The Home of the Creative Mind

Welcome to PooBahSpiel, the online voice and home of the creative mind of Mark Monlux, Illustrator Extraordinaire. Prepare yourself for an endless regaling of art directly from the hand of this stellar artist. And brace yourself against his mighty wind of pontification. Updates are kinda weekly and show daily sketches, current projects, and other really nifty stuff.

Monday, January 4, 2016

The Comic Critic Reviews "Harold and Maude"




For others, Harold and Maude is a dark comedy, but for me it’s a perfect romance movie. A truly great romance movie is more than two people falling in love. Romance is more than sweet gestures and kind words. Romance is about delving into the world, exploring it, and then sharing that exploration with the one you love. In Harold and Maude, Harold is delving into the only world he knows of, full of isolation and loneliness. Many find these states of being comparable to death because both isolation and loneliness are defined by an absence, and death is the ultimate absence. The sadness and grief that follows in death’s wake are overwhelming tortuous emotions. The juxtaposition of absence occurring with death to the overwhelming emotions of grief is a source of confusion for Harold, and in his travels to clear this confusion he meets Maude. Maude is a great explorer of the world. We glean that she’s seen her share of horrors. Her outlook on life makes no time for sadness, loneliness, or grief. She doesn’t conquer them so much as disregard them as meaningless to following the spirit of life. She finds joy in every moment. She is a force of nature. Harold and Maude is the perfect romance because it’s two people sharing with each other their discoveries of the world with love and understanding. The humor is wonderfully dark. It’s extremely easy to see the writer’s commenting on America’s involvement in the Vietnam War and drawing parallels to the story. Keep that in mind and the already rich minefield of wonderful surprises Harold and Maude has in store for you will become even more entertaining.