THīest quote: 'Little did I realise that what began in the alleys and backways of this quiet town would end in the Badlands of Montana.'ĭefining moment: Kit sees Holly ‘standin' on her front lawn, just a-twirling her baton’, as Bruce Springsteen put it in the ‘Badlands’-inspired song, ‘Nebraska’. Best of all, ‘Harold and Maude’ is also still devastatingly romantic: a story of soulmates, in the most literal sense. So the idea of a teenage boy (Cort) shacking up with a batty old woman (Gordon) is still a challenge to social norms. Partly this is because none of its themes have gone out of date: we still live in a world of empty privilege and rigid hierarchy, petty authority and relentless conformism. How many of them are still effective today? But ‘Harold and Maude’, the gentle flipside of the revolutionary dream, is every bit as charming, affecting and surprising as it must have been on its first release. The hippy era was full of movies that attempted to confront square society, to shock viewers into some undefined form of action. Go and love some more.'ĭefining moment: In a field of daisies overlooking a vast military cemetery, Maude explains her philosophy of life. Best quote: 'Oh, Harold, that's wonderful.
