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Film Criticism
02/25/2003

A Study of Works of the Auteur Wes Anderson

Wes Anderson, a young and relatively new director, has to date directed only three major motion pictures
and a short film. The short film Bottle Rocket, made in 1994 went on to be made into a full-length film in
1996. His second film, Rushmore (1998) was widely hailed as a masterpiece at its Cannes Film Festival
debut. His third and final movie to date was the 2001 film The Royal Tenenbaums. The three movies have
remarkable similarities, demonstrating the auteur theory in work. The films show Andersons strong
personal style through his choice of actors and writers, writing style, score, and cinematography.
All of Anderson's movies involve the collaboration of the Wilson brothers on some level. Actors and
brothers, Luke and Owen both studied at the University of Texas, where Wilson attended film school.
Owen Wilson stars in and co-wrote both Bottle Rocket and The Royal Tenenbaums. He also co-wrote
Rushmore but was not featured in the film. Luke Wilson stars in both Bottle Rocket and The Royal
Tenenbaums, and has a minor role in Rushmore. Bill Murray also stars in both of Andersons latter movies
(without monetary compensation no less). There are also several actors that have smaller roles in all three
of his films. Kumar Pallana, the lovable Indian butler in The Royal Tenenbaums also plays the janitor in
Rushmore and a safe-cracker in Bottle Rocket. His brother Dipak Pallana has roles in all three movies.
Both the writing and acting style of the Wilson brothers delivers a distinct mood of comedic undertones to
Andersons works. The dialogue is well thought out and delivered with a kind of campy cynicism that
differs from the delivery of a generic comedy movie joke. All of Anderson's movies are comedies that deal
with serious subjects with a great deal of levity.
Bottle Rocket is about a group of misfit wanna-be criminals that embark on a number of absurd robberies.
In one scene, the four main characters rob a library at gun-point for a sum of less than five dollars. In
Rushmore, a fifteen year-old school boy named Max learns about the pain of love by fighting a newly
divorced business man (Bill Murray) for the interests of a teacher. In one scene the student cuts the brakes
of the man's car. He looses control of the vehicle and has to bring it to a stop on the school grounds. He
then has the boy arrested. In The Royal Tenenbaums one of the main characters attempts to commit
suicide. Later in the hospital, his brother confronts him on the issue, asking him why he tried to kill
himself.
"I wrote a suicide note," he says, "after I regained consciousness."
"Is it dark?" his brother asks.
"Of course it's dark, it's a suicide note." He responds.
All of these scenes deal with issues that in real life are quite serious. The dark and very dramatic notions of
suicide, cutting out the brakes in someone's car, and robbery at gunpoint are all made whimsical by the dry
humor in the writing, as well as the casual burlesque acting. This effect lowers the amount of overall
drama in the film.
Anderson often includes play-writes as central characters in his movies. In Rushmore, Max was an
eccentric play-writer. Anderson adds to this mood by making the movies themselves seem more like plays
and books. The story behind Rushmore is told in acts, while The Royal Tenenbaums is narrated like a book
and told in chapters (one of the main characters here is also a play-writer).
Most of Anderson's characters are flawed to the point that they are dislikeable at the first glance. Max,
from Rushmore is a snob, while Bill Murray's character is an alcoholic. Royal, the pater familias in The
Royal Tennenbaums is a self-centered corner-cutting man that deserts his family in their time of need and
tricks them into loving him once again by pretending to have stomach cancer. His son Chas is an
overprotective self-righteous father himself. His other son Richie is weak and evidently suicidal. His
adopted daughter Margot is a secretive and callous person that cheats on her husband at least three times.
Every character in Bottle Rocket is in some way mentally deranged. The reoccurring message that these
types of people want to change but sometimes can't is expressed best by Gene Hackman's line as Royal,
"Can't someone be a shit all their life and then try to change things? I think people want to hear about that."
Anderson uses an interesting technique of labeling various visual images to help character development.
For instance, in Rushmore Anderson characterizes Max by listing different interests of his during a short
opening sequence. He shows Max standing with a fencing suit and sword as if posing for a picture for a
yearbook, and at the bottom it says "Rushmore Academy Fencing Team". Then it cuts to another short
visual clip of Max slamming down a gavel while pointing and shouting (all of this is silent with an
instrumental accompaniment) and at the bottom of the screen it says "Rushmore Debating Team - Captain".
Anderson uses this technique again in the opening of The Royal Tenenbaums to introduce the viewers to his
vast cast of characters. While the narrator explains why one of the main characters is missing a finger,
Anderson shows a woman's glove with the finger cut off and sewn closed with a caption that says
"Alteration of glove". This type of subtle humor is paralleled through-out Anderson's canon. These
beginning sequences also pay homage to the 1942 Orson Welles' film The Magnificent Ambersons.
The score of all three movies features the symphonic compositions of Mark Mothersbaugh. All three
movies also blend a degree of early British invasion and American rock and roll into the soundtrack
including extensive work from The Who, the Rolling Stones, Nick Drake, and the Beatles. Both Rushmore
and The Royal Tenenbaums have a "Peter and The Wolf" theme regarding their music. In Rushmore when
the main character Max is on camera he is frequently accompanied by the theme from A Charlie Brown
Christmas (yes this movie gets to be underlined for some inexplicable reason). In Bottle Rocket the main
characters have theme music as well, and in The Royal Tenenbaums each character has their own
instrument.
While Anderson uses this music to help create a tone for each character, he creates the mood of many
scenes through cinematography. All three movies end with an in-camera speed change that slows down
time to focus on a particular moment of importance. The slow-motion scenes occur in other parts of the
films to immortalize a single moment in the lives of his fictional characters. It may happen at a dance, at a
funeral, when a character is running from another, or when old lovers are reunited, but it happens in all of
his films. The comedic levity flows through many of these scenes as well.
Anderson also makes reference to Mike Nichols 1967 film The Graduate in all of his films. All of his films
contain underwater scenes, like the famous one in The Graduate. And like in that film, the underwater
scene shows the characters separating themselves from their mortal selves in a sense and having a more
introspective moment. Each underwater scene also represents some kind of change for the character.
Rushmore carries out this theme more so with the boy and the older woman. Also the movie references
The Graduate because many scenes contain fish tanks, a form of visual symbolism found frequently
through-out both films.
Using the auteurist approach, several judgments can be made about Anderson's life as well as his concept of
the ideal film. From his films, it can be established that Anderson is very interested in a nearly satiric form
of theatric drama and comedy. It is undeniable that his love of theatre shows through in his work. His
main characters are frequently tormented play-writers. He makes several attempts to put his movies in the
form of literature. It can be established that he enjoys working with a set of actors and writes parts
specifically with those actors in mind. He repeatedly uses flawed and malcontent characters to create his
story. The emphasis on these deranged individuals as "normal" people that deserve love and happiness is in
all three of his films. It can also be established that he enjoys putting music to his visual medium. Using
these examples intrinsic to the auteurist approach, Anderson communicates himself through his art.