Analysis of the Movie Harold and Maude- A Cult Classic Essay

Like many teenagers, music plays a large role in Connie's life. She drifts off into daydreams and desires when listening to music. It plays in her head, even when there is no music around. She dreams of boys and love, "sweet, gentle, the way it was in movies and promised in songs" (par. 12). When Arnold and his friend Ellie first pull up into Connie's driveway, the music on the radio has an effect on her. Like many teenagers, Connie is intrigued by the music. It allows a connection between her and the strangers in her driveway. She becomes interested in the boys. They listen to the same station on Ellie's transmitter radio that Connie plays in the house. Although she has never spoken with them before, Connie feels more comfortable and less tense as she begins to listen to the music from Ellie's transmitter radio and the music coming from inside her home as they blend into one sound. Because of Connie's relaxing state, she allows herself to become intrigued with Arnold and

Focusing on a twenty year old obsessed with death and suicide who falls in love with an eccentric almost-eighty-year-old woman, Harold and Maude is a somewhat unconventional romantic comedy widely regarded as a cult classic. This movie’s use of suicide and other sensationalized ideas from Psychology is jarring to say the least, but its Psychological principles are not limited to those. There are many everyday aspects of Psychology immortalized through this film that would hardly make one bat an eye. In the movie, twenty year old Harold lives, mostly, with his mother. During the time he is not living with his mother, he is faking suicide for her attention, bringing home a hearse as his first car, or attending funerals, presumably for fun. Harold’s quirks seem to at least somewhat

Throughout the movie, Brian goes through the Identity Foreclosure, Identity Moratorium and Identity Achievement statues of James Marcia’s identity statuses theory. When Brian lives up to his obedient, “Good Citizen,” nerd image, he’s in the Identity Foreclosure status since he unquestioningly adopts his parents’ and society's visions, values and roles. He follows rules, questions rebelliousness and allows others to view him as weak for being a geek. Then, he transitions into an Identity Moratorium status where he delays his commitment to being the Brain and explores “alternative ideologies” and sides to himself when he smokes weed and connects to the troubles and philosophies of the rest of the Breakfast Club (Weiten, 457). Finally, at the end of the movie, Brian achieves the Identity Achievement status where he grows closer to a sense of identity and direction after “thinking through alternative possibilities,” or hanging out with the rest of the Breakfast Club (Weiten, 457). After being accepted by others, Brian builds his self-esteem and values his life despite his failures once and for all.

I must admit that all of the assigned reading topics were new to me, nevertheless, I gained a great deal knowledge with new found perspectives on literature and life in general by engaging in these works. The Color Purple was truly an eye opening and deeply intimate story, A Streetcar Named Desire also portrayed similar feelings of intimacy however, compared to The Color Purple, it lacked the ambiguous cultural diversity that tends to be intriguingly more complex. Taking the poetry and short stories we read into consideration, I would have to say, they also added a significant amount of literary educational value, but once again lacked in comparison to Alice Walker’s, The Color Purple. Therefore, having to choose one particular work to discuss

The film Little Miss Sunshine, Directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Farris, explores the lives of a regular American family and how they change their lives in front of us in the ‘Combie’ van on the road to the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant. The film examines the issues of winning and losing, and what it means to be a winner, throughout many sequences in the film as well as exploring the value of family. The directors and the cinematic team use an extreme range of camera techniques, costuming, and sound techniques to reshape our understanding of winning and losing in the world we live in today.

The iconic coming-of-age movie The Breakfast Club, focuses on the development of five, seemingly very different high school students. In the movie we are presented with the five main characters all with stereotypes that they identify with. Claire is the princess or the beauty queen, John, often referred to by his last name “Bender,” is the criminal, Brian is the brain or the nerd, Andrew, is the athlete, a wrestler , and finally Allison is the basket case or the weirdo. The story is set in saturday detention where they are forced to spend eight hours with people from other cliques that they would normally never interact with. The day progresses and the characters interact with one another, smoke, dance, break rules, and reveal very personal parts of themselves with the others. The story ends with some of the characters making an attempt to change their identity with the realization that even with the boxes they have been put into they are not that different from one another.

It seemed as if Harold never got past Erikson’s stage of autonomy. The sense of autonomy fostered in Harold at a young age was denied to him by his mother as she controlled him. In contrast, Maude played a better role model to him than his mother. She acted wild and crazy and continually demonstrated freedom. A freedom that his mother never gave Harold the opportunity to indulge in. She philosophizes continuously about living life to utmost extremes, about rebellion, individualism and spontaneity. Maude tells Harold that the world dearly loves a cage and that humans should be as free as a bird. Maude gave the troubled young man a sense of hope and life throughout as he was a team player not willing to come off the bench to play. She introduced him to Glaucus who served as a message to Harold, one that he learns towards the end of the movie. Glaucus days are a metaphor for the life-span of a man. He is given a chance to create beauty out of nothing, but is time is limited with which to do so as he works with a medium that is hard to maintain. It was the carving of the ice that was important, not the ice itself. Harold’s success in life was not being pursued, it was to be attracted to the person he became through her help. Nevertheless, she constantly instills in Harold that we are given the gift of life and it is ours to enjoy and it is through her philosophies that Harold becomes a better man in the end and making

