Rushmore (film)

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Rushmore

Rushmore DVD cover
Directed by Wes Anderson
Produced by Barry Mendel
Paul Schiff
Written by Wes Anderson
Owen Wilson
Starring Jason Schwartzman
Olivia Williams
Bill Murray
Brian Cox
Seymour Cassel
Music by Mark Mothersbaugh
Distributed by Touchstone Pictures
Release date(s) February 5, 1999 (USA wide release)
Running time 93 min.
Language English
Budget $10,000,000 US (est.)
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Rushmore is a 1998 movie directed by Wes Anderson about an eccentric teenager. The film was written by Anderson and Owen Wilson.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The film is about Max Fischer (played by Jason Schwartzman), a 15-year-old whose extraordinary energy is channeled solely into extracurricular activities — school clubs and painfully over-ambitious theatrical productions, at the expense of his academic success. As a result of Max's failing grades, he is put on "sudden-death academic probation". He is inspired by Herman J. Blume (played by Bill Murray), a rich and melancholy industrialist who is himself completely uninspired, and gives a candid speech at the school (which Blume's two terrible boys also attend.) At around the same time, Max meets Rosemary Cross (played by Olivia Williams), an elementary school teacher with whom he finds himself instantly infatuated. Unfortunately for Max, Miss Cross does not share the same sentiments for a 15-year-old boy, and a conflict forms when Blume begins to have the same feelings for her that Max has. After Miss Cross returns Blume's affections, Max and Blume become rivals, and take turns upping the ante in their duel (with Max's salvoes going beyond mere pranks.)

Before Max and Blume's rivalry develops fully, Max gets expelled from Rushmore and has to attend public school. After his war with Blume fails to land him Miss Cross, Max temporarily withdraws and seeks solace through working with his father, a barber (although Max has hitherto claimed his father was a neurosurgeon). Eventually, after accepting the reality of his life (more or less) and reconciling with Blume and Miss Cross, Max decides to return to form with his most ambitious play yet, set in Vietnam and featuring explosions, flamethrowers, and other elaborate props and stunts not usually found in a high school production. Blume, meanwhile, has split with his wife after Max told Blume's wife of his affair with Miss Cross as part of his feud with Blume; however, Blume clearly had lost his affection for his wife and himself long ago. Max, for his part, accepts that Miss Cross is unattainable and begins to become closer with Margaret Yang (played by Sara Tanaka), a slightly nerdy but nice and pretty girl whose affections were previously clumsily rebuffed by Max. The movie ends with the performance of Max's play, which duly impresses the audience, which includes Blume, Miss Cross, and other major cast members. The final image of the film shows the major players dancing with the other's partner (i.e. Blume with Margaret, and Max with Cross) - Max, at last, seems capable of accepting his relationship with Cross as nothing more than friendship.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Production

The film was shot in and around Houston, Texas where Wes Anderson grew up. His high school alma mater, St. John's School, was used for the private school, while Lamar High School in Houston was used for the public school. In real life, the two schools are directly across the street from one another. Auditions were held at the schools to cast students as themselves. Aside from the blazer Max wears, the uniforms used in Rushmore are the actual student uniforms.

In the liner notes to the movie soundtrack, Wes Anderson explains that he originally intended the entire soundtrack to be songs by The Kinks, because the music suited Max's loud and angry nature, and because Max was initially envisioned to be a British exchange student. However, while listening to a compilation of other British Invasion songs on set, he eventually changed the soundtrack so that only one song by the Kinks remained in the film.

[edit] Legacy

The film is often acknowledged as the vehicle which showcased a fresh, yet offbeat talent by the name of Jason Schwartzman. Since the film's success, Schwartzman has appeared in numerous films,more than often portraying equally peculiar characters. Moreover,'Rushmore' is widely credited with introducing a new side of Bill Murray. A comedic actor typically known for his smug yet charming, easy-going delivery, the film afforded Murray his transformation into an actor known for tragicomic portrayals of men who have been beaten down into detached and mournfully wistful characters. After Rushmore, Murray established a "second career" as a respected semi-serious actor, playing characters of this type in The Royal Tenenbaums, Lost in Translation, The Life Aquatic, and Broken Flowers.

