MovieChat Forums > Harold and Maude (1971) Discussion > How do you view the end?

How do you view the end?

posted 13 years ago by LadyC7869
30 replies | jump to latest

I've always taken it as Harold was done being dead. I never thought about the possibility of him actually being in the Jaguar and his spirit being the one on the hillside playing the banjo. To me, if that were the case, Maude would have been with him.

I don't know. He made the Jaguar to look like a hearse, and it was the last vehicle that he and Maude rode in together (aside from the ambulance). It sort of makes sense that he'd want to get ride of it. Shed that part of himself. To me, Maude helped him have the ability to love and be alive. She wanted him to 'go love some more' so I don't see why he would disobey her last wishes, seeing as how she meant to much to him.

That's just my own personal interpretation, though.

[–] reaseltbim 11 years ago

the only thing I don't like is that he changed clothes. the Clothes changing makes it look like a ghost which is what makes this ending hard to argue with others.

People have said to me that it is obvious he really died because if he did come out of the car, why would he have different clothes.

[–] 11 years ago

[deleted]

[–] millionseller 8 years ago

But I'm pretty sure he didn't. He's wearing a jacket at dinner, but he takes it off at the hospital and you see he's wearing the same shirt as at the end. The main difference is that at the hospital it's still tucked in but when he dances off with the banjo it's untucked and looser.

I would need to re-watch the Criterion Collection commentary again because maybe I misheard, but I'm pretty sure that (director) Hal Ashby's biographer (who was one of the commenters) said that Ashby originally wanted Harold to be in the car at the end and kill himself. I was kind of surprised because it really does go against the spirit of the whole movie. HOWEVER, I don't think that was ever the writer Colin Higgins' plan, see below. Ashby's biographer talked about Ashby's personal experiences with suicide (his father committed suicide when he was 12, he considered it himself at a point in his life, and the manner he planned on shows up in one of his other movies) so it really gave me a different perspective on his vision for the movie.

But like I said, that was never Higgins' intention. I think the novel's ending makes that clear and adds something else. The book ends exactly like that: you think he's driven off the cliff, but it's revealed that he's looking down on the wreckage from the cliff. He dries his tears and walks off playing the banjo, smiling. What's new is that between the hospital and wrecking the car, he goes back to Maude's train car in despair. He remembers that before everything happened, Maude had told him she had a present for him and showed him a box. So he opens the box and it's the ring of keys she used to steal cars with a note saying, "Dearest Harold - Pass it on, with love, from Maude." Then he wrecks the car.

[–] forlorn_rage (151) 7 years ago

What's new is that between the hospital and wrecking the car, he goes back to Maude's train car in despair. He remembers that before everything happened, Maude had told him she had a present for him and showed him a box. So he opens the box and it's the ring of keys she used to steal cars with a note saying, "Dearest Harold - Pass it on, with love, from Maude." Then he wrecks the car.

Is there an extended version or director's cut that has this scene? I don't recall ever seeing or hearing of this scene until now.

[–] Future_Games 11 years ago

In the film, Harold keeps staging his own realistic, but fake, suicides. At the end he fakes his final one -- but we, the audience, are the ones the trick is pulled for. It is Harold's crowning piece of stagecraft, because for a moment we think he has actually died. But smashing his hearse-like car and skipping away playing the banjo show that he's now done with his death obsession.

Rebirth- life will and must go on. Harold will move on, hopefully move into his own home, travel, learn, mess around, meet women. All the things Maude knew he should be doing, The car off the cliff was the casting off of shackles of the past, the banjo- hope for the future.

This.

ROCK STARS HAVE KIDNAPPED MY SON

[–] greenbudgie 10 years ago

I get the impression that ditching that hearse over the cliff that Harold is getting rid of his obsession with death. He looks full of the joy of living on the clifftop. I think that he gives up fake suicides now that Maude has gone through with it.

[–] Bree_33 9 years ago

He probably felt liberated for the first time. The taste of freedom... enjoy while you can.

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[–] thebigmouth 9 years ago

I've wondered about this myself. But I agree with you: if he were dead, his spirit would have been dancing with Maude's.

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[–] truetexian 8 years ago

Your interpretation was mine as well. I'm inclined to call the alternate (the possibility of Harold actually committing suicide in the end) ridiculous. Coming to that conclusion, from all that the movie has been conveying to us throughout, is the concoction of an extremely small and limited brain.

[–] CinemaDemon989 (1286) 6 years ago

Maude's death was the representation of Harold's fascination with death. Except, it wasn't a representation that benefited him; seeing his only friend / girlfriend was the one that died. As in for the very end, I don't know if Maude's death made Harold appreciate life more, or sent him deeper into his depression. I guess we'll never really know. But the ending did seem to sort of end on a positive note.