Death by suicide, music by Cat

[skyring]

Brisbane's West End, mid-70s. Saturday morning and a group of we high school seniors were off on the town to watch a movie under the guidance of our English teacher, Ray Fuary.

Mr Fuary was a ratbag, simple as that. In the largely conservative world of Bjelke-Peterson's Queensland, he surely voted Labor, smoked dope, and hurled bricks at sacred cows. He was a breath of fresh air, and just a bit scary.

The movie was Harold and Maude, one that had never made the mainstream cinemas in Brisbane, but had somehow attracted Mr Fuary's ratbag attention to the extent that he thought it worth exposing a class of callow teenagers to. To entertain us, to shock us a little bit, to make us think.

I was a few minutes late and as I sat down beside a schoolmate, I asked him what I had missed. "Not much," he replied. "The star committed suicide in the first few seconds."

Read the rest of the review here.

Comments

[awaywithfairy1.livejournal.com]

I remember watching Harold and Maude late at night on TV sometime in the early 80s. I was possibly 12 or 13 at the time. Don't know what I was doing up that late or why my parents allowed me to watch it, but I watched it anyway. Made an impression on me, although I haven't seen it since...