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VINTAGE MOVIES

Vintage Movies: “Rushmore”

MAGNET contributing writer Jud Cost is sharing some of the wealth of classic films he’s been lucky enough to see over the past 40 years. Trolling the backwaters of cinema, he has worked up a list of more than 500 titles—from the silent era through the ’90s—that you may have missed. A new selection, all currently available on DVD, appears every week.

Rushmore (1998, 93 minutes)

Blending elements of troubled teenager Holden Caulfield from J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher In The Rye with the ultimate daydreamer described in Keith Waterhouse’s Billy Liar, Rushmore features a 15-year-old kid so self-assured, he seems, at times, to move the adults in the picture around as if they were chess pieces.

An advanced math teacher is droning on to his class at Rushmore Academy: “The value of the X coordinates are equal to or less than the value of one.” He points at a kid with his hand up. “What about that equation?” the student asks, gesturing toward a complex problem on an adjacent chalk board.

“That’s the hardest geometry equation in the world,” says the teacher. “How much extra credit is it worth?” asks another student. The teacher responds, “Well, considering I’ve never seen anyone get it right, including my mentor at M.I.T., Dr. Leaky, I’d see to it that none of you would ever have to open another math book for the rest of your lives.”

Singling out a student dressed in school blazer and tie reading the Wall Street Journal through horn-rimmed glasses, the teacher says, “Max? Care to try it?” Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman) strides to the front of the class and catches the chalk tossed by the instructor. Ten minutes later, after blanketing the blackboard with his work, he turns around. “You’ve done it!” says the teacher in admiration. With cries of “Fisher! Fisher!” his classmates hoist Max to their shoulders and carry him like a football hero. Suddenly, the precocious teenager sits bolt upright in bed.

Local industrialist Herman Blume (Bill Murray) speaks to the student body in Rushmore’s chapel, a few days later: “You guys have it real easy. I never had it like this where I grew up. For some of you, it doesn’t matter. You were born rich and you will stay rich for the rest of your lives. For the rest of you, take dead aim at the rich boys. Get them in your cross-hairs and take them down. Remember, they can buy anything, but they can’t buy backbone.”

Max approaches Blume in the quad afterward and raves about his speech. “Sharp little guy,” remarks Blume to the school’s president, Dr. Guggenheim (Brian Cox). “He’s one of the worst students we’ve got,” reveals Guggenheim. Max’s problem is extra-curricular activities. From directing the Max Fischer Players to his membership in the French club, the debate team, the calligraphy club and the Rushmore beekeepers, Max’s dance card is overloaded. “I’m putting you on academic ‘sudden death,'” says Guggenheim to Max. “Maybe I’ll stay on for a post-graduate year,” Max replies. “We don’t offer a post-graduate year,” says Guggenheim. No problem for Max, who considers unwelcome reality bites as nothing more than an occasional speed bump in the road of life.