We all love the underdog. The person who is least likely to and then after finding purpose they just go for it. Call it a feel good movie or a Rom Com but Harold and Maude is the best kind of underdog. When the film came out in 1971 it wasn't a box office success. According to Hollywood standards it was a failure yet like good wine, after years of fermenting it has become a cult classic. The sort of movie that one has to watch more than once at various points of their lives. The sort of movie that makes you laugh and take deep sighs all at once. Its the best kind of underdog story, the kind that leaves you moved and change because you watched it.
Harold and Maude (1971) stars the late Ruth Gordon as Maude and Bud Cort as Harold, each looking at life through very different lenses. Harold is a morbid young man who is fascinated by death and deeply bored with life. Maude is a seventy-nine year old woman who has lived a vibrant, full life and approaches every day like it is a new adventure. Through their mutual interest in attending the funerals of strangers they become friends. Through that friendship they find love.
Maude spits out wisdom at Harold but it is us, the audience who is also listening. Everything they do together, everything she says and does, everything he hears and learns, we experience too. The gift of Harold and Maude's unlikely connection is a reminder that love has no limitations and that life is too wonderful to take lightly.
This film holds a special place in my heart. It is the kind of film that speaks to me over and over again even when I think I am already listening it whispers something new to me I didn't know of before. It is a piece of cinematic magic, the reminder that this is why movies were made in the first place.
