Harold and Maude

This movie was very perculiar but ironically I loved it for this exact reason. This movie was ranked in the top 100 movies of comedy, romance, and inspiration. It found the movie to be extremely comic but not in the same way that I would usually consider a movie to be comic. Harold would consistently kill himself ( hanging, cutting his throat,setting himself on fire, shooting himself in the head, cutting his hand off, etc) to get the attention of his mother but I never quite worked. These acts of attempted suicide was hilarious in the light that his mother would always dismiss his suicide attempts but he still contiuned to do it even after he met Maude and fell in love with her. The one question I have about Herald's numerous suicide attempts was he literally killing himself or was it a figurative statement? At one point in the movie, it seemed as though he was going to kill his mother when he pointed the gun at her. That scene was not expected and ironically, hilarious. I am still trying to figure out why did Herald turn the gun on his mother. Maude was a magnificient character. She was an older lady who lived her life to the fullest, probably more than an average teenager (stealing cars, driving recklessly, exploring the outdoors). She was young at heart, free-spirited, and enjoyed nature. When Harold first met Maude at the funeral, you begin to see a change in him, he began to enjoy life's simplicity and joy and he literally, in my eyes came to life. The change in Herald is most apparent when he actually goes to his mother and tells her that he is going to marry Maude. This is very unexpected of him because prior to this he would let his mother control his life and decided everything for him.

Herald had no happy life of his own, it was his motherr who decided everything for Herald even if it was something that he absolutely did not want. Maude inspired Herald to live his life and be happy and this is probably why Herald fell in love with Maude, she made him realize and do things that he would have never had a chance to experience. In the end of the movie, Maude kiills herself and Herald was heartbroken. This was the only part of the movie that made me sad and I don't quite understand why Maude kills herself. A classmate of mine mentioned that she killed herself because he was young she was old and wanted him to live his life. I guess I can see her point. In the last scene, we see Herald speeding and turning his car in a winded path furhter up we see the end of the path lead to a cliff. In my mind, I was convinced that Herald would really committ suicide but he did not. He ran the car off the cliff and walked away from it. I believe that was the perfect ending to this movie. Although Herald was feeling extremely low due to the loss of his love Maude, he decided to continue to live is life the way that Maude would have wanted him to. She inspired him to live his life.