RUSHMORE

US, 1998, 93 minutes, Colour.
Bill Murray, Olivia Williams, Jason Schwartzman, Seymour Castle, Bryan Cox, Mason Gamble, Sarah Tenaka.
Directed by Wes Anderson.

Rushmore is the name of an exclusive preparatory school with a headmaster named Guggenheim (a museum name), a sad widow whose name is Cross. In the vicinity is a melancholy industrialist who needs to come alive and blossom, whose name is Blume. The central student at Rushmore (before he is expelled and has to enrol in the local high school) is Max Fischer. The British magazine Sight and Sound included with its review of Rushmore a still of Jason Schwartzman as Max with a caption ‘Good Will Hunter’. Max is an off-hand genius like Will Hunting and just as little geared to conformity. But Anderson names Max as Fischer – and that is what he does, casting his net and lines as diversely as possible. And Rushmore? Apart from the suggestion of increased hurrying, more rush, Rushmore is the mountain where the solemn carved faces of American presidents look out and stare, indicating decorum, wisdom and statesmanship. These are not the qualities Max brings to Rushmore.

Acknowledging a debt this time to the reviewer himself in Sight and Sound, I like his phrase to describe the film as ‘an off-kilter’ comedy.

Comedy looks at human foibles rather than the tragic flaw of the hero. It is not necessarily geared to catharsis, unless it is the purging of ill-humour by a good laugh. Rather, the foibles are magnified so that we see them in a brighter and bolder light and can acknowledge both their seriousness and the fact that we need not take them so seriously. After all, every human topic can be the subject of humour. Otherwise, we place the issue on a pedestal that is too exalted and make an idol of it. Admittedly, this can lead to some humour walking a tightrope, a balancing act between legitimate satire and good taste, something that more puritanical and evangelical traditions find it hard to appreciate. When the comedy is off-kilter, when the humour comes from unexpected angles or tangents, then audiences are not sure how to handle it.

Anderson (and his co-writer, actor Owen Wilson) tend to be more gentle in their satire.

Max Fischer is not exactly an Everyman figure. He is the intelligent nerd, dork or whatever the equivalent label is that changes each decade. He is not the gross-out type from, say, the American Pie series. However, he is not above undermining authority – especially Mr Guggenheim. He can be just as immature emotionally in his pursuit of Miss Cross and, while drunk, insult her companion. He can be the leader of the band, including his friend Calloway (callow way?) and the Korean student with whom he ends up, Margaret Yang (to his Ying?). But, there is something more about Max which, if harnessed, could lead to who knows where.

A smart entrepreneur, a clever writer and producer of plays, a sometimes shrewd interpreter of human nature, he is the opposite of the staid respectability of Rushmore. The complexity of the rights and wrongs of his character are best seen in his interactions with Mr Blume: liking him, using him, offending him, supporting him. Max is still ‘fisching’, so to speak, in his quest for his real self and for his direction in life. (Of course, he could make a mess of life and family as Anderson shows with Royal Tennenbaum and his genius but eccentric children or he could become a flawed celebrity like Steve Zissou – which may be what Anderson is telling us.)

After his first film, Bottle Rocket, which had very limited release, some critics were predicting a fresh, new talent. With Rushmore, they began to use the phrase ‘American classic’ and looked forward to his future films. Of course, the opposite approach is helpful: to understand a film in the light of its successors, to appreciate its performances in the light of subsequent roles and interpretations. The Royal Tennenbaums (full of Max Fischer types) illustrated the idiosyncrasies of genius but was also a cautionary tale about the insanity inherent in genius, the unfair psychological pressures of parental neglect and sibling rivalry. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou satirised the mad and obsessive quests of genius which can be self-destructive. In the light of these two films, Rushmore is a prelude in which Max could go either way: to achievement or to collapse.

Rushmore can also be appreciated by looking at the careers of Jason Schwartzman and Bill Murray in the years after this film. Casting directors saw the Max potential in Schwartzman and the possibilities of variations. In 2004, he was the ideal subject for the existential detectives to pursue to discover what his real identity was in I Heart Huckabees. He was also the drugged eccentric in Spun and Will Ferrell’s intensely unscrupulous agent in Bewitched.

