EXTRA CREDIT: Harold and Maude (1971)

Harold is a young man intrigued with death, who drifts away from the life that his detached mother prescribes for him, and develops a relationship with an old woman named Maude. Harold meets Maude, a 79-year-old woman who shares Harold's unique hobby of attending funerals. He is entranced by her quirky outlook on life, which is bright and excessively carefree in contrast with his own morbidity. Harold regularly stages elaborate fake suicides, attends funerals, and drives a hearse, all to the annoyance of his mother, socialite Mrs. Chasen.

As they become closer, Harold announces that he will marry Maude, resulting in disgusted outbursts from his family, psychiatrist and priest. When Maude's 80th birthday arrives, and Harold throws a surprise party for her. As the couple dances, Maude tells Harold that she "couldn't imagine a lovelier farewell." He immediately questions Maude as to her meaning, and she reveals that she has purposely taken an overdose ofsleeping pills and will be dead by midnight. Restating her firm belief that 80 is the proper age to die. Harold rushes Maude to the hospital, where she is treated unsuccessfully and dies. In the final sequence, Harold's car is seen going off a seaside cliff, in one last faked suicide with the final shot revealing Harold standing calmly atop the cliff, holding his banjo.

I found Maude's love affair with life, and the fact that she was able to embrace both the dark and light sides of human existence gave a balanced outlook for her character. Maude knew that to understand the beauty of everything, you must understand the cycles of life, life, death, rebirth. Creation and destruction. Contrasting with the morbidity and dark outlook on life that Harold had.

"Maude: A lot of people enjoy being dead. But they are not dead, really. They're just backing away from life." I think this sums up Maude's attitude to life, just to be breathing doesn't mean you are living, and if you are not living then you may as well be dead. "Go team, go! Give me an L. Give me an I. Give me a V. Give me an E. L-I-V-E. LIVE! Otherwise, you got nothing to talk about in the locker room." I feel as though she is referring to an afterlife when she talks about 'the locker room' here. A possibility for her love for life may be that she is scared about her afterlife. She feels she needs to live life to the fullest as when she dies what is she going to be able to say that she has done with her life? I think this is prevalent in most people's attitudes to life as there is always a search to do something 'meaningful.' Whether this is to live life to the fullest or out of arrogance is each to their own.

Maude is constantly showing no fear of death, but rather an embracing attitude towards to it. "Grab the shovel, Harold."

Before Harold meets Maude, he is a disturbed individual with no friends. But Maude gives him the release from himself that he needs in order to find peace with himself. His obsession with death is a release from reality, as he feels like an outcast and would rather be seen as an outcast than not accepted for himself. When Harold says "I haven't lived. I've died a few times" it's obvious that he isn't in denial about being an outcast, realising that living through his obsession with death isn't really living at all.

"Maude: [at her 80th birthday party] I couldn't imagine a lovelier farewell!

Harold: Farewell?
Maude: Oh, yes, dear... My 80th birthday.
Harold: But you're not going anywhere... are you?
Maude: [long pause] I took the tablets an hour ago. I'll be gone by midnight."

Maude's short presence in Harold's life was significant enough to change his outlook on life, and make him take a more 'happyy-go-lucky' approach. At the end of the film Harold is seen with a spring in his step and playing the banjo, just lie Maude advised. Harold and Maude learnt from each other. Harold learnt through her death to love and let go of darkness, and to start living.

There is freqeunt imagery in the film which alludes to aspects of death.

For instance, when Maude is carried into hospital on a stretcher she is wheeled through big white doors and she reaches out for Harold. Which is symbolic of 'seeing the light' and the way death pulls you away from loved ones without you having a choice.

The ending, with Harold driving the hearse off the cliff is symbolic of him letting go of blackness and morbidity in his life, and because of Maude's presence in his life has learnt to replace the darkness with a lighter, more embracing attitude. He no longer has to hide behind the lurking shadow of death but can truely live.

Independent Research B

Approaching this project I wasn't sure what to do as I am an agnostic believer. I could never pigeon hole my beliefs to just one set religion, but have respect for people who do as I think it is a comforting thing to feel as though we understand the vast universe we are in a little bit more.

I decided to consult the atheists view on afterlife, as on first thought I would be sure that atheists would be the group of people who believed that when you are dead, you are dead. There is no romantic floating up to heaven, or you body being dead but your soul being eternal, but i was wrong.

'The Atheist Afterlife" describes an afterlife that is consistent with known law and requires nothing more than physics. It demonstrates that an afterlife is possible based on reason, and supports the probability of an afterlife with an original and testable support for dualism – the proposition that our mind and body are separate. The Atheist view on afterlife is very much from a philosophical viewpoint. It makes the concept of God irrelevant and removes the ‘God of the Gaps’ completely. It attempts to prove that many religious conceptions of an afterlife are false, including the concepts of judgement, selectivity based on belief, and the existence of Heaven and Hell.

Atheists believe that when you pass, you, in 'words' will cease to exist. The concept of nonexistence can be compared to the lack of existence of a human before being conceived or brought into the world - The universe was here before you were born and will continue when you are gone.

Whatever personal belief you hold will dictate what you think will happen to yourself or others - but what we do know to be fact is that we do not know what happens after death. We may think we know (in the form of theories, practices, beliefs, etc) but we do not really know, since you are alive, and whatever you believe will happen, might only happen after your death.

Independent Research A

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-13014867

This article talks about a family not being able to afford a burial because the costs were too high, so against their dead mother's wish, they had to cremate her body. She describes how she had been "held over a barrel" by the local authority, and the cost was just unfortunately too high. This culminates the uncomfortableness of this subject for me as I feel the emotions are completely removed for some funeral directions, and the death of a mother, brother or even a husband becomes a money making opportunity. "In the end we talked it through and decided she wouldn't have wanted us to pay that, she would have been horrified at the charge." The fact that they had to go against their deads mother's wishes seems immoral and twisted to me.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4622724.stm

This second article talks about the rise in burial and cremation costs in recent years. "A shortage of cemetery plots and more expensive coffins have helped add £1,250 the cost of the average burial, the survey said." As most popular after death care burial trumps cremation in the price range because of the added costs of the plot, upkeep and handling costs etc. It seems manipulative and corrupt that people would take advantage of grieving families; "It is a purchase most people make under distressed circumstances and so they are less concerned about comparing prices as they might well be in the normal run of life"

Although you cannot generalise such a broad profession, I feel as though many many of the literature and media surrounding the business accuse many undertakers to be corrupt and simply out to make money. "Seven out of ten funeral directors surveyed did not show the cost of a grave in their burial quotes, while one in three did not routinely mention the cost of cremation."