The movie "Harold and Maude" is a comedic film that came out in 1971 that centers around the mysteries of death. Before even watching it, I was puzzled as to why a topic such as death could possibly be the base topic of a comedy. In my mind, either this movie was simply using comedy as a way to make death seem less serious and scary, or it was literally mocking death as if it actually is no big deal. Either way, I was more than interested in finding out what different perspective views it provided.
This movie is based around a young boy named Harold, who is ultimatley obssessed with death. To be around death as much as he can, he stages numerous mock suicides, attends funerals of complete strangers, and even has a job driving a hearse. In my view, the character of Harold represents the curiosity of the younger generation who at most times are kept away from the society and dealings with death, as parents may feel its too big of a deal for children to be exposed to at a young age. I personally remember having my neighbor pass away when I was very young. She was a very nice woman who was a family friend for years. I would always spend time with her at her house and be spoiled with sweets. She was almost like an extra grandmother figure to me. When she died, I wasn't able to go to her funeral on the fact that I was too young. I remember asking my mother if I could go to a funeral but she said I had to go to school and it would be over by the time I got out. Although the movie character of Harold seems a lot more than curious about death, it definitly connects to the younger generation and their need to know about the mysteries of death.
Along the movie, Harold meets an old woman by the name of Muade. Like Harold, Maude shares his obsession of death and also has the unique hobby of attending funerals of strangers. Maude takes Harold under her wing and shows him out the live his life to his best in his time on earth living. This intrigues Harold, as he was never exposed to someone was was so full of life and loved it so much. He eventually falls in love with the much older woman and wants to marry her. The character of Maude represents mutiple social practices in dealing with death. Her character is appointed as somewhat of a mentor to Harold in the subject of not only life, but death as well. She is the type of older lady who feels the younger generation should indeed be exposed to the happening of death. But, she also is the type of character who believes death shouldn't necessarily stop people from living. At one point, she reveals to Harold she purposly took an overdose of sleeping pills and said she couldn't die in a better way (being that she too had fell in love wiith Harold). This also shows how death doesn't actually have to be a sad and scary thing and that dying could actually be done ahppily and in a beautiful way.
This movie definitly showed me a different side to thinking about death. I doubted why death would be looked at in a comedy film but after seeing what lessons it showed, I believe it can be beneficial to those who perhaps have a hard time in dealing with the thoughts of death and could possibly clear their head with a simply different point of view.
No comments:
Post a Comment