Great Character: Max Fischer (“Rushmore”)
Today’s Great Character post is a guest column from longtime GITS follower Jason Cuthbert and is part of a month-long series on notable teenage characters.
Prior to the release of Rushmore in 1998, the career of its director and co-screenwriter, the wizard of whimsy — Wes Anderson — and his reoccurring associates was drastically different. Wes only had one modestly budgeted film — the cult classic crime comedy Bottle Rocket, also known as Owen Wilson’s acting and screenwriting debut. Also, Jason Schwartzman, the leading man (or leading teen) in Rushmore had no prior acting experience.
This is hard to believe after watching Schwartzman transform into Max Fischer, the prerequisite for overachieving high schoolers that would fit right in as Anthony Michael Hall in a John Hughes film. This unforgettably charming performance grew a new branch in the brilliantly fertile Coppola Family Tree of Cinema, that includes Schwartzman’s mother Talia Shire, uncle Francis Ford Coppola, and cousins Nicolas Cage, Sofia Coppola and Roman Coppola.
Rushmore plot summary from IMDB:
The king of Rushmore prep school is put on academic probation.
Max Fischer is an ideal and very real teen protagonist in that he measures his self-worth on attention, stubbornly believes that he knows better than adults and is incapable of accepting the word “no” in reference to any of his whims. This eccentric son of a blue-collar barber is a clear underdog among the more wealthy elite at his prep school — Rushmore Academy — and makes up for his limited income with maximum talent. Wes Anderson paints Max’s army-of-one perfectly early on by showcasing his 19 extra school activities in under 2 minutes — most hilariously with the dodge ball organization Max founded — the Bombardment Society.
In Max Fischer’s mind, he is the rightful royal king of Rushmore Academy, and he refuses to let his mere 15 years on Earth prevent him from claiming a much older queen. When he is not trying to impress…more like flirt… with his best friend’s mother, Max makes a militant move to unsuccessfully convince the first grade-teaching widow Rosemary Cross (Olivia Williams) that he is the boy of her dreams. Max lost his mother, so that emotional scar tissue must make this twice-his-age Rushmore teacher Ms. Cross seem like the perfect broken heart transplant.
But what happens to Max when he is expelled from Rushmore, a place he bases his entire reason for living around, reveals who he really is — a hurt kid relentlessly seeking validation. This is why the humor feels so natural, because the comedy is derived directly from the repeated conflicts that arise when Max’s “Master of Rushmore” dream state clashes head-on with the way that things really are, including the rules that Max has no intention of following.
Max’s unreciprocated infatuation for Rosemary Cross accelerates to the point where he gives up all the endless activities that he once loved to make room for adopting all the ones that she loves.
ROSEMARY CROSS: Has it ever crossed your mind that you’re far too young for me?
MAX FISCHER: It crossed my mind that you might consider that a possibility, yeah.
Max even uses his contagious go-getter charisma to convince his older ally and Rosemary’s appropriately-aged admirer Herman Blume (Bill Murray) to blow his 7-figure savings on a massive project in Ms. Cross’s honor.
MAX FISCHER: How the hell did you get so rich? You’re a quitter, man!
HERMAN BLUME: I spent eight million dollars on this.
Max Fischer: And is that all you’re willing to spend?
But when Herman creeps out of Ms. Cross’ house after a late night of physical pleasure, he finds Max in the backseat of his Bentley — fuming.
MAX FISCHER: I saved Latin, what did you ever do?
Max made it his mission in life to keep Latin, what he once called a “dead language”, from ending at Rushmore only per Ms. Cross’ appreciation of it. In his mind — this should have become worldwide headlines on CNN. If you let Max tell it — Blume was just old enough for Ms. Cross to not go to prison for sleeping with. Never mind his million dollar company — what has Blume done specifically to win Ms. Cross’ heart?
Even getting kicked out of Rushmore for turning their baseball field into a public aquarium for Ms. Cross and her openly dating Blume won’t stop Max from seeking vengeance for his trampled feelings.
Another example of Max Fischer’s sour affection erupting into self-righteous disrespect occurs when he meets Miss Cross’ male friend from Harvard.
Under less talented circumstances, Rushmore could have easily digressed into a kooky farce about some arrogant, annoying, bi-polar brat with an unreasonable psychopath-in-training feeling of entitlement. But under the enchanting spell of Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson’s amiable screenplay, which enticed Bill Murray enough to get him on board, Wes’s modern fairy tale directing style, and Jason Schwartzman’s break through performance — Max Fischer manages to remain on our good side.
We get to witness Max’s repeated rejections from those that Max wants to be respected by, making his spunky overreactions easier to understand — and almost admirable. Even when he lies about everything from “hand jobs” and getting hit by cars, we understand that Max is just overcompensating for losing the things and people that mean the most to him.
Sometimes the only way to not feel completely lost in life is to just keep moving forward blindly. For his impenetrable determination, influential attitude and precocious desire to be loved — Max Fischer is a remarkably GREAT CHARACTER.
Max is a good representative of what we often see in teenage Protagonists: Whip-smart and seemingly mature beyond their years, and yet possessing a youthful part of their psyche which is unfulfilled and unprocessed, leading to an opening state of Disunity. On a psychological level, the story becomes about the character finding a balance between two disparate psyche states. A interesting companion piece to Rushmore would be Juno.
Thanks to Jason for this guest post. See you in comments to talk about Rushmore.