Whether Rushmore began Bill Murray’s externally impassive, deeply melancholic phase or not, this is what Murray has excelled at – and won awards for. It is not a huge step from Mr Blume and his anxieties and seemingly stoic response to the disillusioned actor of Lost in Translation. Murray was Polonius in the contemporary Hamlet and voiced Garfield. Steve Zissou is another variation, although he has to go into action at times and is not beyond expressions of immature jealousy. However, along with Lost in Translation, his performance in Jim Jarmusch’s Broken Flowers, has become the admirable trademark of Bill Murray in his 50s. A glance, a minimalist shift in an eyebrow-raise can communicate a mood, a reaction, a character.

One of the words that is useful for describing Rushmore is ‘satire’. Anderson, however, is both an off-kilter and more gentle satirist. Satirists can be seen as moralists. This is not always immediately evident. Audiences can be so offended by the techniques and barbs of the satirists that they fail to see that the satirist is so angry with the status quo that the only way to make a point is to lambast, ridicule or spoof. Comedies like The Naked Gun series are easy to take as satires on police work. The jokes and caricatures are funny. When the subject is nuclear war (in the early 1960s in the aftermath of the Missiles of October) and the decisions of the president of the United States, satire can be unnerving or uncomfortable, although Kubrick succeeded with Dr Strangelove.

Wes Anderson is offering a portrait of 1990s America with the touch of satire. Tradition, like Rushmore, can be straitjacketing and, therefore, life threatening. In this context, Max Fischer is the rebel, the genius, the young man who might break the mould, even though he is often gauche in action, and release some creative energy that could make society more flexible, even visionary. Rushmore is easily able to highlight human foibles, mock them and appreciate them – a comedy. Since Max is still an adolescent in age and mentality, Rushmore is something of a pro-temp comedy for Wes Anderson.

1. The quality and status of the film? Critical acclaim?

2. Its use of genres, especially the youth genre, education, family? The eccentric genius and misfit? A piece of Americana?

3. The locations in the school, its appearance, the Ivy League and the comparisons with the high school? Homes, camp? The musical score? The range of songs on the soundtrack?

4. The title, the focus on the school, the indication of themes, reverence and irreverence? What the student could attain and what was unattainable?

5. Max, his age, appearance, brain, personality? His ability to solve mathematical problems? His daydreams? The contrast with reality? What is reality and what is dream? The collage of all the clubs and Max in action?

6. Reality and his scattered interests? His confrontations with the school principal? The issue of the scholarship? Expulsion?

7. His ability and inability to relate to others, to the various members of the staff, with Dirk as his assistant? (And his mother?)

8. Howard Blume and his speech, his background, his ethos? Audience reactions? Max’s reaction? The job offer? The collaboration? Blume’s wife and his sons? The Vietnam experience? The issue of the money for the aquarium?

9. His seeing Rosemary? Work, fascinated, developing a crush on her, talking to her, the friendship, going home, the fish and the discussions about the aquarium? His growing devotion and dedication? Her personality, her story? His escorting her? Her putting an end to his infatuation?

10. Max and his plays, rehearsal and performance, the impact? Max and his relationship with his father, the lies? The barber? The support – the final meeting and the truth?

11. The principal, his antagonism towards Max, Max and his confrontations? His illness? The visits to the hospital? Learning about Herman and Rosemary? The principal expelling Max because of the building of the aquarium, the use of the field? The contrast with the new school and Max and his teachers, support? His relationship with the other students? The Korean girl, a touch of rivalry as well as affection? His being tutored by Rosemary?

12. The on-and-off relationship with Rosemary, out, drinking, insulting her date? Fixing her up with Herman? His growing jealousy? Telling Herman’s wife? Her suing for divorce? Sabotage, malice or not?

13. His reconciliation with Herman, with Rosemary?

14. The interaction between Herman and Rosemary, Bill Murray’s style, delivery of lines, morose, reassessing his life and marriage? Rosemary as a widow, her charming personality?

15. The Vietnam play, the performance, everybody present? Max’s achievement? Max and Margaret and their going together?

16. A phase in Max’s life – the possibilities for his future?