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Rushmore
Theatrical poster
Directed by	Wes Anderson
Written by	Wes Anderson Owen Wilson
Produced by	Barry Mendel Paul Schiff
Starring	Jason Schwartzman Olivia Williams Bill Murray Brian Cox Seymour Cassel
Cinematography	Robert D. Yeoman
Edited by	David Moritz
Music by	Mark Mothersbaugh
Distributed by	Touchstone Pictures
Release dates	February 5, 1999 (USA wide release)
Running time	93 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$10,000,000 US (est.)

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

Plot

Template:Spoilers 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 thuggish sons 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. Template:Endspoiler

Cast and characters

Jason Schwartzman ... Max Fischer
Bill Murray ... Herman Blume
Olivia Williams ... Rosemary Cross
Seymour Cassel ... Bert Fischer
Brian Cox ... Dr. Nelson Guggenheim
Mason Gamble ... Dirk Calloway
Sara Tanaka ... Margaret Yang
Stephen McCole ... Magnus Buchan
Connie Nielsen ... Mrs. Calloway
Luke Wilson ... Dr. Peter Flynn

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.

Technical data

• Format: 35mm film (Eastman Kodak)
• Camera: Panavision Cameras And Lenses
• Sound: DTS / Dolby Digital / SDDS
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1 (anamorphic)
• Color by: Technicolor
• MPAA rating: R

Soundtrack

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.

Track listing

1. Mark Mothersbaugh - "Hardest Geometry Problem in the World"
2. The Creation - "Making Time"
3. Unit 4 + 2 - "Concrete & Clay"
4. The Kinks - "Nothin' in the World Can Stop Me Worryin' 'Bout That Girl"
5. Mark Mothersbaugh - "Sharp Little Guy"
6. Mark Mothersbaugh - "The Lad With the Silver "
7. Chad and Jeremy - "A Summer Song"
8. Mark Mothersbaugh - "Edward Appleby (In Memoriam)"
9. Cat Stevens - "Here Comes My Baby"
10. The Who - "A Quick One While He's Away"
11. Mark Mothersbaugh - "Snowflake Music" (from Bottle Rocket)
12. Mark Mothersbaugh - "Piranhas Are Very Tricky Species"
13. Zoot Sims - "Blinuet"
14. Mark Mothersbaugh - "Friends Like You, Who Needs Friends"
15. Yves Montand - "Rue St. Vincent"
16. Mark Mothersbaugh - "Kite Flying Society"
17. Cat Stevens - "The Wind"
18. John Lennon - "Oh Yoko!"
19. Faces - "Ooh La La"
20. Mark Mothersbaugh - "Margaret Yang's Theme"

Legacy

Since the film's success, Jason 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 serious actor, playing characters of this type in The Royal Tenenbaums, Lost in Translation, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, and Broken Flowers.

Awards and recognition

Rushmore is number 34 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies".

Rushmore also won the following awards:

It was also nominated for the following awards:

DVD

It released by The Criterion Collection, a distribution company that aspires to publish "the defining moments of cinema," in a DVD edition with remastered picture and sound as well as various supplemental materials.

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. Anderson would later reference Lartigue's work in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.
• 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. The film is also referenced during Max's production of Serpico, when the actor portraying Serpico snaps his fingers while saying "That you're gonna follow this thing all the way to the end...of the line...where I got to be." Not only is this line almost identical to a line spoken by Al Pacino in Heat, but Al Pacino also portrayed Serpico himself in the 1973 film.
• 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.

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.
• One of the guitarist from band My Chemical Romance,Frank Iero has said Rushmore to be his favorite movie, and the video for the band's song I'm Not Okay (I Promise) is inspired by the movie.

See also

• 1990s in film
• 1998 in film
• St. John's School

External links

• Rushmore at IMDb
• All Movie Guide entry for Rushmore
• Camus's Choice: Rushmore
• Criterion Collection essay by David Kehr
• Wes Anderson interviews Bill Murray

• 1998 films
• Touchstone Pictures films
• Comedy-drama films
• English-language films
• Films directed by Wes Anderson