Harold and Maude

Cult film connoisseur that I am, it amazes me that I had never seen Harold and Maude until last night. Directed by Hal Ashby from a script by Colin Higgins (based on his master's thesis), and starring Bud Cort and Ruth Gordon in the title roles, this much-beloved film somehow escaped me for the last 38 years. I'd seen bits of it on cable, but never the whole thing.

I loved it. Made me cry, damn it.

I even loved the Cat Stevens soundtrack, and I stopped listening to Cat Stevens sometime around 1977, when I turned my back on singer-songwriters in favor of punkish and/or laddish sounds. Seeing the film makes me want to put together my own version of a soundtrack album, as one was never released (most of the songs can be found on Tea for the Tillerman and Mona Bone Jakon, or whatever the hell that record was called).

So, if you've never seen the film, I urge you to do so. If you have, then you might want to check out the original screenplay and Colin Higgins's novelization thereof.

Also, when I did a search to find out whether or not that was Tom Skerrit playing the motorcycle cop (it was, under the pseudonym M. Borman), I came across Whitney Matheson's "Pop Candy" piece about the film from a few years back.

"Harold, everyone has the right to make an ass out of themselves. You just can't let the world judge you too much."

Words to live by. God knows I have...