Rushmore (1998)

The extracurricular king of Rushmore Preparatory School is put on academic probation.

Director:

Wes Anderson

Writers:

Wes Anderson, Owen Wilson

Stars:

Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Olivia Williams

Nominated for 1 Golden Globe. Another 16 wins & 15 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
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
Dipak Pallana	...	Mr. Adams (as Deepak Pallana)
Andrew Wilson	...	Coach Beck
Marietta Marich	...	Mrs. Guggenheim
Ronnie McCawley	...	Ronny Blume
Keith McCawley	...	Donny Blume

Storyline

Max Fischer is a precocious 15-year-old whose reason for living is his attendance at Rushmore, a private school where he's not doing well in any of his classes, but where he's the king of extracurricular activities - from being in the beekeeping society to writing and producing plays, there's very little after school he doesn't do. His life begins to change, however, when he finds out he's on academic probation, and when he stumbles into love with Miss Cross, a pretty teacher of the elementary school at Rushmore. Added to the mix is his friendship with Herman Blume, wealthy industrialist and father to boys who attend the school, and who also finds himself attracted to Miss Cross. Max's fate becomes inextricably tied to this odd love triangle, and how he sets about resolving it is the story in the film.

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Plot Keywords:

love triangle | high school | vietnam war veteran | national film registry | coming of age film | 

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Taglines:

"She was my Rushmore"

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language and brief nudity

Did You Know?

Trivia

The film was originally going to be made by New Line Cinema, but they couldn't agree on a budget. Wes Anderson, Owen Wilson, and producer Barry Mendel held an auction for the film's rights in mid 1997 and struck a deal with Joe Roth, who was then chairman of Walt Disney Studios. A budget of $10 million was agreed upon.

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Goofs

When Ms. Cross is grading papers in the library, before Max comes to refill her lemonade, she grades a paper with a yellow paper under it, and her smiley face stamp to the right of her hand. In the next shot when Max refills her lemonade there is no yellow paper under the one she is grading, and her smiley face stamp is far off to her left.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Student: If, and only if, both sides of the numerator is divisible by the inverse of he square root of the two unassigned variable.
School Professor: Good. Except when the value of the "X" coordinate is equal to or less than the value of one. Yes Isaac?
Student: What about *that* problem?
School Professor: Oh, that? Don't worry about that.
Student: Wait. Why?
School Professor: I just put that up as a joke. That's probably the hardest geometry equation in the world.
Student: Well, how much extra credit is it worth?
School Professor: Well, considering I've never seen anyone get it right, ...

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Connections

Featured in The 19th Annual the Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor: Celebrating Bill Murray (2016)

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Soundtracks

Blinuet
Written by George Handy
Published by Windswept Pacific Songs (BMI)
Performed by Zoot Sims
Courtesy of MCA Records
Under license from Universal Music Special Markets
(From the 1956 album "That Old Feeling")

User Reviews

Very well written, acted and directed.

Well I saw this movie some time ago. It's in the style of Wes Anderson's later movies , "The Royal Tenenbaums" and "Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou". The movie is a bit surrealistic and sour but the humor is deep and when you think back about this movie you can remember lots of it's jokes like how the main character, Marx Fischer used Latin in his latest play. Bill Murray was just as great as in his other Anderson movies. If you're looking for a comedy where you laugh at every scene this is not the movie but as a surrealistic comedy the movie is great. Also I liked some of the music in the film for example Rolling Stones and Cat Stevens. I think that Wes Anderson is a really special director and his style is of that kind that not nearly all of people like his movies.

Mr. Hawkins

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Spanish Latin French

Release Date:

19 February 1999 (USA)

Also Known As:

Rushmore

Filming Locations:

Forest Club - 9950 Memorial Drive, Houston, Texas, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$9,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$43,666, 13 December 1998

Gross USA:

$17,105,219

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$17,196,103

Company Credits

Production Co:

American Empirical Pictures, Touchstone Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

93 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1