DVD Review: Rushmore: The Criterion Collection

[Guest TSMAdmin]

Directed by Wes Anderson

 

Written by Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson

 

Released by Disney/Touchstone Pictures and The Criterion Collection

 

Starring Jason Schwartzman, Olivia Williams, Bill Murray, Brian Cox, Seymour Cassel and Mason Gamble

 

Rated R, 93 min.

 

One of my all-time favorite movie character clichés has to be the underachieving child prodigy. While these characters are shown to be in possession of all the tools for unlimited success, they often languish scholastically while excelling in their numerous mischievous endeavors. I guess I can identify. See, throughout most of my own education I was often one of the top 10-15 students in my class. The term “ego stroking” doesn’t do justice to the type of praise that was heaped upon me during these days. Being on the honor roll and being chosen for advanced placement classes were all part of my routine for a long time. I was even a Boy Scout, for Christ’s sake! People I had never even met knew me by name and had long-range plans for me that I had yet to even consider.

 

Then something happened. Somewhere along the line, activities that took place outside of school seemed more interesting than what was going on inside. I started chasing girls, I got my license, and I quit the Scouts. As a result, I paid just enough attention in class to scrape by or I had some hottie do my homework for me if I even bothered to get it done at all. Suddenly, there was a negative stigma attached to my name around the halls that once adored me. It wasn’t uncommon to hear my name and the words “troublemaker”, “difficult” or even “miscreant” in the same sentence. Not completely gone were the compliments like “exceptional”, “natural talent” or “unlimited potential” but they were often in the ‘Remarks’ section of my report cards next to simply abysmal grades.

 

I never completely came out of that funk. To this day, it’s still much easier to concentrate and do the things that I want to do as opposed to doing the things that I may not like but have to do. You can understand how this attitude would become frustrating to close family members and spouses. It’s not uncommon for me to “forget” to do something they consider important because I am engrossed in a personal side project that’s beneficial to no one but myself. I’m sorry but it’s just easier to get “up” for starting a new screenplay or something else similarly creative than it is to go pay the electric bill. Excuuuuuuuse me.

 

Once someone I considered a friend told a girl something about me. It was a sort of warning. “Don’t listen to him. He never talks to anyone unless he has some sort of ulterior motive.” I was hurt to hear those words at first, but damned if ain’t true sometimes. I had to remove ol’ Dave from my “buddy list”, though.

 

THE MOVIE:

 

Fifteen year-old Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman) is the same type of character I am. The son of a local barber, Max attends the prep-school, Rushmore Academy, on an academic scholarship. (he wrote a one-act play about Watergate when he was in the second grade that his mother showed to Rushmore’s Headmaster, Dr. Guggenheim) Max loves Rushmore with all his heart. When one character questions Max about the secret to his happiness, Max replies, “Find something you love to do and do it for the rest of your life. For me, it’s going to Rushmore.” Max takes part in and heads up just about every extracurricular activity at Rushmore Academy: the fencing club, the bee-keeping club, yearbook editor and The Max Fischer Players, his theatrical troupe, just to name a scant few.

 

Max Fischer looks very much like your stereotypical movie nerd. He dresses eccentrically, his body movements are a bit awkward and his bushy black eyebrows peeking over his large thick-rimmed glasses don’t help his cause at all. But where Max differs from his movie peers is that he is an extrovert and very vocal. He’s unshy, sophisticated and his gift of gab makes him a dangerous manipulator and schemer. His skills as an organizer surely can not be disputed. Still, he remains somewhat of a misfit and outsider at his school.

 

At a school assembly, Max is inspired by the words of the guest speaker, benefactor and Rushmore alum, Herman Blume (Bill Murray). After the assembly, Max takes the time to introduce himself to Blume and the young go-getter suitably impresses Blume. After Max walks away, Dr. Guggenheim informs Blume that Max is “one of the worst students we’ve got.”

