Harold and Maude: Thoughts and Reveiw

Harold and Maude: Thoughts and Reveiw

Harold and Maude
Seeing a romantic relationship develop between a 20yr old Harold and 80-year-old Maude shocked my conventional wisdom as I am not accustomed to seeing such relationship in our society. The fact that a young boy can be attracted to an old woman defied any logic that I followed. Hence, the unconventional scenes in the movie such as the scene where Harold and Maude sleep together were incomprehensible to me. I could not relate to Harold’s feelings or his emotions. But soon I realized that this cultural satire is exactly the point of the movie. I was not able to comprehend the movie because my views and beliefs have been shackled with ‘social protocols’ that I am supposed to follow. One of these social protocols is that a romantic relationship can only foster between people of same ages. Through a cultural satire, the movie asks us to ‘break free’ of these social protocols and believe in whatever we think is right. Once I started viewing the movie with this notion, the movie was crystal clear to me.

The movie constantly reminds us of its message with the Cat Steven’s song – “If you want to sing out, sing out. If you want to be free, be free. There’s a million things to be. You know that there are.” The same message is also shown through the actions of Maude, who violates the law several times with her eccentric actions. For example, she just jumps into a random car and drives off. She steals a dying tree from the city to plant it in the forest. She does things that she believes are appropriate without paying attention to what the society and others think. Thus, I felt that the movie advocates the concept of individuality in all of us. In the movie, we see two opposite forces acting on Harold. One force is from her conformist mom, who wants Harold to become conformist like her. Another force is from unconstrained Maude who wants Harold to live with a free sprit. In the end, we see that the second force from Maude triumphs and...

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