Did anyone else check out the self-departure* website of the sportswriter in Kansas? It's impressive for being so comprehensive. It was definitely a Maude-like decision, referring to the character in the Harold and Maude movie who had already decided she was going to move on once she turned 80. The movie is so good because it has the simplified "suicidal" kid whose fake suicides fail to make his mother see that he's not content...and he meets a 79 year old free spirited woman and gradually learns to love and ignore the expectations of others. But he doesn't know that Maude has already decided to depart this mortal coil on her 80th birthday, which arrives only on the day that Harold proposes they get married. Talk about star struck!
The film's strength is not in character development (the characters are
mainly stereotypes) but in the questions it generates in the audience:
is suicide justified? What is the nature of a free life? What fears or
forces limit us? The answers aren't easy enough to be addressed in a
movie but it's clear that Harold finds at least a reason to genuinely
feel sad enough to want to die...and it's that feeling that is his
unspoken goal from the beginning. The Cat Stevens soundtrack is also a
big plus.
Saturday, August 24, 2013
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