criterionforum.org

Rushmore



The dazzling sophomore film from Wes Anderson 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; it captures the pain and exuberance of adolescence with wit, emotional depth, and cinematic panache.

Disc Features

- New high-definition digital transfer of the director’s cut supervised by director Wes Anderson
- Audio commentary by Anderson, cowriter Owen Wilson, and actor Jason Schwartzman
- The Making of “Rushmore,” an exclusive behind-the-scenes documentary by Eric Chase Anderson
- Max Fischer Players Present: Theatrical “adaptations” of Armageddon, Out of Sight, and The Truman Show, staged for the 1999 MTV Movie Awards
- Episode of The Charlie Rose Show featuring Anderson and actor Bill Murray
- Cast audition footage
- Wes Anderson’s hand-drawn storyboards, plus a film-to-storyboard comparison
- Props, posters, behind-the-scenes photos, and other graphic ephemera
- Original theatrical trailer
- Collectible poster
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Dave Kehr

DVD:
Criterionforum.org user rating averages

Feature currently disabled
Blu-ray:
Criterionforum.org user rating averages

Feature currently disabled

milk114 wrote:And I wonder if there's any relevance to the Cousteau book in Rushmore to Anderson's new thingie. I'm gonna have to rewatch this film this weekend, if nothing else just to see Dennis the Menace playing war hero (that kid is a brilliant actor and needs to do some high school angsty-sci fi-comedy-drama here real quick... match him up with jena malone).

I believe so. Water in some form or another seems to be a repeating motif in Anderson's movies. In Bottle Rocket, Anthony and Inez share their first kiss in a swimming pool. And, of course, there are the countless references in Rushmore. The Cousteau book, Max wanting to build an acquarium, he and Dirk watching an educational film about fish of the ocean, Ms. Cross reading Kidnapped to her class.... It's been awhile since I've seen The Royal Tenenbaums but, if memory serves, as the film begins, Richie is on a cruise in Alaska (?). Not sure....

At any rate, it's a pre-occupation of Anderson's for quite some time so it's nice to see him deal with it head on with Life Aquatic.

He's on a round-the-world cruise. And in Rushmore and Tenenbaums (and bottle rockets as well?) there is the scene of jumping into the pool in slow motion and sinking... though used for two different emotional purposes. Murray sinks down and in a sense doesn't want to come up while Hackman and Stiller's two sons sink down for the "joy" of coming up b/c they have just been united with their grandfather. Also Paltrow in the bathtub. Too bad for the MTV awards adverts Anderson had the Rushmore Players do the scene in the trunk instead of in the bathtub from Out of Sight.

Doesn't in Jungian interpretation water infers the subconscious or dreams? So the desire to drown in water (thinking Murray in the pool at the twin's party) would mean... unfulfilled dreams?

In Bottle Rocket, Anthony goes into the water and comes out finding his future love, Inez. I suppose it cna apply with dreams (finding his dream girl).

I think the water in Rushmore for Max was meant to start a new adventure starting, thanks to Cousteau's book, in finding the mystery of who wrote the quote. For Murray, I think he's just wanted ot avoid reality, stay under the water and avoid what's actually going on in life. I think Anderson's water causes the story to move forward, causing characters to change and esperince new things. Like in TRT, the water is almost a thing of sadness. The water surronding Richie seperates him from the rest of society where his the famour Baumer. Instead, he's just an other passanger in the ship.

I have yet to see Life Aquatic (I live in L.A., but all the way on the other part of town from where they are showing it so I don't have the time to go to where they are showing it) so I can't wait untill Christmas to go see it.

I think Anderson's preoccupation with water has something to with his fixation on Nichols' The Graduate. Water is used in that film to imply imprisonment, which many of Anderson's characters share. Just my two cents though.

javelin wrote:I think Anderson's preoccupation with water has something to with his fixation on Nichols' The Graduate. Water is used in that film to imply imprisonment, which many of Anderson's characters share. Just my two cents though.

Definitely. I also think that he has a preoccupation with Harold and Maude--Rushmore has the same kind of vibe as Hal Ashby's film.

I was wondering if anyone has had any issues playing this disc in their DVD players? I have a relatively new (1 year old) Malata player that has never not played a disc, but when this was put in it refused to go to the main menu. When tried in my iMac it played fine, so obviously something is up with the disc's pressing or something closely related.

If it plays fine in one player and not at all in another, it isn't the disc that's faulty, hate to tell ya.

CSM126 wrote:If it plays fine in one player and not at all in another, it isn't the disc that's faulty, hate to tell ya.

It can be - some of my players are more tolerant of fingerprints and scratches than others. I have a disc that point-blank refuses to play on any of my Macs, but it's absolutely fine on my domestic player.

The other issue is that it was the first time I ever played the disc; it was fresh out of the packaging.

My first DVD player, an RCA one I purchased in 1998, would not play Disney cartoon films when they first were released (like Pinnochio), but it would play all others. I know that such issues as these crop up, but it seems unusual when this disc is fairly old and it will not play on a new player.

Is this DVD out of print or hard to find? I can't find it anywhere.

teddyleevin wrote:Is this DVD out of print or hard to find? I can't find it anywhere.

It's available at a number of places. DVDEmpire.com, DeepDiscount.com, Overstock.com and Buy.com all have it.

I found mine at a Hastings a couple weeks ago. But I definitely don't see it too often.

A lot of recent/contemporary films begin to lose their mass appeal after a few years of being in release, and stores begin to pull them to make room for faster sellers. Rushmore is a modern classic to be sure, but its a $40 DVD that came out seven years ago, and shelf space it at a premium.
Shopping online is a whole lot cheaper anyway.

dave41n wrote:

teddyleevin wrote:Is this DVD out of print or hard to find? I can't find it anywhere.

It's available at a number of places. DVDEmpire.com, DeepDiscount.com, Overstock.com and Buy.com all have it.

Thanks for posting direct links to the DVD itself. I really appreciate it.

I feel like I must've stolen mine: I got it about five years ago at K-Mart in a shrink-wrapped two-pack along with High Fidelity, for, I think, $24. I sold High Fidelity later for eight bucks...

waxy wrote:I feel like I must've stolen mine: I got it about five years ago at K-Mart in a shrink-wrapped two-pack along with High Fidelity, for, I think, $24. I sold High Fidelity later for eight bucks...

That's odd. I remember that being the non-CC edition of Rushmore in that 2-fer. Lucky you.

According to Michael's Movie Mayhem, this is going out of print.

wat

Maybe it's going to be repackaged as a Blu-Ray/new 2-disc re-release?

Yeah Rushmore is no longer available from Amazon, but Criterion.com and some other stores still have it as available, should I purchase it now? Did Criterion lose the rights or is it more likely a new release is a future possibility? They seem to be taking over Wes Anderson's films, all they need now is Darjeeling.

I can't see Rushmore as a potential film for rerelease. The DVD Criterion put out is great. I guess the only reason would be that Criterion somehow wants the film to match their other Anderson releases (in that it should also, needlessly, be a 2-disc release).

From Mulvaney: "As far as I know, 'Rushmore' is not going out of print, and we actually have plenty of copies in stock and ready to purchase at our online store."

Cash Flagg wrote:From Mulvaney: "As far as I know, 'Rushmore' is not going out of print, and we actually have plenty of copies in stock and ready to purchase at our online store."

Cool beans.

Amazon only has it available thru outside sellers on the Used and New button, and quite a few of those sellers are desribing it as OOP.