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Harold and Maude



With the idiosyncratic American fable Harold and Maude, countercultural director Hal Ashby fashioned what would become the cult classic of its era. Working from a script by Colin Higgins, Ashby tells the story of the emotional and romantic bond between a death-obsessed young man (Bud Cort) from a wealthy family and a devil-may-care, bohemian octogenarian (Ruth Gordon). Equal parts gallows humor and romantic innocence, Harold and Maude dissolves the line between darkness and light along with the ones that separate people by class, gender, and age, and it features indelible performances and a remarkable soundtrack by Cat Stevens.

- New high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
- Optional remastered stereo soundtrack
- Audio commentary by Hal Ashby biographer Nick Dawson and producer Charles B. Mulvehill
- Illustrated audio excerpts of seminars by Ashby and writer-producer Colin Higgins
- New interview with songwriter Yusuf/Cat Stevens
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Matt Zoller Seitz; a 1971 New York Times profile of star Ruth Gordon; and two excerpted interviews, one from 1997 with star Bud Cort and cinematographer John Alonzo and one from 2001 with executive producer Mildred Lewis

I'm sure it was cost-prohibitive beyond comprehension, but if ever a film deserved to be packaged with its soundtrack-- I know it finally got a real release a few years ago in a vinyl-only edition, but it's such an indelible part of the experience. I remember one of my film professors telling me he and his friends would go into midnight screenings on campus in the late seventies with big tape recorders hidden under their jackets to record the songs from the film!

I'm really curious to see what Islam has to say about the film. He's such an oddball personality that I imagine he's have a fascinating take on his work in the film.

I really can't think of this film without thinking of "Trouble" or "If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out".

I'm sure for so many other people too, this film is very personal as it was one of those watershed film experiences that made me the obsessive cinefile today. When I went from middle school to high school, I told my counselor instead of taking a computer class, I wanted to take an elective. When he read the list to me, "film/television production 1" called out to me. I had just started to watch more serious films and got interested in the art form. No more than a month into the class, out teacher played for us Harold and Maude. While the rest of the class was dumbfounded about what they were watching, I sat absorbed the entire time. I had never encountered a film that was as sensitive and funny as this film was. By the end, I was struggling to fight back the fourteen year-old tears when the film ended. I had never encountered any film quite like it and never thought I would see a film that made me feel this way. The teacher was even nice enough to lend me the VHS which I watched a few times afterwards before returning it.

I'm very excited for this release as anything will be an improvement over the non-anamorphic Paramount DVD from the early-2000s. It's an early year still, but this might be one of my releases of the year.

Excited for this, but--in addition to the soundtrack--they missed a nice bonus in the form of Colin Higgins' original novelization of the film. Original paperbacks are fetching pretty pennies on Amazon.

But on the other hand I guess book reprints have been phased out in the blu era.

Saw this movie for the first time a few months ago and loved it, one of Hal Ashby's best and one of the most underrated films of the 1970's. Very happy that Criterion will release a new transfer of the film and some nice extras to go with it.

I wish I could say I was introduced to this film by something other than There's Something About Mary.

atcolomb wrote: one of the most underrated films of the 1970's.

Really? I absolutely love this movie, but it's my impression that it's a huge touchpoint for a lot of moviegoers and moviemakers- I believe Wes Anderson, Noah Baumbauch, and other directors of their general school have been open with their love for it, and I know from my experience that it was a sacred movie to a lot of people I knew in high school and college. It's surely not overrated, but I think it's a well-appreciated classic.

Hmm-mm, much of Ashby is underrated but this one and Being There seem to have gotten an appropriate amount of attention.

On the AMC series Sunday Morning Shootout former Paramount VP Peter Bart who was instrumental in Harold and Maude being made was saying that it was not a mass market picture and was quiety released in theaters and did not make a profit. Since then it has developed a cult folowing and now it is a well appreciated classic.

Strange to see no fresh input from Bud Cort on this.

The Elegant Dandy Fop wrote:I'm very excited for this release as anything will be an improvement over the non-anamorphic Paramount DVD from the early-2000s. It's an early year still, but this might be one of my releases of the year.

Not that it matters, but the old R1 Paramount DVD is 16x9. And, if the Criterion specs are complete, it contains two exclusive theatrical trailers (also 16x9,) one of which operates similar to an 80s style soundtrack tie-in music video for "If You Want To Sing Out..." (sans Cat miming.)

atcolomb wrote:On the AMC series Sunday Morning Shootout former Paramount VP Peter Bart who was instrumental in Harold and Maude being made was saying that it was not a mass market picture and was quiety released in theaters and did not make a profit. Since then it has developed a cult folowing and now it is a well appreciated classic.

It may not have been a heavily promoted film, but I'm pretty certain HAROLD AND MAUDE had a legitimate mainstream release in late '71. My mother and grandmother went to see it in suburban Detroit upon first release and, while they were active film goers, they didn't seek out anything playing in art-house theaters. I vividly remember my mother describing the film to my 8-year-old self after a matinee screening. I finally saw it for the first time about a decade later.

Actually, I remember all of the subsequent Ashby films of the 70s receiving decent promotion. Even though I was too young to see most of them, there always seemed to be a newspaper/magazine article or TV trailer to accompany each release. SECOND-HAND HEARTS (1981) was the first of his films that seemed to just show up without any promotion...and this marked the beginning of the end for the director.

I'm thrilled HAROLD AND MAUDE is getting the Criterion treatment. It's a charmingly quirky film if somewhat slight. I think THE LANDLORD, THE LAST DETAIL, SHAMPOO, COMING HOME and BEING THERE all are better films, but my dream of obtaining all of Ashby's 70s works on Blu-ray is a little closer to reality (sadly, I don't hold out much hope for more releases).

Perkins Cobb wrote:Strange to see no fresh input from Bud Cort on this.

This.

I'm surprised there wasn't a fan commentary by Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach, they have been cribbing the style of this movie forever.

I just read about this release on another forum, this makes me so happy!!!!!! I only wish the cover art was a little nicer, it looks awful.

The Elegant Dandy Fop wrote: I'm sure for so many other people too, this film is very personal as it was one of those watershed film experiences that made me the obsessive cinefile today.

This

The Elegant Dandy Fop wrote: I had never encountered a film that was as sensitive and funny as this film was.

This

The Elegant Dandy Fop wrote: I had never encountered any film quite like it and never thought I would see a film that made me feel this way.

And this

Maybe they discovered an awesome potential extra or better materials?

As long as it comes out in time for the B&N sale, I'm happy.

Any reason as to why they pushed back the release date?

It was probably pushed back because the check disc didn't pass qc for some reason or another. They could get it fixed sooner but it is probably easier to slot it into the manufacturing queue with June titles then to go through the headaches and expense of trying to get it out sooner.

They also just had to fix two discs for things that slipped by QC (Carlos, Three Colors: White), so maybe they did a double-check on upcoming releases and found some issue with H&M later in the game than normal.

The booklet is no longer listed on the special features on Criterion.com.

DVDBeaver

We still don't know about the fate of the booklet, considering there's no mention in the review.

I think he gets check discs, which I don't believe come with booklets, so that's probably why he doesn't mention it.

Booklet specs have been restored to Criterion's site. It looks like they just got a different critic to write the booklet essay.