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Rushmore (film)
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Rushmore is a 1998 comedy-drama film directed by Wes Anderson about an eccentric teenager named Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman), his friendship with rich industrialist Herman Blume (Bill Murray), and their mutual love for elementary school teacher Rosemary Cross (Olivia Williams). The film was co-written by Anderson and Owen Wilson. The soundtrack was scored by regular Anderson collaborator Mark Mothersbaugh and features several songs by bands associated with the British Invasion of the 1960s.
The film helped launch the careers of Anderson and Schwartzman, while establishing a "second career" for Murray as a respected actor of independent cinema.
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Encyclopedia
Rushmore is a 1998 comedy-drama film directed by Wes Anderson about an eccentric teenager named Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman), his friendship with rich industrialist Herman Blume (Bill Murray), and their mutual love for elementary school teacher Rosemary Cross (Olivia Williams). The film was co-written by Anderson and Owen Wilson. The soundtrack was scored by regular Anderson collaborator Mark Mothersbaugh and features several songs by bands associated with the British Invasion of the 1960s.
The film helped launch the careers of Anderson and Schwartzman, while establishing a "second career" for Murray as a respected actor of independent cinema. Rushmore also won Best Director and Best Supporting Male awards at the 1999 Independent Spirit Awards while Murray earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture.
Plot
The film centers on Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman), a precocious and eccentric 15 year-old, who is both Rushmore's most extracurricular and least scholarly student; Herman Blume (Bill Murray), a disillusioned industrialist who comes to admire Max; and Rosemary Cross (Olivia Williams), a widowed first grade teacher who becomes the object of both Max's and Herman's affection.
Max's life revolves around Rushmore Academy, where he is a scholarship student. Max spends nearly all of his time on elaborate extracurricular activities, caring little how it affects his grades. He also feuds with the school's headmaster, Dr. Guggenheim (Brian Cox).
Blume finds his operation of a multimillion dollar company to be unsatisfying and is frustrated that his marriage is failing and the two sons he's putting through Rushmore are unrepentant brats. He and Max become close friends; Max admires Herman's success while Herman is impressed by Max's cocksure attitude.
Ms. Cross arrives at the academy as a new teacher after the death of her husband (and former Rushmore student), and Max quickly develops an infatuation. He makes many attempts at courting her. While she initially tolerates Max, Ms. Cross becomes increasingly alarmed at his obvious obsession with her. Along the way Blume attempts to convince Max that Ms. Cross is not worth the trouble, only to fall for Rosemary himself. They begin dating without Max's knowledge.
After Max attempts to break ground on an aquarium without the school's approval, he is expelled from Rushmore. He is then forced to enroll in his first public school, Grover Cleveland High. Attempts to engage in outside activities at his new school have mixed results. A fellow student, Margaret Yang (Sara Tanaka), tries to engage Max, but he pays little attention to her. Rosemary and Blume attempt to support him in his new school.
Eventually, Max's friend Dirk (Mason Gamble) discovers the relationship between Rosemary and Blume and informs Max, initially as payback for a rumor Max started about his mother. Max and Blume go from being friends to mortal enemies. The two engage in back-and-forth acts of revenge on each other. Max informs Blume's wife of her husband's affair, ending their marriage. Max also cuts the brake lines on Blume's car, for which he is arrested. Meanwhile, Blume destroys Max's bicycle with his car. Eventually he gives up. Max explains to Blume that revenge no longer matters because even if he (Max) wins, Rosemary still would love Blume not him. Max becomes depressed and stops attending school. He cuts himself off from the world and works as an apprentice at his father's barber shop.
One day, Dirk stops by the shop to apologize to Max and bring him a Christmas present. In the process, Dirk suggests Max see his old headmaster in the hospital, knowing Blume will be there, as well. Max and Blume meet and are cordial, and Max finds out that Ms. Cross broke up with Blume. He also manages to bring Dr. Guggenheim out of his coma. Max begins to apply himself in school again. He also develops a friendship with Margaret Yang, whom he casts in one of his plays.
Max takes his final shot at Ms. Cross and is rebuffed again. Max makes it his new mission to win Ms. Cross back for Blume. His first attempt is unsuccessful, but then he invites both Herman and Rosemary to the performance of a play he wrote, making sure they will be sitting together. In the end, Ms. Cross and Blume appear to reconcile. Max and Margaret Yang also become a couple.
