(Source: http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2014/stone-cold-masterpieces-harold-and-maude-1971/)
My favorite film of all time has become even more interesting to me after looking at it through a gender studies lens.
I first saw Harold and Maude when I was in middle school, probably around thirteen years old. As a young outcast, it immediately spoke to me, with its friendship between a young man who’s obsessed with death and a 79-year-old woman that’s full of life.
Maude: I don’t have one. I don’t believe in them.
(Image Source: https://i0.wp.com/film-cred.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/harold_maude.jpg?fit=1600%2C907&ssl=1)
Maude is a character that lives outside the bounds of what is expected for women. She’s loud and full of personality. She bends and even breaks the rules many times. For example, she gleefully goes on a high-speed police chase after stealing a small tree from a street corner that she wants to plant in the woods. The way she lives perplexes most of the people around her because she isn’t the traditional, passive old lady that needs help crossing the street.
(Source: https://www.criterionforum.org/Review/harold-and-maude-the-criterion-collection-blu-ray)
Harold, as a man, is expected to appear strong and stoic, and get married to a nice young girl. He rebels against this notion of masculinity by displaying his emotions in dramatic outbursts where he fakes his own demise.
I had never thought of this film through this lens before, and I feel that doing so gave me a new understanding of it.
I’ve never seen this movie before, but you’ve described it in such a way that makes me really want to see it now! I really like all the points you make and I think you can go even further within your reasons why and give specific examples maybe from certain scenes.