Product Description

Wes Anderson's dazzling sophomore effort is equal parts coming-of-age story, French New Wave homage, and screwball comedy. Tenth grader Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman) is Rushmore Academy's most extracurricular student-and its least scholarly. He faces expulsion, and enters into unlikely friendships with both a lovely first-grade teacher (Olivia Williams) and a melancholy self-made millionaire (Bill Murray, in an award-winning performance). Set to a soundtrack of classic British Invasion tunes, Rushmore defies categorization even as it captures the pain and exuberance of adolescence with wit, emotional depth, and cinematic panache. Criterion is proud to present one of 1998's most acclaimed films in a Director Approved special edition.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12878 in DVD
• Brand: MURRAY,BILL
• Released on: 2000-01-18
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: AC-3, Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Special Edition, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 93 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
Wes Anderson's follow-up to the quirky Bottle Rocket is a wonderfully unorthodox coming-of-age story that ranks with Harold and Maude and The Graduate in the pantheon of timeless cult classics. Jason Schwartzman (son of Talia Shire and nephew of Francis Coppola) stars as Max Fischer, a 15-year-old attending the prestigious Rushmore Academy on scholarship, where he's failing all of his classes but is the superstar of the school's extracurricular activities (head of the drama club, the beekeeper club, the fencing club...). Possessing boundless confidence and chutzpah, as well as an aura of authority he seems to have been born with, Max finds two unlikely soulmates in his permutations at Rushmore: industrial magnate and Rushmore alumnus Herman Blume (Bill Murray) and first-grade teacher Rosemary Cross (Olivia Williams). His alliance with Blume and crush on Miss Cross, however, are thrown out of kilter by his expulsion from Rushmore, and a budding romance between the two adults that threatens Max's own designs on the lovely schoolteacher.

Never stooping to sentimentality or schmaltz, Anderson and cowriter Owen Wilson have fashioned a wickedly intelligent and wildly funny tale of young adulthood that hits all the right notes in its mix of melancholy and optimism. As played by Schwartzman, Max is both immediately endearing and ferociously irritating: smarter than all the adults around him, with little sense of his shortcomings, he's an unstoppable dynamo who commands grudging respect despite his outlandish projects (including a school play about Vietnam). Murray, as the tycoon who determinedly wages war with Max for the affections of Miss Cross, is a revelation of middle-aged resignation. Disgusted with his family, his life, and himself, he's turned around by both Max's antagonism and Miss Cross's love. Williams is equally affecting as the teacher who still carries a torch for her dead husband, and the superb supporting cast also includes Seymour Cassel as Max's barber father, Brian Cox as the frustrated headmaster of Rushmore, and a hilarious Mason Gamble as Max's young charge. Put this one on your shelf of modern masterpieces. --Mark Englehart

From The New Yorker
Wes Anderson's smart, refreshing picture is all about Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman), who is in the tenth grade at Rushmore Academy-or, to put it in Max's own terms, in heaven. He runs everything from the school beekeepers to the rather ambitious theatre group; he hangs out with Mr. Blume (Bill Murray), the father of a school friend; and, although his grades are woeful, Max compensates by falling in love with a teacher, Miss Cross (Olivia Williams). All is well until Blume, too, falls in love with Miss Cross; from here on, Max's world starts to come apart at the seams-not that you would know it from his big, blank, bespectacled face. The whole movie marks the triumph of the deadpan; Schwartzman is cautious but stubbornly optimistic, while Murray is possessed by the mania of near-despair, but neither kicks up much of a fuss. They make the best and most disconcerting odd couple that American movies have produced in a long while, and they lightly demolish the social hierarchy: how can Blume be Max's elder and better, when the child is so plainly the father of the man? Anderson finds the ideal comic rhythm for all this-sliding off the beat for a few surreal gags but always kicking back fast into the plot. As a result, what could have been merely arch or wacky turns into something more touching-a mature riff on the absurdity of growing up. -Anthony Lane
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Great Movie
I am a little surprised that so many other people failed to see the merits of this movie. First, this was not a typical predictable Hollywood movie with a predictable ending. Second, it was not a re-hash of some old story line with the same old actors. It is a very well written comedic coming of age movie. Few movies take the time or effort to develop complex, flawed and genuine characters, but director Wes Anderson apparently understands the value of doing so. The emotionally stagnating business tycoon Herman Blume is played brilliantly by Bill Murray - the disappointment he feels with his banal life and idiotic children is wrenchingly palpable. But Rushmore Academy student and quirky prodigy Max Fischer enters Herman Blume's dull life, renewing his enthusiam. The movie is both thought provoking and hilarious. Particularly enjoyable are Max's adaptations of "Serpico" and "Platoon" for the high-school drama club. Hands down this was the best comedy produced in the 90's. With the decade that produced MTV sex and bathroom joke frat boy movies, this film offers an intelligent script, cast of characters, and an excellent soundtrack.

WHIMSICAL COMING-OF-AGE ROMANTIC CAPER
What surprises me about Wes Andersen is that he is so in command of his silver screen he defies just about every convention of film making and still manages to come up with a riveting diversion of a movie. You know, that rare brand that makes you laugh but you're not exactly sure what you are laughing about. A movie with the mordant tone of Donnie Darko or The Royal Tennenbaums.

And Rushmore I'd contend is the most extraordinary feather in his illustrious cap to date. It is difficult to classify. Romance features as a pervasive undercurrent, full of mercurial dialogue and quirky moments, but it's not merely a romantic-comedy. It's not even your average angst-filled coming-of-age story. It's an oddity with a flowy screenplay that begs to be discovered individually, for oneself.

The acting all round is top notch. Schwatzman, our young protagonist, is very intriguing in his potrayal of an academically challenged overachiever. Murray delivers a rock solid sad-sack performance as usual, his long face speaking volumes.

The brand of subtle humour may not spring out to everyone but is hilarious when pondered over. For instance,

"Are you a neurosurgeon?"
"No, I'm a barber. But many people make that mistake."

It's anything but an ordinary movie, it does not follow the typical mindset of opening-body-conclusion and its funky vibe may not appeal to everyone. But if you have an appetite for the unusual, it's a very, very beautiful caper and all its weirdness makes perfect sense within its context.

Can't recommend it highly enough for the discerning eye.

"Rushmore" will restore your faith in movies
That's a bold statement, but it's true. I could complain about how Bill Murray and everyone involved was robbed by not receiving any Oscar nominations, but with a film like this, it doesn't matter. In a year with two Elizabethan dramas and two World War II pictures nomated for Best Picture, Rushmore stood out as a true original. I read glowing reviews for the movie when it played for one week in LA and missed it, but caught it the second time it came out. I was eager going into see it, having loved Wes Anderson's first movie "Bottle Rocket" (also, Owen Wilson co-wrote both scripts with Anderson). I was amazed at what I saw. This is definetly one of the funniest American movies in a long time, and Max Fischer is one of the great characters of all time. Wes Anderson has a sensibility in his films of dry humor paired with true emotions and feelings. The characters in "Bottle Rocket" and Max Fischer share naive dreams that are impossible, but they're so damn likable you're heartbroken when they come up short. For weeks, I couldn't stop talking or thinking about this movie. So many scenes still are fresh in my mind, like the introduction of Max in all of his clubs, and Bill Murray doing the cannonball into his backyard pool. The cinematography and editing are great, and the soundtrack rocks. In just two movies Anderson has set himself apart from the Tarantinos of the indie film world and has proved himself to be one of the best writers and directors working today.