One of the greatest movies of all time, Harold and Maude, was released this week for the first time on Blu-Ray. This prompted a piece from The Atlantic's online publication: Hollywood's Problem With Senior-Citizen Sex. As the article notes, as in so many things, we don't know if Hollywood is reacting to norms or creating them. But, in any event, depictions of senior sex are not likely to sell a lot of movie tickets. As one online commenter to a Harold and Maude review stated: "I loved this movie right up until the sex scene. ... I don't know which is worse—knowing the Holocaust happened or knowing old people have sex."
1 comment:
Priest: the idea of... intercourse - your firm, young... body... comingling with... withered flesh... sagging breasts... flabby b-b-buttocks... makes me want... to vomit.
However, as is often the case, the priest is not very perspicacious; nor is the reviewer. I remember around the time I saw Harold and Maude, (probably not when it first came out), I was a youth and there were a bunch of movies about old people. I think Harry and Tonto was one, but I can't remember the others. One of them was a movie about old people falling in love or, at least, rediscovering love despite all the other problems in their lives, many of them caused by younger people.
Anyway, as a youth I remember thinking, wow, old people have complicated, interesting lives too. The movie was done in such a way that I rose above my normal disgust of old people, and while I'm not sure whether there were sex scenes, there must have been love scenes. I remember being very surprised that I was moved by these older people as much as I would have been if they had been younger—more so in some ways because of their depth.
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