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Why can't I thumbs down comments!!!!
We used to have that.

You may not be shocked to learn it caused some tumult. But then, so did removing it.

Don't start a website, is what I'm saying.



Why can't I thumbs down comments!!!!
The hatred persists even if the usage is contextually sound? A possibly incurable case of...antiCGIblooditis.



Why can't I thumbs down comments!!!!
The only remedy I've found is writing 1000 word rebuttals, so . . .

My position is that movies like to romanticize free spiritedness a bit too much, to the point of being glib, and this is one of them. I'm not sure how someone gets from that to the idea that I think droves of morons are ethically rationalizing grand theft auto.
But the film knows that it's being over the top, and presumably so do the viewers who are enjoying watching it. That doesn't equate to the film being superficial in its treatment of why the characters are behaving the way they do. To me, Harold and Maude is the opposite of glib. It takes time and effort to hep us understand the internal lives and motives of both leads, and takes the time to show the main character evolving as a person. Harold could be any moody teenage boy, but instead the film takes time to show the root of his hurt.

I didn't, either, but I find self-centeredness and a lack of empathy to be a much more common problem than casino robbery, probably because they're a lot easier to rationalize.
What is an example of not comedically-exaggerated self-centeredness of lack of empathy in the film? What is something in the film that a person might genuinely emulate or think is an appropriate expression of free-spiritedness?



Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.
Brings back memories of 11 years ago. By the way, we used to have a way to more obviously give negative reputation. Now we have
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What is an example of not comedically-exaggerated self-centeredness of lack of empathy in the film? What is something in the film that a person might genuinely emulate or think is an appropriate expression of free-spiritedness?
I think it's inherent in presenting us with protagonists who we're clearly supposed to like doing inconsiderate things. Playing it off for laughs sometimes (the "knows that it's being over the top" parts) is as much evidence for that as evidence against it, since it's sometimes laughing off the victims (that's a grandiose term for some of it, but you get the idea).

I'd have to watch it again to be more granular than that, though.



I think it's inherent in presenting us with protagonists who we're clearly supposed to like doing inconsiderate things. Playing it off for laughs sometimes (the "knows that it's being over the top" parts) is as much evidence for that as evidence against it, since it's sometimes laughing off the victims (that's a grandiose term for some of it, but you get the idea).

I'd have to watch it again to be more granular than that, though.
I mean, there is the running joke about Maude stealing cars. I agree that's inconsiderate. Harold faking suicides in front of his would-be brides is unkind/cruel, but I'd again argue that it's illustrative of him playing "inside" the dynamic that his mother has created, and something he's grown out of by the end of the film. I'd also argue that the scenes are really well constructed comedy--contrasting Harold's elaborate set-ups with the reaction of the young women with the indifference of his mother. The fact that the mother doesn't stop setting up these meetings also says something, doesn't it?

I think that a lot of comedies present us with inconsiderate main characters. Maybe you're saying you don't think that a film can have it both ways (ie that a film can't both ask us to laugh along with bad behavior AND condemn that behavior), but I happen to think that the only actually cruel thing in the film is what happens to the potential-fiances, and, again, that this is a behavior Harold is moving away from and Maude gets him to redirect his energy to loving instead of fighting a futile war with his mother.

Aside from the faked suicides, I honestly can't think of something I consider "out of bounds" behavior from the two leads.

EDIT: I'll also add that "like" is a bit simplified in terms of how I feel about the main characters. I honestly found Maude kind of obnoxious and stressful, and I recognized in Harold many, many students who did not know how to direct their angst in a productive way. But the film effectively builds empathy for them and both go through a compelling personal arc.



I feel like it would be so awkward to get notifications of someone thumbing down your comment, especially if they don't reply to you.
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I haven't followed the Yoda/Takoma Harold and Maude debate...but I'm bored and need something to post So here it is:

I've learned that people (people being movie watchers on MoFo) tend to identify with and like the loaner/outsider movie character, who doesn't fit in. If that character has issues, all the better.

Usually I can go with that kind of film too, say like Malcom McDowell in If (1968) I mean what Malcom does in that movie is criminally bad! But still he was likable to me. But with the actor who played Bud in Harold and Maude, I couldn't stand him. I'm not a violate person, but to steal a line from Miss Vicky, "I wanted to punch him in the face".

I guess the salient question is why do people like him? and why don't I?



The trick is not minding
I didn’t Like Paul Newman’s character in Hud, but man that was a good movie.
In the flip side of the coin, I couldn’t stand the characters in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf and it effected my enjoyment of that film.
Weird.......



But with the actor who played Bud in Harold and Maude, I couldn't stand him. I'm not a violate person, but to steal a line from Miss Vicky, "I wanted to punch him in the face".

I guess the salient question is why do people like him? and why don't I?
Again, I'm not sure that "like" is the right word for me. I strongly sympathize with him. His quirks are constructs--things he has deliberately put on--and the movie knows it. Eventually, he knows it.

He's not just some quirky weirdo and the message is that people should love him because he is weird. He's someone who is hurting and needs someone to help dig him out of the hole he's in.

I think that the very awkward portrayal of Harold is one of the strengths of the film. I think he actually captures a teenager vibe that feels true while at the same time being empathetic.



