Sunday; Apri( 6, 1975
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Page Five
F AT U RES/[Universitv of Michinan Men's Glee C
:1u6
A vicious little movie
astandard on college
(Continued from Page 3)
in changing a hostile environ-
ment and individual survival in
that environment - the differ-
ence between the Viet Nam gen-
eration and the Nixon genera-
tion, which may be why Harold
and Maude never found an au-
dience the first time around
even though it ridiculed all the
right people. All of this is
pounded home - with about
as much subtlety as a stiff
poke in the ribs - when the
camera shows us the concen-
tration camp tatoo on Maude's
arm. From one survivor to an-
other. All we've got is our-
selves.
Maude OPERATES ON the as-
sumption, then, that any-
one who isn't with us is against
us and is fair game. It ridi-
cules all the convenient tar-
gets of the Establishment by
blowing them into cartoon gro-
tesques: a psychiatrist who isj
a composite of every dumb psy-
chiatrist stereotype save the
German accent; a blubbery, jel-
ly - jowled priest who preaches
conservative nonsense; an of-
ficious, steel-eyed motorcyclej
cop listed in the credit as M.
Borman (sic); a general, Har-
old's uncle, who nearly sali-i
vates when he thinks of battle
and who has rigged up his arm-1
less sleeve to salute. The audi-
ence howls on signal and gets
its revenge on the symbols.
But there are other victims
in the film who aren't attached
to the Establishment and who
are condemned merely because
they haven't joined up with
Maude. (Who's the Nazi here?)
Two scenes illustrate: Maude
leaves church after a matinee!
funeral. She hops into a Volks-
wagon, waves goodbye to Har-
old, and ,zips away. The offic-
iating minister, who has done;
absolutely nothing horrible,
rushes out and blinks, "That'sf
my car." Howls. In the second
scene, Harold demonstrates
hari kari to one of his com-}
puter dates. The date is a
| dumbbell - an aspiring ac-
tress named Sunshine - but,
she is nothing more than that.
Still Harold hands her the knifef
and she shoves it into her in-
nard's trying to figure out how
Harold did the same trick. The
wages of stupidity are death.
She collapses to the floor, and
there are howls and screams.
Most bona fide black humor
exaggerates morbid reality and
forces us to laugh, defensively,
at our own fears. But a modern
cult comedy like Maude seems
to comfort us instead by put-
ting us on the offensive. It's not
our fears - death, The Bomb,
war - we laugh at; it's the
stupidity of other people (which
may be an acceptable source for
humor) and at the comeuppance!
these poor idiots get (which isf
more questionable). There is
something incredibly cruel
about terrifying young numb-1
skulls as Harold does to his
computer dates, stealing an in-
nocent minister's car, disrupt-
ing a funeral, and crueler still
about letting a girl die because
she wears a newsboy's cap,
cracks gum, and makes idiotic
small talk. Harold and Maudei
have this license because}
they're a pair of Life Forces
dynamiting a path through Con
II America, which is as ironic
a tangle as you can get. And
yet few things, not even Alice
ICooper, better illustrate young
hostility and paranoia.
JUOREOVER, THAT ironic,
confusion of means and
ends is precisely one of the
points, if not of the movie, at
least of the odd value system
which underlies it. Films like
King of Hearts, The Ruling,
Class, and even Maude make
a good deal of fuss over what
is normal, sane. Back in the
hof has character, Maude is a I could just as easily have been
character. And just in case we peppy Strom Thurmond without
b eco m es ( don't get it, the film sticks drastically changing the film;
our noses in it again and again I say that because ultimately
and again. She lives in an old the politics of the film, its
railroad car (character), she cheap digs at everyone who's
rCa m p USes models in the nude for a sculp-jnot young or old and crazy, are
tor (at her age! character), she almost bulled over by that con-
has a cabinet full of musical in-; stant onslaught of energy.
