So many people told me to see this movie...
Allthough I get what it is trying to say, the wastefulness and spoiled nature of the main characters appaled me...
Only rich people can be so bored!
...
And thank goodness Cat Stevens does not play anymore!
Wow, that's what you got out of this movie?!
shareI always learn more about the posters here than the movies. As time goes by, the more I am convinced that films are very powerful Rorschach tests.
Let's never come here again because it would never be as much fun.
What did YOU learn?
A spoiled brat not doing anything in this world other than destroy stuff and an old crazy woman who endangers other people while driving under the "I am old and cute so I can do whatever I want" excuse???
...
What were you going to say... that she taught him how to live?
They were so self absorbed, that I rather them be dead.
You're right, looking at it solely for that is the only way to go. Why try and appreciate anything beyond the superficial? I'll bet you're a happy camper!
BTW, how she acted while driving was the ONLY thing I didn't like.
please explain...
if she loved life, why did she kill herself?
if she "got him" why did she not get that he celebrated her b-day vs. saying goodbye to her?
Did either of them ever worry about other people???
This movie got away in the politically correct 60s ... we may be more cynical now but we are also smarter...
C
"please explain..."
No problem bud, happy to. Also, a little late, but **SPOILERS AHEAD** (and above...)
"if she loved life, why did she kill herself?"
She says near the start that going much further than 80 would just be 'marking time'. She felt she had a good run at life and wanted to go out while she was still enjoying it. She had decided on going no further than 80, and she stuck to it.
"if she "got him" why did she not get that he celebrated her b-day vs. saying goodbye to her?"
She knew perfectly well that he wasn't saying goodbye with all the decorations, dinner, champagne etc. The reason she puts it that way is because she's being a bit more subtle about telling him what she's going to do. Or technically, what she's just done.
"Did either of them ever worry about other people???"
This one's a bit more subjective, but it depends on your basis for judging. She certainly cared enough about Harold to A) get to know him (arguably "saving him" in the process) and, B) cared enough about his life to not change her 80th birthday plans, instead telling him to go on and love again.
Harold certainly came to care for Maude. However, I'm guessing you were being a bit more literal, wondering about dangerous driving and such like. In which instance, they would appear to be somewhat more... ahem... carefree.
"This movie got away in the politically correct 60s"
You mean 70's, right? Yes, see? It's right above us, next to the movie title. ;-)
Also, I'd say that we're more politically correct now than folks were back in the 60s-70s, what with all their free love and whatnot. Just an opinion of course.
"... we may be more cynical now but we are also smarter..."
I'm not even touching that one! Heh-heh!
Quote: "if she loved life, why did she kill herself?"
She says near the start that going much further than 80 would just be 'marking time'. She felt she had a good run at life and wanted to go out while she was still enjoying it. She had decided on going no further than 80, and she stuck to it. /quote
There's also the matter of perhaps wanting to leave the world on her own terms.
On the meta-level I'm surprised at the destruction of the E-Type; it could easily have been "converted" to a hearse without permanent modification, and then a further mockup crashed. It is called show "business" for a reason, and first custom bodying and then demolition of a new Jaguar adds to the cost that has to be made back. Alternately, the green El Camino could have been Harold's "gift" car...
Quote: "if she loved life, why did she kill herself?"
I think there's an interesting scene where she decides to kill herself.
Harold tells her he can't see her the following day and then he looks at her arm and sees the tattoo. You see Maude at that moment thinking very deeply to herself and then she nods in a certain way that seems to acknowledge her decision. She ascertains definitively that the future holds no improvement for her in terms of her relationship or her life. It cements her decision to die.
As for destroying the Jag, per the thread topic, it was a horrific waste. It's just unthinkable that such a car could fall prey to such a fate.
I think there's an interesting scene where she decides to kill herself.
Harold tells her he can't see her the following day and then he looks at her arm and sees the tattoo. You see Maude at that moment thinking very deeply to herself and then she nods in a certain way that seems to acknowledge her decision. She ascertains definitively that the future holds no improvement for her in terms of her relationship or her life. It cements her decision to die.
That is true and so a better choice of words for the scene I described is that it shows her affirmation of the earlier decision to die.
shareI'm shocked that nobody has brought up
1) Jaguars are crap and
2) Saying that he's "rich" makes me worry about what you must consider poor.
http://us.imdb.com/name/nm2339870/
You are entitled to your opinion but I think the majority would disagree with you. The jag e type is widely considered to be a classic car and Harold was rather clearly depicted as being from a family of means.
shareYes, it was his mother who bought the Jaguar, not Harold. Hard to see how anyone could miss that point. Should Harold been more appreciative of his mother's gift (and for junking his hearse)?
I suppose theCure thinks it would have been a better movie if Harold had sold the Jaguar and spent the rest of the movie using the proceeds to help feed poor orphans?
TheCure sounds more jealous of the Jaguar, actually. You are supposed to realize that being rich is not the secret to happiness. And you are supposed to get a glimpse, in this movie, about what being happy is actually about.
I do have to admit that I thought to myself that Harold was spoiled as well. He was an adult, living at home, didn't seem to have a job(from what I remember, it's been awhile), was given expensive gifts, destroyed them, made a mess all the time and got away with all his death faking.
That being said, I didn't focus on that much, it was just an observation. I enjoyed the movie and the point of it, which wasn't his being spoiled. Though I think a great point is that being handed everything is no match for your loved one's love and affection and does NOT make many people happy.
Most young men harolds age from his wealthy family background (Harold was 20 i believe) at this time would have been "off at college" not living with his mother... His mother seemed like the type who would have had her adult son off at university whether he wanted to be there or not... It did seem unrealistic that he was just "there"
by the way i love this film, this was just something i observed...
The Jaguar was a symbol of his mother's interference and disapproval, which is why he turns it into his "old" car by hearsifying it. Destroying it symbolises the casting away of all that angst about his mother and her attempts at control. He simply throws it away as unimportant, along with its connotations.
share[deleted]
Yes, he wasted the Jaguar (by running it over the cliff, not by personalizing it).
But in his case, it was a lot more about fighting against his mother's control and manipulation, and her complete lack of respect for his individuality.
Buying him a brand new sports car would be a wonderful, generous gesture if not for her motives, and how she so obnoxiously just had his old hearse thrown away like it was crap when it was something that he obviously liked a lot.
The fact that she obviously realized he would never drive the Jag if his old car was still around made it clear it was for her benefit, not his.
I think all of his faked death scenarios were his bizarre way of telling her, "You're killing me, Ma!" at her never-ending attempts to make him what she wanted him to be, utterly oblivious to his wants and needs and personality.
The scene where she was filling out the form for the computer matchmaker company was very telling. She was filling the entire thing out with zero input from him, completely assuming he would think and respond exactly as she would to each question.
Then, midway through, she seemingly forgot she was supposedly speaking for him, however incorrectly, and was literally answering what she personally thought and liked, as if she were finding a match for herself, rather than finding a daughter-in-law for herself.