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Citizen Rules's Avatar
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12-12-20
Originally Posted by matt72582
...It's like when Jimmy Stewart is in "Flight of the Phoenix - you know he's going to do the right thing, so the personal conflicts are meaningless, because you're just waiting for him to agree with the paper airplane designer.
Jimmy Stewart in his later career often played more troubled, more complex characters with ambiguous motives. You're thinking of the Frank Capra Jimmy Stewart.


Originally Posted by matt72582
How would you advise them to live?
It's been several years since I seen it and reviewed it, so I'd need to see it again to answer that, and I don't want to watch it again.



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Sorry if I'm rude but I'm right
12-12-20
Originally Posted by matt72582
Then it would have been listed in the "one-pointers"
Only if it was number 25 on your list which I doubt.
Originally Posted by matt72582
If you have any criticisms of this movie, it's because you're only interested in mainstream junk
I haven't seen it. No need to be all passive aggressive.

I heart Harold and Maude.

E.T. is okay-ish.
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AKA Popcorn Reviews
12-12-20
Originally Posted by Citizen Rules
As far as the message of the film goes, that life should be enjoyed to the fullest by being a free spirit, sure that's a great idea. But...Maude certainly disapproves that idea at the end of the film, doesn't she.
WARNING: spoilers below
I don't think so. She believed that 80 was the proper age to die. According to her, if she were to live longer, she wouldn't have been able to live life to the fullest in the same way she did beforehand due to the degradations of her health. Taking her life wasn't because she lost her will to live life to the fullest, but actually an extension of it.


Originally Posted by Citizen Rules
One interesting thing about this movie, it's a product of it's time and endorses the old hippy slogan 'if it feels good just do it'. Are Maude and Harold free spirits? No, they're both selfish, self centered people, who hurt people around them.
They definitely are free spirits. The idea of free spirits are people who act in unrestrained ways without worrying about normal social rules. Hurting people around you in the process doesn't make you any less of a free spirit. That often comes with this.



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12-12-20
Damn, Citizen is out here trying to make me agree with matt on something.
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Citizen Rules's Avatar
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12-12-20
Originally Posted by SpelingError
...They definitely are free spirits. The idea of free spirits are people who act in unrestrained ways without worrying about normal social rules. Hurting people around you in the process doesn't make you any less of a free spirit. That often comes with this.
If I remember correctly Bud was rude to all the three girls who came to meet him for a date. One doesn't have to be rude to people to be a free spirit, what Bud did was being immature.



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I'm one happy bird !
12-12-20
I like Eternal Sunshine and Harold and Maude a lot, particularly the latter. They're not near my top 25, but they're both great.


I've only seen Rosemary's Baby once 5 or 6 years ago, I absolutely need to rewatch it!


As for ET, I think it's a forgettable, boring, uninteresting film.
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12-12-20
Originally Posted by Citizen Rules
If I remember correctly Bud was rude to all the three girls who came to meet him for a date. One doesn't have to be rude to people to be a free spirit, what Bud did was being immature.
Yes, he did act rude to them. Harold's mother organized the dates to get him to change, but he didn't want that so he scared them away. And yes, you don't have to be rude to be a free spirit. However, that can be a side effect of being one. I've known a couple of people who had a mindset similar to a free spirit (well, minus the fake suicide aspect of course), and they could come off as rude as well. However, that technically doesn't make them less of one. That was just a consequence of their chosen life styles.

Is it immature? Sure, but I don't think that's a flaw. People can be immature in real life, so I'm personally okay with this being represented in movies.



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12-12-20
Originally Posted by SpelingError
Yes, he did act rude to them. Harold's mother organized the dates to get him to change, but he didn't want that so he scared them away. And yes, you don't have to be rude to be a free spirit. However, that can be a side effect of being one. I've known a couple of people who had a mindset similar to a free spirit (well, minus the fake suicide aspect of course), and they could come off rude as well. However, that technically doesn't make them less of one. That was just a consequence of their chosen life styles.

Is it immature? Sure, but I don't think that's a flaw. People can be immature in real life, so I'm personally okay with this being represented in movies.
Let's put it this way: as much as you don't like the Captain in Forbidden Planet because of the way he treats the young woman, I don't like Bud because of the way he treated his dates and people around him.



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12-12-20
Originally Posted by Citizen Rules
Let's put it this way: as much as you don't like the Captain in Forbidden Planet because of the way he treats the young woman, I don't like Bud because of the way he treated his dates and people around him.
Just for the record, my issue with Forbidden Planet wasn't merely the fact that he treated her poorly in and of itself, but that this was treated as romantic by the film (however, your interpretation for the film convinced me that I should give it another go and that I may have misinterpreted that aspect).