30s it wasn't that the dominant struments (character), she has Within days of Maude's open- S u rc
order made bad sense - it a machine which recreates at- ing in New York, Clockwork
wasn't insane - it's just that mospheres (character), she Orange and Dirty Harry pre-
old Grandpa Vanderhof made steals cars (what a character!),; miered. It's a nice coincidence
better sense. By the time ofj
Catch-22 and King of Heartsif and she attends the funerals of -Maude and these two wild,
you'll excuse comparing the people she doesn't even know rather vicious, little films, both Box Of
yo'excituse lattrngthe (with a capital 'c'). She's so of which make as great claims
former with the latter, the busy playing tricks and having for assertiveness as Maude
world had gone crazy and that fun that it's hard to believe does., That violence is import-t-
forced awhole redefinition of she ever sleeps, except for that ant. All three films, though
insanity; i Hearts the symbols one time with Harold. Poor with different slants and vary-
are literally transposed, insane; Harold is also a character and ing degrees of artistic success,
asylum (sane) and real world he also does cheap cabaret set off vicarious thrills in an
(insane), in case you miss the turns to confirm it: pretending audience absolutely convinced
poit. A later Laingian film like to hang himself, slit his wrists, of its impotence. Aren't we all?
Maude turns the tables: it re- chop off his hand, immolate That's one reason why Maude
verts back to the old defni- himself, commit hari kari. But seems so cynical and pessimis-
tions, then elevates madness since Maude is the convertor tic even though it's constantly
to the top of the moral heap. and Harold the convertee (his coming on with slogans of how
You've got to be really crazy class, a screwball vestige great it is to be alive. We don't
to be good; you've got to out- though incidental here, is the believe it and neither does the
flank society by retreatig nto tipoff), he seems to have a lot film: the next funeral Harold 1
your own head, then lashing less fun playing his tricks. He's attends will be Maude's. No one
out as occasion warrants. desperate to get attention; he's in his right mind (of course,
Grandpa Vanderhof impresses unhappy, he says. He wishes he that's the rub) is going to go
us with his sound common were dead. out and lay an eighty year-old
sense, pulling the IRS man's woman, and no one is going to
leg while winking at us all the BUT WHY BE self-destructive go out and steal a car because
time. He isn't jabberwocky, and when you can harm others, there's too much materialism,
his feet are planted on terra as Maude does? or rationalize his own car be-
firma, if one can say that What commits him to life is ing stolen on the same ground
about arthritic Lionel Barry- not Maude's love - it is im- -acts which follow the didactic
more. But Maude, who never possible to think of her as lov- aim L-I-V-E as Maude defines
even touches humanity tan- ing since she never touchesa
gentially, has her head stuck down. Rather it is her prodig- it.
in the clouds. She is jabber- ious energy, a different torch TN THE END, then, Maude
wocky in a world of more jab- than the capacity to "have merely underscores the dis-
berwocky. Her synthetic bo-! fun" with which older screw- parity between our values and
hemianism and facile slogan-1 balls guided their converts. In ' our behavior. It's much easier
eering take Capra's simple fact, one suspects that Maude to go to the movies
truth and turn them into more
plastic for plasticland: "What
sense in borders and nations
and patriotism?" "Everyone $ OUT MONEY $
,has the right to make an ass O F MO EY $
out of himself." "Just live.
L-I-V-E!" Maybe Army Green is your answer. You have
WJHILE PLACING s u c h until June 30th to enlist for only two years.
enormous stress on eccen- After that you must enlist for 3 years to get
tricity as a moral value, Maude; travel, training, maturity, and the 'GI Bill"
also nudges aside other, more worth $10,000 to continue your education.
traditional moral values on the
ground, I suppose, that these Now's the time to ask questions. See an Army
values no longer work. Signifi- Representative at the PLACEMENT OFFICE,
nn tl"y, W1''"- r ---'.Uin- " Un i--'--l
m
Now
S----------------'---- -.'---~~-~-1
1 j
MICHIGAN COEDS
'in
Porn
Girl
rryouts
FOR FOOTBALL AND BASKETBALL
CHEERLEADER SQUAD
canny, where uranapa vanaer
3200 STUDENT ACTIVITIES BUILDING on
MONDAY, APRIL 7th from 10 to 5. Coll 764-
7456 for an apoointment, or walk in.
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11
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