In Laman's Terms is a weekly editorial column where Douglas Laman rambles on about certain topics or ideas that have been on his mind lately. Sometimes he's got serious subjects to discuss, other times he's just got some silly stuff to shoot the breeze about. Either way, you know he's gonna talk about something In Laman's Terms!
Both Harold and Maude and Ali: Fear Eats the Soul are stories about people that society looks down upon who manage to find solace in each other's company, with each film's leading duo including an older female character who is actually given the chance to be a well-rounded human being instead of a stock stereotype. Of course, each film has different reasons for its leads to be ostracized, which allows for different experiences of societal isolation to be explored in a thoughtful manner. Harold and Maude's titular lead characters confronting a society determined to make them both conform while the interracial married couple at the heart of Ali: Fears Eat The Soul must deal with racist behavior from everyone who crosses their path. The circumstances informing why they're not accepted by others are vastly different, but the world's inability to accept anything that it doesn't perceive to be a narrowly-defined version of "normal" heavily influences both of these romantic pairings.
With both motion pictures, how exactly such widespread stigma's impact these lead characters gets just as much screentime, if not more, than moments highlighting the stigma's themselves. But these are features do not consist of misery alone, on the contrary, while the harsh prejudices of society are depicted in an unflinching manner (particularly in Ali: Fear Eats the Soul and its depiction of everyday racism), sequences of romantic connection are executed in a way that allows the emotions felt between these couples to truly flourish. Low-key sequences depicting Ali (El Hedi ben Salem) & Emmi Kurowski (Brigitte Mira) eating breakfast together or Harold (Bud Cort) & Maude (Ruth Gordon) romping in the countryside have an immense emotional power simply because they're allowed to be sequences of romantic sweetness.
Life is so full of discordance both within these two films and in real life, why not allow these couples to have a moment of peace in such a cruel world? Of course, that omnipresent cruelty cannot be fought off forever, with both of these motion pictures ending their stories on dour notes. In the case of Harold and Maude, Maude takes her own life while Ali suffers from serious medical problems stemming from a stomach ulcer that leaves him unconscious in a hospital bed in the final frame of his film. These are conclusions that seem to destined to leave one teary-eyed and perhaps even convey the nihilistic idea that such romantic escapades are not worth all the trouble in a world where misery is a guarantee rather than a possibility.
Except both films manage to incorporate a sense of hopefulness in their final scenes that are so beautifully executed. Such hopefulness does not come from any of these characters having vanquished prejudice or anything heightened like that, rather, it comes from the realization that there is a sliver of hope yet to be found because of the relationships they had. Harold ends his movie by walking off into the sunset and plucking If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out, a song Maude taught him, on a banjo, the insinuation being that his own mental health problems haven't been resolved but that his time spent with Maude has helped him to face them as well as accept who he is as a person. Meanwhile, Ali: Fear Eats the Soul ends with Emmi lying next to the unconscious Ali and promising she will stand by him during his medical turmoil.
A sense of hopefulness stemming from confronting the horrors of the world rather than solving them is found in each of these exceptional endings, with both film's demonstrating a sense of wisdom that's truly remarkable. The prejudices seen in both Harold and Maude and Ali: Fear Eats the Soul are still, unfortunately, as prevalent today as they were in the 1970's, these tales of people coping as societal outsiders still resonant as relevant storytelling. These two stories, though being different in so many wonderful ways, share the common goal of exploring the beauty found in two couples who refuse to change who they are for the world around them. Said beauty doesn't negate the hardships of the world, but it does help remind you in times of woe of the wonders that can be found in the little things, like a field of flowers, dancing in a tavern or being with the one you love.
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