The movie ends with Max and Ms. Cross looking at each other enigmatically as they share a dance at the play's wrap party.
Cast
Production
With Rushmore, Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson wanted to create their own "slightly heightened reality, like a Roald Dahl children's book". Like Max Fischer, Wilson was expelled from his prep school in the tenth grade, while Anderson shared Max's ambition, lack of academic ability, and had a crush on an older woman. Anderson and Wilson began writing the screenplay for Rushmore years before they made Bottle Rocket. They knew that they wanted to make a film set in an elite prep school, much like St. John's School in Houston, Texas which Anderson had attended. According to the director, "One of the things that was most appealing to us was the initial idea of a 15-year-old kid and a 50-year-old man becoming friends and equals". Rushmore was originally going to be made for New Line Cinema but when they could not agree on a budget, Anderson, Wilson and producer Barry Mendel held an auction for the film rights in mid-1997 and struck a deal with Joe Roth, then-chair of Walt Disney Studios. He offered them a $10 million budget.
Casting
Anderson and Wilson wrote the role of Mr. Blume with Bill Murray in mind, but doubted they could get the script to him. Murray's agent was a fan of Anderson's first film, Bottle Rocket, and urged the actor to read the script for Rushmore. Murray liked it so much that he agreed to work for scale. The actor was drawn to Anderson and Wilson's "precise" writing and felt that a lot of the film was about "the struggle to retain civility and kindness in the face of extraordinary pain. And I've felt a lot of that in my life". Anderson created detailed storyboards for each scene but was open to Murray's knack for improvisation.
Cast directors considered 1,800 teenagers from the United States, Canada, and Britain for the role of Max Fischer before finding Jason Schwartzman. In October 1997, approximately a month before principal photography was to begin, a casting director for the film met the 17-year-old actor at a party thanks to his cousin and filmmaker Sofia Coppola. He came to his audition wearing a prep-school blazer and a Rushmore patch he had made himself. Anderson almost did not make the film when he could not find an actor to play Max but felt that Schwartzman "could retain audience loyalty despite doing all the crummy things Max had to do". Anderson originally pictured Max, physically, as Mick Jagger at age 15, to be played by an actor like Noah Taylor in the Australian film Flirting - "a pale, skinny kid". When Anderson met Schwartzman, he reminded Anderson much more of Dustin Hoffman and decided to go that way with the character. Anderson and the actor spent weeks together talking about the character, working on hand gestures and body language.
Principal photography
Filming began in November 1997. On the first day of principal photography, Anderson delivered his directions to Murray in a whisper so that he would not be embarrassed if the actor shot him down. However, the actor publicly deferred to Anderson, hauled equipment, and when Disney denied the director a $75,000 shot of Max and Mr. Blume riding in a helicopter, Murray gave Anderson a blank check to cover the cost.
At one point, Anderson toyed with the idea of shooting the private school scenes in England and the public school scenes in Detroit in order to "get the most extreme variation possible," according to the director. The film was shot in and around Houston, Texas where Anderson grew up. His high school alma mater, St. John's School, was used for the picturesque setting of Rushmore Academy. Lamar High School in Houston was used to depict Grover Cleveland High School, the public school. In real life, the two schools are directly next to each other. The film's widescreen, slightly theatrical look was influenced by Roman Polanski's Chinatown. Anderson also cites The Graduate and Harold and Maude as cinematic influences on Rushmore.
Soundtrack
Wes Anderson originally intended for the film's soundtrack to be entirely made up of songs by The Kinks, feeling 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, the soundtrack gradually evolved until only one song by the Kinks remained in the film ("Nothin' in the World Can Stop Me Worryin' 'Bout That Girl"). According to Anderson, "Max always wears a blazer and the British Invasion sounds like music made by guys in blazers, but still rock 'n' roll". In his review for Entertainment Weekly, Rob Brunner gave the soundtrack record an "A-" rating and wrote, "this collection won't make much sense if you haven't seen the movie. But for anyone who left the theater singing along to the Faces' "Ooh La La", it's an essential soundtrack".
Reaction
Rushmore had its world premiere at the 25th Telluride Film Festival in 1998 where it was one of the few studio films to be screened and be well-received by critics and audiences. The film was also screened at the 1998 New York Film Festival and the Toronto Film Festival where it was a hit with critics. The film opened in New York City and Los Angeles for one week in December in order to be eligible for the Academy Awards.