I mean, there is the running joke about Maude stealing cars. I agree that's inconsiderate. Harold faking suicides in front of his would-be brides is unkind/cruel, but I'd again argue that it's illustrative of him playing "inside" the dynamic that his mother has created, and something he's grown out of by the end of the film. I'd also argue that the scenes are really well constructed comedy--contrasting Harold's elaborate set-ups with the reaction of the young women with the indifference of his mother. The fact that the mother doesn't stop setting up these meetings also says something, doesn't it?
Oh yeah, they're quite funny sometimes (or I remember them being so, it was awhile ago). I found the humor weirdly dissonant, I guess (more on that in a second), but in a vacuum it's pretty amusing.

I think that a lot of comedies present us with inconsiderate main characters.
Definitely true. I'd say often that's where the humor comes from: our recognition of how inappropriate the behavior is.

Maybe you're saying you don't think that a film can have it both ways (ie that a film can't both ask us to laugh along with bad behavior AND condemn that behavior)
I think a film can, but I think it's a really delicate thing, and in fairness to you or anyone else who doesn't really vibe with what I'm saying, I think it's particularly difficult to explain where that line is.

Maybe part of it is that I think of Harold and Maude only as a "comedy" in the "not a tragedy" sense, since the comedy's a little morbid and a little offbeat. It's not a "straight" comedy, in other words. It's not Animal House (which I don't feel has contributed in any way towards violence against stringed instruments).

Maybe that's it: not that a film can't ask us to both laugh at a thing and condemn it, but that it's really hard for a film to be an absurd comedy one moment and a very seriously look at trauma the next. That's a fine line to walk, I suppose, and I imagine what makes it work for one person and not another is just as fine.

EDIT: I'll also add that "like" is a bit simplified in terms of how I feel about the main characters. I honestly found Maude kind of obnoxious and stressful, and I recognized in Harold many, many students who did not know how to direct their angst in a productive way. But the film effectively builds empathy for them and both go through a compelling personal arc.
Yeah, fair enough, some of what I'm saying may only apply to people who really did just straight-up like them. The group here seems to pretty much run the gamut from "I want to punch him" to "I sympathize but don't exactly like them" to "I like them and I take all the specific actions as mere symbols."



How favored is Godzilla in these parts?


I don't know if it would make my top 100, but it probably should.

I had Godzilla on my science fiction list and I was certain it would show up then, but it never did. Nor did it make the 50s countdown, so it doesn't appear to be too favored around here. Personally, I think it's rather fantastic, but not for a list like this.
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Maybe part of it is that I think of Harold and Maude only as a "comedy" in the "not a tragedy" sense, since the comedy's a little morbid and a little offbeat. It's not a "straight" comedy, in other words. It's not Animal House (which I don't feel has contributed in any way towards violence against stringed instruments).

Maybe that's it: not that a film can't ask us to both laugh at a thing and condemn it, but that it's really hard for a film to be an absurd comedy one moment and a very seriously look at trauma the next. That's a fine line to walk, I suppose, and I imagine what makes it work for one person and not another is just as fine.
I think that weird (and sometime seemingly inappropriate humor) is a pretty common response to trauma.

It makes me think of something David Byrne said about a Dadaist poet he was quoting. It was something like "They were responding with nonsense to a world that no longer made sense".

The movie does exaggerate their actions for comic effect, but I don't see the film as a pendulum swinging between absurd comedy and tragedy. I see them as wrapped up in each other.



You can't make a rainbow without a little rain.
Finally, a movie from my list shows up, but it's way too low IMO. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial was one of my favorite movies from the very first time that I saw it. I went to the theater with my mother to see it when it first came out, and we both loved it so much that we immediately went back into the theater to see it again. It's a movie that I watch several times a year, every year, and I never get tired of it. (I even used the theme music as a ringer on my cell phone attached to my mother's number so I knew it was her when she called.) It was #2 on my list.


I think I saw Harold and Maude many years ago, but I don't remember much about it. I didn't even think about watching it for this countdown, but maybe I'll watch it sometime after the new year if I can find the time.


My list so far:
2) E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
25) Sunday in New York (1963) (My 1-pointer)
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You can't make a rainbow without a little rain.
I would have put Braveheart on my top 100 list too.

E.T. was #21 on my list. I did like it more as a kid (I still fondly remember my E.T. T-shirt), but I still think it deserves to be ranked as one of the top movies, as one of the first movies to make us care about an extraterrestrial and one of the most moving film scores of all-time (John Williams, of course).

When I outgrew my E.T. t-shirt, I put it on a big E.T. plush doll that I had at the time. I might even still have it around here somewhere.



Indeed. Tomorrow's clue:

Made in Japan.
Guesses:

Made: The Lego Movie
in Japan: Godzilla (1954)

Again, probably wrong. And that's OK.



Made in Nippon huh? clearly, one of them shouldn't be lost in translation. I hope.

I think it's so early for that Miyazaki one, which I pretty confidence will improve its rank on this iteration. or is it another one of him? or Takahata finally gets appreciation? Satoshi Kon? maybe Otomo's Akira-- which clearly have a big fanbase in the west.
While another Kurosawa chance to have a much higher position than Ikiru, but films by Ozu, Mizoguchi, and let alone Naruse will never get represented by Mofos in general, pessimistically. The same with the new wave.
Kitano I think, will lose this one or improve.

Too broad of a clue if not another literal trick. That being said, my fail-diction stand for :
Masaki Kobayashi's Harakiri (1962)
and seeing the early pattern with Suspiria and rosemary baby, cuz, why not
Nobuhiko Ōbayashi's House (1977)
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@Yoda


Just a curiosity question here, but may have been explained earlier. The named films in Post #2 of this thread, has some films with the same scores. What places one higher than another. Or am I one toke over the line?