and drive off speeding. The sound effect of the screeching car makes the scenes funnier. The sounds in Harold and Maude supports the theme well. The theme is no matter what troubles one may have, the person should live life to the fullest!

Harold And Maude Soundtrack If You Want To Sing Out

In this scene Harold’s mother is filling out a questionnaire because she wants Harold (Bud Cort) to begin dating. Harold’s mother is asking questions to Harold but he is not responding. So she answers the questions for him. As she is speaking, he is putting the bullets in the gun. The sound effects are loud and clear as he opens up the chamber and then puts the bullets in one by one. As Harold is doing this his mother continues to talk. At one point he points the gun to her. She does not notice and continues to talk about the questionnaire. Harold points the gun to himself and pulls the trigger. The shot is heard and Harold falls to the ground in the chair. The sound effect of the chair hitting the ground is loud. But his mom continues to ignore him and keeps talking. Harold has many deaths throughout the movie but his mother is annoyed by his attempts. This scene is the representation of their relationship. This relationship is one of the issues in his life. He wants the attention and affection from his mother that is not reciprocated.

The song featured in this scene is an audio representation of the theme. A person should be able to live the life he or she wants without repercussions. People should be able to love who they want. A person should not change for anyone else. And that everyone should be happy because life is short. If a person dreams about something then he or she should have the opportunity to make it a reality. All of these statements go along with the main theme.

The song “Trouble” is the main form of sound in this scene. Maude has taken pills intending to kill herself. The ambulance has arrived at the hospital and Harold is trying to get her checked in to the emergency room. He desperately wants Maude to live. There are direct cuts to Harold speeding in his car and back to the hospital frequently in the scene. There are sound effects of Harold’s car screeching as he drives recklessly. I believe this song sums up all of the troubles in his life (relationship with his mom, his obsession with death, Maude’s intentional overdose). All of these troubles are wearing him down and he wants to be free from them. The scene ends with the doctor notifying him of Maude’s death. If a different song was played or the dialogue was heard, the effect on the audience would not have been the same. The song adds to the sadness and heaviness that Harold feels.

The added sound effects of the screeching cars and ambulance sirens toward the end of the movie are some of the sounds that can notify the viewer that this would be a romantic comedy/drama. The sound effects used in the movie are realistic. If there were sound effects that were intended for comedic use, it would take away from the theme and the overall effect of the movie.

References: IMDB. (Website). (2001). Harold and Maude Movie Poster [Image]. Retrieved from http://www.imdb.com/media/rm2784467456/tt0067185?ref_=ttmi_mi_all_pos_15#

Harold And Maude Soundtrack Youtube

Harold And Maude Soundtrack Photo

Kroiker McGuire. (2008, December 30). “Trouble” sequence from Harold & Maude [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEbSkybMuqs

MOVIECLIPS. (2011, October 10). Harold and Maude (2/8) Movie CLIP- Dating Questionnaire (1971) HD [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reJAzTE980s

Harold And Maude Soundtrack Torrent

nasdarovie. (2010, August 30). Harold & Maude- If you want to sing out, sing out- Ruth Gordon [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKGze_1DWbE