The idea that Harold knows he is going to die yet he has no control over it leads to a major life change. Harold starts becoming more spontaneous with his decisions do things. He no longer cares about routine but instead he starts to live a little and comes out of his comfort zone. He learns how to play the guitar and falls in love with Ana Pascal the woman he’s auditing. By experiencing life, the way it’s supposed to be lived we start to see what Harold crick’s character is truly like. His true character is shown when he meets the author that’s narrating his life and knows she is going to kill him. Harold accepts knowing he is going to die, and instead of trying to run from his death he accepts it. Harold knows he has to save the little boy from getting hit by the bus which would have killed him. His action gives us the greatest sense of Harold and his types

Connie and Arnold Friend have their conversation started on Bobby King whose music Connie was playing in her room. Then, Arnold Friend asks Connie for a car ride which Connie refuses, and his voice is described "He spoke in a simple lilting voice, exactly as if he were reciting the words to a song" (Oates 3). The voice in here refers to Arnold Friend, and the song is the music. It is stating that Connie loves Arnold's voice as it is some type of music that she wants to hear more. Oates at the end illustrates Arnold's words as incantation which again shows how Connie compares music with Arnold Friend's voice and worships it. Arnold Friend utilizes his voice to mentally conquering Connie to follow his orders like preventing her from making phone calls, persuading her to open the door and coming out. All of these shows Arnold Friend's domination on Connie and gradually taking a total control of

There are multiple things that Hansberry could do to improve the quality of Walter and Beneatha’s acting. Mama and Ruth gave the audience a sense that the play was taking place

The soundtracks fit the scenes perfectly. Although it’s a dark comedy film, we realize a few life lessons we could apply to ourselves. The movie stresses out significant advice on every relationships-intimate, family, nature, and toward other people. The characters frequently react gently or like credible human beings to the script’s impossible notions (Ortega). Maude unintentionally falls in love with Harold though she was four times his age. Love knows no barriers. Love recognizes no boundaries. She is a human being capable of love and loving. Her age gave her wisdom through her experiences in her younger years. Her kind of love doesn’t ask anything in return. Love is a wonderful thing; it is selfless. And Harold was the recipient of her love. Her lively and positive outlook in life is the outcome of the rough times she had in the past. And she is thankful she’s able to watch the sunset and glorious birds with a Harold. Philippians 2: 4 “Let each of you look not only to his own interests but also to the interests of others”. Though she fell in love with Harold before her 80th birthday, her plan sustained. She feels she completed her journey and has lived her life to its fullest and it’s time to go. It may be selfish to do, but she knows Harold has a life ahead of him and she doesn’t need there. She taught him everything she knew so he can lead a happy life. She took Harold out of his life in a nutshell to a life he can live on. On the other hand, Harold embraces the beauty of life out of his love for Maude. He drives his hearse over the cliff ending his obsession for death. His life is forever changed because of the love that he found in Maude. As Bruce Feiler mention on one of his interviews; “The central way to be unalone is to be within other. Love is a story we tell with another person. It’s a two story, not a one story. It’s a co-creation through co-narration”. Harold has the story that

In 1997, the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress selected the movie, “Harold and Maude “by Hal Ashby, 1971, for preservation for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”1 This movie was dealt with black comedy and, at the same time, romance that leaves uncertainties in the ending which was significant at that time because it was unusual for Hollywood films making vague endings where the viewers expected solid happy endings or has clear noticeable thriller at the end. Not surprisingly, the last scene from the movie, where, the protagonist, Harold, throws himself off the cliff and weirdly comes out

Equality and Justice - false promises a nation was created to protect. The historical drama, Selma (2014), directed by Ava DuVernay, depicts some of the struggles African-Americans faced in the pursuit of equality and justice during the mid 1950’s to 1960’s, and the role Martin Luther King Jr. played in his attempt to overcome such inequalities. Even before its release, Selma received backlash from critics who claimed it falsely depicted Lyndon B. Johnson at odds with Martin Luther King Jr, and alleged that the murder of the four girls at the Birmingham Church occurred in September 1963, rather than at the end of 1964, which the film suggests. Regardless of such claims, the film, Selma, does depict a historical event set forth by Martin Luther King Jr. in 1965. During this time period, racial segregation was prominent, especially in the southern states. The government justified such segregation based on the 14th Amendment’s wording of “separate but equal”. However, many African-Americans were dissatisfied and demanded true equality. It was not until the mid 1960’s, after Martin Luther King Jr. was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, that racial tension began to decline. Although Martin Luther King Jr.’s role was invaluable in the Civil Rights Movement and required great courage, Selma aims to portray a complex side of King, mixing his bravery and determination with self-doubts and internal conflicts in his pursuit of justice and equality.

In the movie “Dead Poet’s Society,” Mr. Keating introduces many new concepts to his students and explores individualism in great depth. The characters continuously face conflict throughout the movie demonstrating the basic principles of existentialism and transcendentalism. Neil Perry’s suicide is evidence of the tragic consequences that can occur when an individual’s authority is allowed to prevail. However, the triumph of individual spirit can have a positive outcome such as with Knox Overstreet, exemplifying transcendentalism. Knox meets a girl named Chris and becomes obsessed with her.

In Michael Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), the connections between people and memories become the focal point of a very unique romance. Through the use of new technology, the possibility of erasing memories makes painful relationships disappear like they never happened. The tale of Joel and Clementine allows the audience to rethink and question the process they undergo as beneficial or destructive. Though the process might be helpful in eliminating the pain caused from another person, four key scenes show how the lessons learned through relationship experiences are important.