HAROLD AND MAUDE? MORE LIKE OH MY GOD!

Harold and Maude? More Like Oh My God!

Jeremy D. Speaks
Salt Lake Community College

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Harold and Maude? More Like Oh My God!
Harold is a twenty year old, who is very wealthy and very suicidal. Maude is
seventy-nine almost eighty, carefree enough to borrow cars, and so full of love that she mourns
a small tree, suffocating in the city's pollution. Harold and Maude meet at one of the many
random funerals they like to attend, fall in love while transplanting said tree, and become
engaged to be married. Maude poisons herself on her birthday and dies later that night, much to
Harolds dismay.
This film is beautiful in so many different ways its disgusting. The love shared between
someone so young who is obsessed with death, and someone so old obsessed with living life to
the fullest, is a testament to the beauty of humankind. It may seem a bit grotesque, an eighty year
old woman having implied sex with a twenty year old youth, but the ability for love to transcend
the outward appearance is simply astounding. Additionally, having Cat Stevens do the entire
soundtrack is a stroke of pure and unadulterated genius. (Cat Stevens is one of my personal
favorite artists.) The mood of the film is really amplified through the music, and tears were
brought to my eyes when Maude was playing one of his songs at the piano.
Maudes outlook on life is another slice of the perfection pie that is Harold and Maude.
The tattoo on her arm, implying that she was in a concentration camp in World War II, shows us
that her life has not always been easy. Her ability to look beyond that and get the most out of life,
even bending and breaking the rules, reminds the audience that we only live once, so dont waste
time worrying or stressing over the small things.
Unfortunately, I feel that this beautiful testament to love and the power of film has been
not always received with open arms. The general public (at least in this state) view this film as a

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taboo, disgusting perversion of who knows what. My experience, trying to watch this film in the
past, resulted in my mothers exclamation: Harold and Maude? More like oh my god!

HAROLD AND MAUDE? MORE LIKE OH MY GOD!

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