[edit] Awards and recognition

Rushmore is number 34 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies". It was also released by The Criterion Collection, a distribution company that aspires to publish "the defining moments of cinema"[1] in a DVD edition with remastered picture and sound as well as various supplemental materials.

Rushmore also won the following awards:

Year Award Category
1998 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards Best Supporting Actor (Bill Murray, tied with Billy Bob Thornton for A Simple Plan) and the New Generation Award (Wes Anderson)
1998 New York Film Critics Circle Award Best Supporting Actor (Bill Murray)
1999 American Comedy Award Funniest Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture (Bill Murray)
1999 Golden Satellite Award Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical (Bill Murray)
1999 Independent Spirit Awards Best Director and Best Supporting Male (Bill Murray)
1999 Lone Star Film & Television Award Best Actor (Jason Schwartzman), Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor (Bill Murray)
1999 National Society of Film Critics Award Best Supporting Actor (Bill Murray)
1999 YoungStar Award Best Performance by a Young Actor in a Comedy Film (Jason Schwartzman)

It was also nominated for the following awards:

Year Award Category
1999 British Independent Film Award Best Foreign Film - English Language
1999 Chicago Film Critics Association Award Best Supporting Actor (Bill Murray) and Most Promising Actor (Jason Schwartzman)
1999 Golden Globe Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture (Bill Murray)
1999 Young Artist Award Best Performance in a Feature Film - Supporting Young Actor (Mason Gamble)
1999 YoungStar Award Best Performance by a Young Actor in a Comedy Film (Mason Gamble)

[edit] Technical data

[edit] Homages and connections with other Anderson films

  • The famous shot of Max sitting on the go-kart used in the "Making Time" montage is based on a photograph by Jacques Henri Lartigue.[2] Anderson would later reference Lartigue's work in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.[citation needed]
  • The penciled-in quote inside a book Max is reading is Diving for Sunken Treasure by Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Philippe Diote: "When one man, for whatever reason, has the opportunity to lead an extraordinary life, he has no right to keep it to himself". In Anderson's later film, The Life Aquatic, Steve Zissou is a parody of and homage to Jacques-Yves Cousteau.
  • In the scene where Max meets Rosemary, he is carrying the book, The Powers that Be by David Halberstam, an account of the rise of journalistic media to political power.
  • In the scene where Max buys the dynamite, he holds an ID up to the salesman and says, "And could you make the order out to Ready Demolition, Tucson, Arizona?" This is the same line a character buying explosives uses in the 1995 Michael Mann film Heat.
  • Hal Ashby's Harold and Maude was a big influence on the film's look and tone, as well as Mike Nichols' The Graduate.
  • The Font used throughout the film is Futura and in particular Futura Bold. Anderson also used it extensively in Bottle Rocket and in his subsequent films.

[edit] Influence on popular culture

  • The video for The Decemberists's "16 Military Wives" is loosely based on the movie.
  • "Sic Transit Gloria... Glory Fades" is the name of a Brand New song on the album Deja Entendu. The song title is a line from the movie.
  • Metal group Every Time I Die have a song entitled "She's My Rushmore" from their 2003 album Hot Damn!. "She's my Rushmore, Max." is a line from the movie.
  • "I Saved Latin" is the name of an American Nightmare song off of the band's album Background Music. The song title is a line from the movie.
  • The album Take This to Your Grave by Fall Out Boy includes a song called "Tell That Mick He Just Made My List Of Things To Do Today", referencing a line of Max Fischer's, although the quote in the movie is actually "...that stupid mick...". The band has also toured under the codename Saved Latin.
  • Screamo band, Kite Flying Society got their name from one of the clubs Max Fischer starts.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
v • d • e
Films directed by Wes Anderson

Features: Bottle Rocket (1996) • Rushmore • The Royal Tenenbaums • The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou • The Darjeeling Limited • Fantastic Mr. Fox
Shorts: Bottle Rocket (1994)

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