 

Despite his incomparable drive and boundless energy, Max has precious little time for studying because of his other pursuits and thus receives extremely poor grades. His arch nemesis, Dr. Guggenheim places him on “sudden death” academic probation; fail one more test and he will be expelled from the academy. Slick-talker that he is, this doesn’t shake Max one bit. Max first asks for some “documentation” and then offers, should he fail another test, to stay on at Rushmore and complete a post-graduate year. “We don’t have a post-graduate program, Max.” “Not yet,” he replies. Max is so used to politicking and using his silver-tongued persuasion skills, he believes he can talk his way out of anything and get his way. When this meeting ends, however, his probation still stands.

 

While at the school library, Max finds an inspirational passage scrawled in the margin of a book he is reading and sets about finding out who’s responsible. His investigation leads him to Rushmore first-grade teacher, Rosemary Cross (Olivia Williams, The Postman). Max is immediately smitten. He makes small talk with Miss Cross, saying all the right things in an attempt to impress her and at the same time glean information from her about her interests. Most importantly, he finds out that Miss Cross is a recent widow. Her husband died a year ago and she currently lives in his old room, thinking about him and missing him every day. It’s apparent that she in lonely and could use a friend.

 

When Miss Cross expresses her disappointment in Rushmore removing Latin from their curriculum, Max starts a petition and gets the archaic language he once vehemently spoke out against, re-instated and made mandatory to win some brownie points with her. See, when Max sets his mind on something and he has the proper motivation, it almost always gets done.

 

Meanwhile, Max and the business tycoon, Henry Blume continue their budding friendship. Max and Blume are like two sides of the same coin. There is a definite mutual admiration. Blume sees a bit of himself in young Max and I’m sure Max sees the same in the more experienced Blume. Blume is miserable in his personal life, however, despite his wealth. He doesn’t get along very well with his wife and he has two oafish sons that also attend Rushmore with Max. One of the funniest lines in the movie is when Blume says, “Never in my wildest imagination did I ever dream I’d have sons like these.” When he says it, it is anything BUT complimentary. Blume would probably give anything to start over and be a kid again like Max, while Max wants nothing more than to be an adult and successful like his mentor Blume.

 

Because Blume and Miss Cross are such good friends with Max, they also end up acquainted with one another. When that acquaintance transforms into a romance, a comical power struggle breaks out between Blume and Max for Miss Cross’ affections. Actually, it becomes an all-out, no-holds-barred WAR. The ensuing battles only go show you how much these two lonely characters truly mirror one another in attitude and in method. Both are used to getting their way, so neither will give up easily. Who ends up capturing Miss Cross’ heart? The winner may surprise you.

 

THE DVD:

 

The extras are in abundance here for a single disc. This disc is packed.

 

This disc was already released under the Disney/Buena Vista banner once before and the image quality is noticeably different. It is much better on this Criterion version and presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen. But for some reason, while this disc contains the entire, uncut theatrical trailer, the quality is terrible. It looks like it would look in the theater; grainy, scratched and with marks and holes all over the place. The Buena Vista trailer was edited but much much cleaner in appearance.

 

One of my favorite DVD extras has to be the audio commentary when and if it’s available. But there is nothing I loathe more than Criterion’s commentary tracks. Criterion has a very bad habit of advertising commentaries with multiple cast members and then not delivering. Well, it’s not that they don’t deliver but they don’t quite execute it the way you think they would. Rushmore boasts an audio commentary by director Wes Anderson, co-writer and frequent co-collaborator Owen Wilson and star Jason Schwartzman. Now, one would expect to hear all three of these individuals in a room, commenting on the film, talking to and playing off of one another, right? This is NEVER the case with Criterion. What they do instead is, record each person by themselves and edit the commentaries together into one. So not only do the participants never talk to each other but you only get the comments that Criterion thinks should be included. Criterion really needs to shape up in this area. They’re missing the boat on the fun that could be had by sticking three co-workers in the same room behind a live mic.

