"She's My Rushmore, Max"

Yesterday I watched the movie "Rushmore"...one of four films by my favorite filmmaker Wes Anderson. On the surface the film is a somewhat nonchalant comedy about a tenth grader named Max (played by Jason Schwartsman) who is both an overachevier and underachiever. Max is the head or founder of several clubs and a successful playwright at an elite and expensive prep school known as "Rushmore", a school where, even though he is the son of a barber, he attends because of a scholarship. He's smart, articulate, and definitely is a nerd, at least in appearance. However, he is also one of Rushmore's "worst students"...he spends so much time being active in the many activities that he enjoys that he doesn't take the time to study and consistently fails his classes (to the point of being threatened with expulsion). Max is later befriended by the father of two Rushmore students, (who happen to be a very disapointing and unlikible set of twins) Herman Blume (a self-made but melancholy millionare played by Bill Murray). Max proceeds to develop a crush on Mrs. Cross...a first grade teacher at Rushmore, a complicated enough situation before Blume begins to pursure her as well (setting up the main point of conflict for the first half of the film).

This post is not so much about the film however, as it is an examination of a crucial thought that enters the forefront of the picture. It's importiant to note that for Max, Rushmore was his life. His desire and goal was to spend the rest of his life as a student there...enjoying everything that the school offered (except of course, the strictly academic). At the mid point of the film, the definition of what "rushmore" is seems to take a dramatic turn in a broader and somewhat philosophical direction. Max and Herman are at the climax of their conflict over Mrs. Cross (whom Max finally begins to flirt with the acceptance of the reality of his slim chances of ever hooking up with) Murray's character mutters the defining line of the film: "She's My Rushmore Max"...to which Max (who at this point had been finally expelled from Rushmore for academic failure) promptly turns and replies (while walking away)..."She's mine too".

And just like that, through a very simple exchange...a rather profound, yet commonly experenced concept is introduced into the film, creating a conceptual tremor that alters the scope and meaning behind the story. "Rushmore" is more than a school to both Max and Herman...it represents a common affliction experenced thoughout mankind. A search for meaning, a defining experence, happiness, salvation, or desired identity that requires the attainment of a certian thing, or certian status. In my own life this exchange highlights many things that I have avidly pursued, thinking that finally I will have a true identity, a true level or satisfaction. Many others that I have known, in fact everyone I have known, has experenced the pursuit of a "rushmore"...which is always done though a dead end route (such as in wealth, power, a certian job, a certian title, a relashonship with the opposite sex...among other things).

Today I realized that the name Rushmore, coincidentally or not, is intended to invoke the image of this very concept. The name Rushmore in the minds of most Americans represents power, wealth, status, and the status of psuedo-divinity that has been given to the four faces that are carved out of a mountian in South Dakota. I don't think that the title of the film, the school, and the word's appearance in the film's defining line, is merely a random occurence. Anderson is chipping away at something that defines us in our imperfect humanity. We all have our rushmores, for better or for worse...I think, for worse, because the pursuit of these things never, as least as far as I can tell from my experences, and the experences of people I know, lead to true satisfaction. The film ends in a lighthearted way, but it ends with many of the characters seeming deeply disastisfied...in one way the protagonist has won out over the antagonist...but the underlying antagonist of the film...the rushmore concept...still has the upper hand.

This is something that I am thinking about a great deal right now. I hope to write more on it soon.

- Jordan