Harold and Maude (1971)

I somehow put off watching 1971’s Harold and Maude until now – as a teenage film buff, when I began immersing myself in the dark and grimy world of 70s cinema, I just couldn’t muster interest for a lighthearted romance between a man in his early 20s and a woman on the verge of 80. This was apparently just another in a series of retrospectively atrocious decisions I made in my teens (the Limp Bizkit years, as I call them) because Harold and Maude really blew me away. I had no idea how subversive the film was (and remains) in its empathy towards the anti-social behavior of wayward youths and complete dismissal of the traditional values of conventional adulthood. Harold (Bud Cort), a socially disturbed fellow so obsessed with death that he repeatedly stages his own suicide, embodies an indelible character type. It’s also one more relevant now than ever – potentially dark to the point of discomfort, director Hal Ashby and writer Colin Higgins handle his angst with deft touches of humor and sincerity. With a terrific era-conjuring soundtrack of Cat Stevens songs, beautiful cinematography, and plenty of unforgettable scenes, Harold and Maude is one of film’s finest dark comedies.