With this one, I don't think Ashby was supporting his actions. Like, yes, Harold and Maude did get happiness from their behavior, but the film also showed how their behavior was negatively effecting those around them. I just read it as personal happiness at the expense and disregard of others.

However, it is certainly fair to dislike his actions. If you didn't like him as a character, that's totally fine.
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12-12-20
E.T. was maybe one of the first movies of my childhood. Had the VHS and watched it quite often. I bought the DVD a few years ago after not having seen it in a very long time. It still has all of that Spielberg wonder I like about his other movies.

Harold & Maude I caught on TCM late night years ago and remember thinking at the time it was different and must be good because...well...that's different. Definitely would suggest checking out Hal Ashby's other 70's stuff as I enjoyed them more.

I would definitely say H&M is the least favorite thus far.



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12-12-20
Originally Posted by Yoda
Everyone guessed E.T. and no one guessed Maude.
I didn't realize people were such big fans of classic Bea Arthur. Always got put off by the Joan of Arc line in the theme song.

ET was solid fun for the young'uns (and lowkey better than some similar themed ones like The Goonies and Monster Squad). Even if there had been some editing in places (such as phones in the place of guns), the universal appeal of helping each other out even if they're strangers from another world carries the day.

Haven't seen Harold and Maude, but I've been down for trying it. The idea of it sounds solid in theory, but I'm not sure I can get into Harold's character?



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12-12-20
Originally Posted by cricket
Old enough
Don't worry Cricket.. I was 15 yrs old when it came out. Never did really like ET. I have seen Harold and Maude but that was long ago and not a film I care to revisit.



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I Am Rick Cottontree
12-12-20
Originally Posted by MovieGal
Don't worry Cricket.. I was 15 yrs old when it came out. Never did really like ET. I have seen Harold and Maude but that was long ago and not a film I care to revisit.
You older.



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Master of None
12-12-20
For what it's worth, here's what I wrote on Letterboxd regarding E.T.
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12-12-20
Originally Posted by SpelingError
With this one, I don't think Ashby was supporting his actions. Like, yes, Harold and Maude did get happiness from their behavior, but the film also showed how their behavior was negatively effecting those around them. I just read it as personal happiness at the expense and disregard of others.

However, it is certainly fair to dislike his actions. If you didn't like him as a character, that's totally fine.
This is an interesting question, because you might be right about Ashby's intentions. But if so, that might open the film up to criticism on other grounds: specifically, that I'm not sure the people who love it came away with that impression. They mostly seem to like the characters a lot. So it might be an either-or thing, where someone can dislike the film because it seems to be turning crappy behavior into something romantic and admirable, or because it fails to portray the appropriate level of nuance, so that viewers come away finding said behavior romantic and admirable when that was not the intent.
Last edited by Yoda; 12-12-20 at 02:59 PM. Reason: Fixed a typo.



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Women will be your undoing, Pépé
12-12-20
Originally Posted by MovieGal
I believe it ranked really low on the first top 100 films.

Its my favorite along with A Clockwork Orange when it comes to English speaking films.

I know my favorite foreign films will not make it... La Belle Et La Bete (1946) and Salo' (1975).
Got to see that when Cosmic nominated it for the 40s HoF. Beautiful rendition of the story.
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12-12-20
Re: Harold and Maude, and Maude's "decision"...

Originally Posted by SpelingError
WARNING: spoilers below
I don't think so. She believed that 80 was the proper age to die. According to her, if she were to live longer, she wouldn't have been able to live life to the fullest in the same way she did beforehand due to the degradations of her health. Taking her life wasn't because she lost her will to live life to the fullest, but actually an extension of it.
I agree.

WARNING: spoilers below

I always see the relationship, and Maude's "decision" in the end to be liberating to both. You have these two people that see life in similar ways, but face it differently (Harold with his death rituals and obsessions, Maude with an exuberant life). Their relationship ends up reconciling both in a more harmonious way, while also opening Harold to new experiences. Maude had already lived, and part of her being a "free spirit" was her firm decision that, like you said, 80 was a proper age to die, while also ending the relationship on her own terms. Now it's Harold's turn to "live" and "love more". The final scene and shot is a reaffirmation of Harold's rejection of the preconceptions that others have about his life, while embracing his own ways, as taught by Maude ("if you wanna sing, sing").


Seriously, it's a beautiful and thought-provoking film.

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