 

A cool extra included on this disc are some shorts by The Max Fischer Players for the 1999 MTV Movie Awards. They do their “adaptations” of Armageddon, The Truman Show and Out Of Sight. These are quite hilarious. It’s a shame they are so short. Also included is an entire episode of the Charlie Rose Show with Wes Anderson and Bill Murray (I guess this sorta makes up for him not being included on the commentary track), cast audition footage, Anderson’s hand drawn storyboards and lots and lots of pictures of props, cast members and other useless paraphernalia. There is also a “Making Of…” documentary but it’s helmed by the director’s brother Eric Chase Anderson and it has to be the longest, driest documentary I have EVER had the displeasure of sitting through. That’s saying a lot considering that most documentaries are equally as long and bland. It’s obvious that it isn’t just a promotional piece, that’s for sure. It’s more like Eric chose to film every single day of shooting and only included the most boring days and trivial backstage happenings. Skip it unless you’re battling a bout of insomnia.

 

IMO:

 

After the promise shown in Bottle Rocket, critics were expecting Wes Anderson to come with the thunder for his sophomore release, Rushmore. I’d say he didn’t disappoint. If you enjoy off-beat, dark and quirky comedies then Rushmore is for you. Even if you don’t enjoy the movie’s central theme, you will at least have to enjoy the individual performances. I believe this is Jason Schwartzman’s first major role and he plays it so well it’s almost scary. I don’t know if it’s a good idea for you to write your main character so that half of your viewing audience wants to slap the piss out of him at times, but that’s a minor quibble. Who cares if this 15 year old is so single-minded and relentless in his pursuit of an older woman that he often comes off like a stalker? This movie is laugh out loud funny. I think the absurdity of a young boy chasing a woman nearly twice his age and competing with a grown man for her makes for some hilarious moments and it does. It’s very subtle but also notice how roles are often reversed in this film: the children act and talk like adults, while the adults are the ones who act like children.

 

Acting chops certainly seem to run in Schwartzman’s family: his mother is Talia Shire (of Rocky and The Godfather fame), sister to Francis Ford Coppola, which would make Coppola Jason’s uncle and Nicolas Cage his cousin. And speaking of acting chops, Bill Murray turns in the performance of his career here. I know what comes to mind when you think of Bill Murray but this is not the Murray you will see in Rushmore. Murray leaves that comfort zone of doing what we expect of him and actually acts. He acted so well that Touchstone opened Rushmore early and in limited release in December of 1998 in New York so that Murray would be able to qualify for Best Supporting Actor at the Academy Awards that year. (it got a wider release in February of 1999) The Academy snubbed Murray regardless, but it was their loss; I think he was robbed. He really deserved an Oscar here.

 

Also of note are the great supporting cast: Mason Gamble (Dennis the Menace) as Max’s chapel partner and constant cohort, Dirk Calloway. Dirk is like Smithers to Max’s Mr. Burns; it’s quite the funny master/manservant relationship they have going on at such a young age. Newcomer Sara Tanaka plays Margaret Yang, a student who is interested in Max at another school but who is always cruelly ignored. Another newcomer is Stephen McCole who plays Magnus Buchan, a Scottish bully at the ivy-covered Rushmore Academy. Brian Cox is outrageous as Dr. Guggenheim; he seems on the verge of either a nervous breakdown or full cardiac arrest every time he has to deal with Max Fischer. You can almost count Max’s ambitious and realistic school plays as a supporting cast member. His adaptations of Serpico and Heaven and Earth are a riot.

 

FINAL THOUGHTS:

 

Bill Murray said he has only read three scripts in his career that he felt needed no changes to be made: Mad Dog & Glory, Groundhog Day and Rushmore. I tend to agree with him. Rushmore is perfect for what it is. If you’re a fan of very dry and wry wit, then Rushmore is a keeper. It gets sorta sappy at the end and some of the characters do things that seem out of character for them for no explained reason, but I can deal with those flaws when you get smart-ass dialogue like this:

 

Max: I like your nurse’s uniform, guy.

 

Peter: These are OR scrubs.

 

Max: O R they?

 

A Highly Recommended and stacked Criterion release.

 

O. R. Polk, Jr.