Blu-ray Review – Harold And Maude (1971)

Harold and Maude remains one of the phenomenal films to come out of the New Hollywood of the 1970s. It was also perhaps the one most ahead of its time and also one of the strangest. It pre-dates the feel of the films of Wes Anderson a good 20 years plus before his debut feature film.

Harold (Bud Cort) is a young man who is obsessed with death. He attends funerals, drives a hearse and stages elaborate fake suicides to the annoyance of his rich mother. He meets the 79 year-old Maude (Ruth Gordon) at a funeral and he finds out they share the same hobby of attending funerals. Maude is a quirky old lady full of life and excitement and they eventually fall in love but at the same time Harold’s mother is trying to find him a wife.

The film was written by Colin Higgins and was his Masters thesis script at UCLA. He was working for producer Edward Lewis as his pool boy and Lewis was so impressed by the script he took it to the head of Paramount who then bought the script. Higgins wanted to direct it but after unsatisfactory tests shot by Higgins, the up and coming Hal Ashby was hired. Ashby has made his career working as editor for Norman Jewison and was starting to make his break as a director and would in turn have one of the best bodies of work of any director of the 1970s.

Bud Cort was an up and coming actor who had a supporting role in Robert Altman’s M*A*S*H and is also the lead in Altman’s surreal flop Brewster McCloud. Many of the young actors of the time were considered Richard Dreyfuss, Bob Balaban (who would later work extensively with Wes Anderson), John Savage and even a young Elton John who Ashby had seen live and he was keen to cast him so he could also do the music. Bud Cort was considered to be the next big star of the 70s but in 1979 he was in a terrible car accident that left him horribly scared. It took years of plastic surgery but he has made a comeback in supporting roles in films like Dogma and The Life Aquatic. Ruth Gordon was a veteran actress who is best remembered besides playing the lovable Maude for her role in Roman Polanski’s classic film Rosemary’s Baby.

Harold and Maude’s original release had some of the most savage reviews ever written for a film. Many mainstream critics including Roger Ebert and Vincent Canby hated the film and it also got one of the greatest bad reviews in history with the opening line of “Harold and Maude has all the fun and gaiety of a burning orphanage”; you couldn’t even dream up reviews that bad if you tried. The film did get a second life as a play in France where the film was a hit; they have always had a love for black humour. They did try to mount a production on Broadway but it closed after only four performances.

Harold and Maude ended up being a proto-punk cult classic; Harold definitely had a punk attitude. It remains one of the few films that is life-affirming without the sickening sentimentality often associated with that label. It’s also perhaps the finest romantic comedy ever made and has a purity that most don’t. It’s a film that makes you understand why this young man could fall in love with an old lady. It remains the go-to film for filmmakers when they make a “quirky” romantic comedy and even the horrible Cat Stevens songs work- that’s how great the film is.

The disc boosts a beautiful transfer; the cinematography by John A. Alonzo who shot such stunning films as Chinatown, Scarface and Vanishing Point is outstanding. The disc’s features- like the Criterion collection’s disc- are slightly disappointing because Bud Cort is nowhere to be seen. In an interview available to view online in the early 00s he says he was lobbying to make a special edition and has produced some features himself. It’s a shame he wasn’t asked to participate because he seems he was very keen to. The features are the same commentary as criterion used by producer Charles B. Mulvehill and Ashby biographer Nick Dawson, a video discussion by critic David Cairns and a typically lengthy booklet with archival interviews with Ashby, a profile of Ruth Gordon and more.

[rating=5]
Ian Schultz

Genre:
Comedy, Romance
Distributor:
Eureka! Entertainment
BD Release Date:
14th July 2014 (UK)
Rating:15
Running Time:91 Minutes
Director:
Hal Ashby
Cast:
Ruth Gordon, Bud Cort, Vivian Pickles
Buy:Harold And Maude (Masters of Cinema) (Blu-ray) [1971]