A Can't Miss Film! You Gotta Pull For This Under Dog!

Rating: 10/10 (2 July 2007)

We saw that a reviewer said that RUDY was...."Better Than ROCKY!", well it's really hard to say that. I mean, it's hard to compete with a Moose & Squirrel! Seriously though......
It's extremely difficult to not like RUDY. After all, it contains all the elements that make for a good story. We have an underdog kid, from a Blue Collar background. This little guy dares to think and dream big.
It starts out when Rudy is a young kid, but always a guy to try to keep up with the older guys. His love of Notre Dame Fotball comes about quite naturally, as his Dad, Daniel Ruttiger, Sr., proclaims that, "We only watch one team in this house! Right Rudy!" Young Rudy takes it all very seriously by reading, studying and even listening to old recordings of the Great Notre Dame Coach, Knute Rockne.
The story jumps forth abruptly to a scene where in Rudy and his friend, Pete, are at their last football practice as Seniors at Joliet Catholic High School*, Joliet Illinois. In it we learn that Rudy, though small for football, demonstrates a bull dog tenacity that has not gone un-noticed nor unappreciated by his coaches.
After being discouraged by just about everybody,including a teacher-priest, we move on to see he now settles into a job at the Steel Mill where father works and his girlfriend(since childhood)plan to marry and buy a house in the town.
A sudden and bitter blow comes to Rudy. His best friend, Pete,is killed in an industrial accident at the plant. Realizing that time is running out, Rudy sets out to go and enter Notre Dame, sudden like. He has not applied and is in need of remedial work. He is befriended by Father Callahan (Robert Prosky giving his usual great performance.).The good Father gets him into the nearby Holy Cross Junior College, also run by the Holy Cross Order.
Well, all of this is just the beginning. The story goes on to chronicle his struggles and the friends made along the way. Jon Favreau (D-Bob, Tutor and friend) and Charles Dutton (Fortune, N.D.Stadium Maintainence Supervisor and friend) are particularly effective and enjoyable in their roles.
Well can you tell what happens next? In order to get a chance at the football team, he'll need to make good enough grades and be accepted by the N.D. Admissions Office. How will he do in this quest? Well, we all kinda know that there will be success, but just how it is accomplished, that'll have to remain unwritten here.
One thing that we must keep in mind. RUDY is a biopic. It, like all of the others must follow a certain formula. Just like so many of the great biographies in the past, you are sure to have the following elements. The story will open some years earlier. The subject of the story will show some traits that serve as a foreshadowing of future events.
Hence, the young Lou Gerhig in PRIDE OF THE YANKEES breaks a store window with a long drive hit off the kids' sandlot baseball field. He also has a favourite baseball card of 'rookie' George Herman Ruth, who will be a team mate as Babe Ruth when Lou reaches adulthood. Knute Rockne plays a game of pick-up tackle football and immediately displays his prowess a left end (his position in NOTRE DAME'S routing of ARMY with the forward pass. Then or now, a biopic is a biopic.
One thing more. RUDY benefits from some really fine cinematography. The Camera really captures the spirit and the mood.Also the sets are just about perfect from the old neighborhood, Joliet Catholic High and especially the beautiful and magnificent Campus of Notre Dame.
See the film.Rent it or better yet, buy it soon! It's a keeper, guaranteed, so help me Lord!
* The scenes set at Joliet Catholic High School, the Football Field and the Funeral at the Church, were all filmed at the old campus of St.Rita High School, located near 63rd Street & Western Avenue on the Southwest Side of Chicago. I can vouch for it, being an Alumnus of the joint.