65 Rushmore

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flyonthewall2983
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Re: 65 Rushmore

#126 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Fri Nov 02, 2018 7:12 pm

"I'm a barber's son" might be the most cutting line in any of Anderson's work. Max is so withdrawn at this point I feel like he alienates the audience briefly before Dirk returns to not-so-subtly remind the audience he's been the one person to see through all of Max's defenses and still accept him.

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Skrmng Skll Th Thd
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Re: 65 Rushmore

#127 Post by Skrmng Skll Th Thd » Fri Nov 02, 2018 9:45 pm

flyonthewall2983 wrote:
Fri Nov 02, 2018 7:12 pm
"I'm a barber's son" might be the most cutting line in any of Anderson's work.
Considering how much of Anderson's films consists of quotes and references to other work, I always took that line to be a nod to Charles Schulz, whose father was a barber, and Charlie Brown, whose father in the strip was a barber. I'm not sure what relative thematic value it has, or if it adds anything to Max's character in the film -- personally it strikes me as an insincere attempt to humanize a character who was otherwise a complete asshole.

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knives
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Re: 65 Rushmore

#128 Post by knives » Sat Nov 03, 2018 7:38 pm

What about it strikes you as insincere?

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Re: 65 Rushmore

#129 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Mon Nov 05, 2018 5:26 pm

I object a little to calling him an asshole. He engages in behavior that isolates him from many others around him, but is mostly not doing so out of spite but because like his dedicated involvement in extra-curricular activities, the reach of modern teenage life extends beyond his grasp. He has an older father, no siblings (and presumably no cousins) which adds to that particular kind of isolation.

It seemingly only reaches those uncomfortable levels where he starts alienating everyone around him, once he finds love. It's quite presumably the first time he's ever dealt with these feelings, and combined with everything else (including his commitment to Rushmore) it results in calamity that finds him to the point of sending a beehive to Blume's room and cutting his brakes. All of that was kind of funny in 1999 but now it plays a little more sinister of course, and is maybe one of it's faults looking back now.
Last edited by flyonthewall2983 on Mon Dec 03, 2018 7:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: 65 Rushmore

#130 Post by swo17 » Mon Nov 05, 2018 5:40 pm

It played as sinister back then but I don't see how that's a fault

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Re: 65 Rushmore

#131 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Mon Nov 05, 2018 8:23 pm

That's maybe just my perception of it then. I think if it weren't set to music it could play entirely more sinister than funny.

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Re: 65 Rushmore

#132 Post by therewillbeblus » Mon Nov 30, 2020 8:00 pm

Pavel wrote:
Mon Nov 30, 2020 4:35 pm
Not the most appropriate place to ask, but since it was brought up: what's your favorite 90s film?
This is the most appropriate place, because that would be Rushmore. It’s difficult to describe why I love this film, as it is for any long-standing favorite because part of it is nostalgic. This was a favorite when I was in middle school and high school as my sister and I struggled with mental health and emotional problems separately but together in spirit; it was the bonding film I watched the first night of college with my roommate initiating a very strange and invaluable friendship based around transparent emotional discussions through relating to these characters; and it has continued to affect me as I pass through every developmental milestone, which is what this film is about in many respects. It doesn't matter that Max Fischer and I could not be more different in personality, or Hermann Blume or Rosemary Cross, who are all very specific singular souls by design. What matters is that I can taste their emotions like they were my own, because they were, and are, and will be my own.

Max is in the stage where natural egocentrism and narcissistic defenses in adolescence give way to the bitter truth that adulthood, and life, consists of limitations to actualizing desires. Women can’t be won with grand gestures, romance doesn’t originate from one’s solipsistic fantasies, and you aren’t the center of any orbiting universe outside of your own- but you can play a significant role in others’. As we watch Max become broken and mend himself into this compromised state of emerging adulthood, we get Blume on the opposite spectrum, a man who has given up due to life’s beatings, compromised himself into apathy, and who does see the potential in committing to action and bettering his life. Ms. Cross is a woman trying to cope with a more textbook example of loss compared to these other two, but she is equally disoriented toward how to treat her wound, and scared to do it through connecting to others, because that might mean the 'loss' and all the beautiful, painful emotions that come with it could be lost through replacement.

Wes Anderson explodes the selfishness in man, the trauma from restricted access in obtaining one’s wants and needs, the authentic desire for meaningful harmony with another human being. He lands in a space that recognizes the value in pain and constraints with humility, while also commending and believing in the influence of human beings to assert agency and achieve happiness, just maybe not to the degree they expected or wished for at the first goal post. Anderson also understands that the best comedy comes from emotional dysregulation, social conflict, bruised egos defending themselves for dear life. There is so much empathy in this film for the tethered tissue between loneliness and connection, even during scenes of apparent meanspiritedness, that I just want to hold it close forever, just as the film has held me all these years.

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Pavel
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Re: 65 Rushmore

#133 Post by Pavel » Tue Dec 01, 2020 4:58 am

therewillbeblus wrote:
Mon Nov 30, 2020 8:00 pm
This is the most appropriate place, because that would be Rushmore. It’s difficult to describe why I love this film, as it is for any long-standing favorite because part of it is nostalgic. This was a favorite when I was in middle school and high school as my sister and I struggled with mental health and emotional problems separately but together in spirit; it was the bonding film I watched the first night of college with my roommate initiating a very strange and invaluable friendship based around transparent emotional discussions through relating to these characters; and it has continued to affect me as I pass through every developmental milestone, which is what this film is about in many respects. It doesn't matter that Max Fischer and I could not be more different in personality, or Hermann Blume or Rosemary Cross, who are all very specific singular souls by design. What matters is that I can taste their emotions like they were my own, because they were, and are, and will be my own.

Max is in the stage where natural egocentrism and narcissistic defenses in adolescence give way to the bitter truth that adulthood, and life, consists of limitations to actualizing desires. Women can’t be won with grand gestures, romance doesn’t originate from one’s solipsistic fantasies, and you aren’t the center of any orbiting universe outside of your own- but you can play a significant role in others’. As we watch Max become broken and mend himself into this compromised state of emerging adulthood, we get Blume on the opposite spectrum, a man who has given up due to life’s beatings, compromised himself into apathy, and who does see the potential in committing to action and bettering his life. Ms. Cross is a woman trying to cope with a more textbook example of loss compared to these other two, but she is equally disoriented toward how to treat her wound, and scared to do it through connecting to others, because that might mean the 'loss' and all the beautiful, painful emotions that come with it could be lost through replacement.

Wes Anderson explodes the selfishness in man, the trauma from restricted access in obtaining one’s wants and needs, the authentic desire for meaningful harmony with another human being. He lands in a space that recognizes the value in pain and constraints with humility, while also commending and believing in the influence of human beings to assert agency and achieve happiness, just maybe not to the degree they expected or wished for at the first goal post. Anderson also understands that the best comedy comes from emotional dysregulation, social conflict, bruised egos defending themselves for dear life. There is so much empathy in this film for the tethered tissue between loneliness and connection, even during scenes of apparent meanspiritedness, that I just want to hold it close forever, just as the film has held me all these years.
And here I was expecting a one-word answer :D Wonderful write-up, as always. I love Rushmore too, though it is due for a revisit.

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Re: 65 Rushmore

#134 Post by therewillbeblus » Tue Dec 01, 2020 11:06 am

Ha I was planning to give a one-word answer, and then I remembered I had a half-written blurb in a google doc sitting in limbo for months, and figured this was as good a time as any to post it

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