Cross my Heart

In my first unit in my class named Ollywood, the students and I had the mindset as a screenwriter and a production designer for famous films. Instead of watching movies for fun, we had a notebook out and critiqued movies to see if they were successful. Some examples of movies and clips that we watched are Jaws, Star Wars, Jurassic Park, and Life of Pi. We looked for dynamic characters, if the backgrounds fit the subject, foreshadowing, and character's dialogue. It was interesting to watch a movie to fit certain requirements instead to have it serve as entertainment. We also went on a Field Experience to Lower Wacker Drive to act as location scouts. Location scouts are the people who find the location for a movie to be filmed at. There is a lot of thought to find the perfect place for a movie to be set at, but once you find the right place, it is rewarding to see it in action. For this Action Project, I critiqued a movie called Rushmore. I watched the movie twice. In the first watch, I paid more attention to the acting and context of the film. During the second viewing, I paid more attention to the dialogue. Enjoy the critique!

Rushmore by Wes Anderson is a dramatic and comedic masterpiece released in 1998 that beautifully depicts the art of production design.The movie immerses the audience on a love quest journey, making unexpected turns throughout the way.

Jason Schwartzman plays Max Fischer, the protagonist, who is an ambitious 15-year-old student at Rushmore Academy. He is the president of the French Club, manager of the Calligraphy Club, Co-Founder of the Kite Flying Society, and in lead of many other activities. Despite being a determined leader in more than fifteen clubs, he is flunking out of school. Max confesses his social struggle to his father on a walk home, wondering, “Maybe I'm spending too much of my time starting up clubs and putting on plays. I should probably be trying harder to score chicks. That's the only thing anybody really cares about. But, its not my forte, unfortunately.” Since Max doesn’t have a welcoming friend group at Rushmore, he gets along with his older comadres better. Bill Murray plays Max’s antagonist, Herman Blume, who is one of Rushmore’s biggest donors. Both Max and Herman fall in love with one of the new teachers, Miss Cross, played by Olivia Williams. Herman admits, “She’s my Rushmore”, making an analogy to how the school is Max’s whole life is similar to how Miss Cross has become his love of his life. Herman is smart with his words and uses it against Max to come out as the stronger, older man. The two men have the same desire to make Miss Cross theirs. The situation becomes hectic once they know each other’s plans to get closer with her, and try to foil each of their attempts. They both have their strengths and weaknesses to gain Miss Cross’ heart, but she ultimately doesn’t want any love relations with either of the two. This resolves Max and Herman’s friendship.

The screenwriters illustrated Max’s dynamic character of evolving from a powerful, mature friend to a vulnerable, lovesick teenager properly in the dinner scene with Max, Herman, Miss Cross, and Dr. John. After Max’s play, Miss Cross introduced Dr. John to Max. Although Dr. John compliments Max’s hard work, he is not happy to see a man with his crush. He expected to see Miss Cross alone, but this expectation is overthrown. Max tries to hide his feelings by talking smart and not showing any friendliness towards Dr. John. As the dinner scene starts, the drunk Max immediately begins to belittle Dr. John by commenting on his “nurse’s” uniform.” Dr. John defends himself and says,“They are O.R. scrubs.” Max smirks and hastily asks “Oh, are they?”. Herman laughs suddenly and wine goes up his nose, while Miss Cross is silently displeased. Herman realizes that he shouldn’t encourage the drunk behavior and tells Max to watch himself. Miss Cross angrily blames Max’s drunk, blunt remarks on Herman and says that he is the one who ordered the wine. Max continues to call Dr. John by pet names until Miss Cross calls him out on it. Max yells, “You hurt my feelings. This night was important to me!” Herman and Dr. John awkwardly stay silent and observe from the side. Confused, Miss Cross asks, “How did I hurt your feelings?”. Max screams, “Oh my god! I wrote a hit play!” The yelling causes a scene in the quiet restaurant. Max calms down and breathes out, showing his frustration. He looks into Miss Cross’ eyes and says, “ I’m in love with you.” John looks to Miss Cross. She is at a loss of words. Herman awkwardly looks to the distance. Max looks drunk and dejected. All in a span of a minute and forty-five seconds, this scene makes the audience grip the edge of their seat to see what happens next. Max’s feelings are depicted in an realistic and relatable effective way. When people see their crush with someone else, they instantly feel jealous and only want attention from the one they love. These feelings of expectations not going the way they were planned out to be in his mind erupts, making us wonder what will happen to make Max feel okay again.

Besides the wild story Rushmore tells, there is another layer of context that is not talked about by the characters. Wes Anderson’s films exist mostly in a white people environment. As Rushmore is very expensive, it is expected to see a lot of preppy kids rule the school. Max has a talk with the principal about how he gained a scholarship to attend Rushmore in second grade by writing an impressive play. He appreciates the opportunity to be able to go to a nice school without the worry of paying high tuition. He is violently bullied for being ambitious and outgoing, but that doesn’t stop him for doing what he loves. This nice world crashes down when Max has to transfer to a public school because of his slack in studies and harassment at Miss Cross. At the new school, his new love interest is Asian-American. Since he only saw white people at Rushmore, going to a public school was an eye opener for him that there are so many different people out there. Max comes from a working-class background, unlike his peers at Rushmore. He lies to everyone that his father is a brain surgeon, but he is actually a barber. He also deals with the loss of his mother, which we feel sorry for when he sits next to her grave when he is sad. The two different economic schools are realistic to how students feel when they attend schools that are in a higher class neighborhood than their own. The audience empathizes with Max’s two different personas at home and at school.

The production design of the movie has a lot of thought put into it and tells its own story by connecting the subject and the background. Rushmore is set in Houston, Texas. This is where Wes Anderson grew up as a child. Sunny, hot Texas is a beautiful place for the movie to set place. The location for the school is very green, pretty, and well kept. It looks more like a fancy college than a high school. The chapel is extremely elegant and fits the catholic school atmosphere. Miss Cross’ classroom looks very realistic, but also rich because of the many aquariums she has in there. All of Max’s clubs has props that fit the context of them. In beekeeping club, there are actual bees. In the racing club, there are carts. In the chess club, there are many chess boards. This makes the audience believe that the clubs are well taken care of and lead well by Max. At the end of the movie, we catch a glimpse inside of Miss Cross’ husband’s room. It has all of his old things in there, such as hanging planes, posters, and bed set. The props really wraps up how the husband’s personality was even though we never met him in the film. Being able to depict someone’s life with their bedroom is personal and lets the audience imagine the history of the room and its owner.

The costumes portrayed the characters successfully. In the student body, Max is the only student that wears a black, sleek Rushmore blazer everyday. Wearing this blazer everywhere is what keeps him prideful of being a Rushmore student. It is a surprise when he is not wearing it. The Rushmore students all wear light blue collared shirts and khakis, which makes them all look the same. This makes Max stand out. Although he transfers to a public school with no uniform policy, he wears it there too. This is similar to someone wearing their favorite sweater or hat all the time, as it keeps them sane and content. Miss Cross always wears something simple but professional, which goes along with her calm and quiet character. Herman is a very rich person, so we see him in a suit for most of the film. He starts to dress in more casual clothing once he is split from his wife, because he lost a lot to the divorce. We start to feel more sorry for Herman once we see the shabby side of his apparel because he doesn’t have to impress anyone with preppy clothing. The costumes are consistent to make us recognize the character’s style easily.

Although Rushmore is successful for its dynamic characters, costumes, props, and background, it fails at the production design and context connecting as a whole. The use of one race and same social class plays a huge role in the movie, and it could’ve been empathized to relate to real world problems.