It's Harold and Maude's Illusions, I Recall...

I used to like this film a lot more when I was younger. But you know, you grow. You mature...

Seriously, I did love this movie when I first saw it in my mid-20s. Yet when I saw it again when I was much older, I found it a bit cartoonish. It wasn't so much that the movie had changed; it was more that my perspective was different.

When I first saw this movie, I was flirting with the idea of suicide. When I saw it much later, I had long ago put paid to any notion that I would ever deliberately kill myself. I still wonder sometimes if I'll die an early death due to my many health issues. But I'm no longer flirting with the idea of killing myself the way I used to do back in my mid-20s.

I still like the movie nonetheless. And though I can't help feeling a bit sorry for Harold's various "dates" throughout the movie -- most of which end up being scared away by Harold's attempts to use special effects to duplicate suicide attempts -- I must admit that I have more respect for the movie's ultimately pro-life message than I do the positive messages of most mainstream movies. Even Ruth Gordon -- an actress I usually find annoying in other movies -- came across very well in this flick -- even though the role she played (that of an eccentric old woman) was the first of many similar roles that she would play during the rest of her acting career.

Just the same, I'm glad they never made a sequel to this movie. Or worse yet, a remake.