Box office
Rushmore opened for a week at single theaters in New York City and Los Angeles on December 11, 1998. In one weekend, it earned a combined USD $43,666, selling out 18 of 31 showings. The film opened in wide release in 764 theaters on February 19, 1999, grossing $2.8 million in its first weekend. It went on to make $17.1 million, below its $20 million budget.
Reviews
The film was well-received by critics, earning mostly positive reviews. It has an 86% "certified fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes and a 86 metascore at Metacritic. In his review for the Daily News, film critic Dave Kehr praised Rushmore as "a magnificent work: the best and most beautiful movie of 1998". USA Today gave the film three out of four stars and wrote that Bill Murray was "at his off-kilter best". Todd McCarthy, in his review for Variety, wrote, "The deep-focus widescreen compositions possess an unusual clarity that adds details and endows the action and humor with exceptional vividness". Film critic Roger Ebert gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four and wrote, "Anderson and Wilson are good offbeat filmmakers ... But their film seems torn between conflicting possibilities: It's structured like a comedy, but there are undertones of darker themes, and I almost wish they'd allowed the plot to lead them into those shadows". In his review Time, Richard Schickel praised Rushmore as "an often deft, frequently droll little movie turns into an increasingly desperate juggling act, first trying to keep too many dark and weighty emotional objects aloft, then trying to bring them back to hand in a graceful and satisfying way".
In her review for the New York Times, Janet Maslin wrote, "It's a particular treat for its skewed, hilarious memories of a cutthroat boyhood". In his review for the The Independent, Anthony Quinn said of Schwartzman that "he perfectly captures the poignancy of a character who understands his failings but hasn't yet the emotional resources to conquer them". In her review for the Washington Post, Rita Kempley praised Schwartzman's performance for winning "sympathy and a great deal of affection for Max, never mind that he could grow into Sidney Blumenthal". Entertainment Weekly gave Rushmore an "A" rating and wrote, "Anderson concentrates on beautifully disciplined filmmaking, employing 1960s British Invasion hits . . . to further define Max's adolescent dislocation". Jonathan Rosenbaum, in his review for the Chicago Reader, wrote, "To their credit, Anderson and Wilson share none of the class snobbery that subtly infuses much of Salinger's work ... But like Salinger they harbor a protective gallantry toward their characters that becomes the film's greatest strength and its greatest weakness".
A life-long fan of film critic Pauline Kael, Anderson arranged a private screening of Rushmore for the retired writer. Afterwards, she told him, "I genuinely don't know what to make of this movie". It was a nerve-wracking experience for Anderson but Kael did like the film and told others to see it. Anderson and Jason Schwartzman traveled from Los Angeles to New York City and back on a touring bus to promote the film. The tour started on January 21, 1999 and went through 11 cities in the United States.
Awards and nominations
Rushmore was nominated for two Independent Spirit Awards - Wes Anderson for Best Director and Bill Murray for Best Supporting Actor with the actor winning. Murray was also nominated in the Best Supporting Actor category for the Golden Globes.
The Los Angeles Film Critics Association named Bill Murray Best Supporting Actor of the year for his performance in Rushmore. Wes Anderson was named the New Generation honoree. The National Society of Film Critics also named Murray as Best Supporting Actor of the year as did the New York Film Critics. Film critic David Ansen ranked Rushmore the 10th best film of 1998. Spin hailed the film as "the best comedy of the year".
Rushmore is number 34 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies". The film was also ranked #20 on Entertainment Weekly magazine's "The Cult 25: The Essential Left-Field Movie Hits Since '83" list and ranked it #10 on their Top 25 Modern Romances list.
DVD
Buena Vista Home Entertainment released a bare bones edition of the film on June 29, 1999. This was followed by a special edition on January 18, 2000 by The Criterion Collection with remastered picture and sound as well as various supplemental materials, including an audio commentary by Wes Anderson, Owen Wilson and Jason Schwartzman, a behind-the-scenes documentary by Eric Chase Anderson, Anderson and Murray being interviewed on The Charlie Rose Show, and theatrical "adaptations" of Armageddon, The Truman Show and Out of Sight, staged especially for the 1999 MTV Movie Awards by the Max Fischer Players.
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