The Stone The Builders Rejected...

Rating: 8/10 (12 May 2009)

Sports figures seem to have taken the place of saints in our culture, figures of veneration and inspiration who show us by example that nothing in life is impossible, that we can achieve transcendence by pure will. Witness "Rudy", a moving film based on a true story of a runt who won't take no for an answer in chasing his dream.
Daniel "Rudy" Ruettiger (Sean Astin) lacks the grades, the size, and the social status to realize his dream of playing for the fabled University of Notre Dame's football program. What he has is heart, lots of it, enough to save up tuition, attend a community college, transfer to Notre Dame, and work on Notre Dame's practice squad, the human tackling dummies which the Blue-and-Gold scrimmage against between the big games.
"Having dreams is what makes life tolerable", one of Rudy's friends tells him early on, when encouragement is otherwise sparse.
Calling "Rudy" corny is missing the point. Sure, it plays with your heartstrings, but the script makes its points deftly and manipulates by subtle degrees. What makes "Rudy" more than tolerable is the broad, muted palette of cinematographer Oliver Wood; a serene yet surging Jerry Goldsmith score; and winning performances across the board, particularly by Astin as the slow-but-doughty title character.
People who argue "Rudy" is a recruitment ad for Notre Dame ignore an important point: The school doesn't come off too swell for much of the film. It's an imposing, elitist place, where with the exception of one priest (Robert Prosky) who tells Rudy the admissions board is "a tricky bunch of squirrels", no one has much time for Rudy. Touchdown Jesus looms in the background of some scenes, a stiff, unwelcoming presence to contrast with Rudy shuffling off slump-shouldered in the foreground.
All this is to set up "Rudy's" great trump card, that Rudy the reject is going to accomplish something important before the film is over, that Rudy, like the stone the builders rejected, will become the cornerstone of the Fighting Irish football program. Maybe that's a bit far-fetched, but the Rudy story probably gets more play now than any Notre Dame legend short of the Gipper.
Speaking of George Gipp, his attributed dying words to Knute Rockne are recited by Astin, and there's also a marvelous sequence where a subdued choral version of the Notre Dame Victory March is sung over violent images from scrimmages where Rudy is pummeled and pounded into the turf. Director David Anspaugh uses such tools sparingly but effectively: We never see an actual play in a football game until very near the end, which maximizes its impact.
"Rudy" starts slow, remains a tad ponderous, and gets more than a little free with the facts (Example: There was no older brother "Frank" ragging on Rudy about his Notre dream.) Astin's perfect coif amid otherwise direly authentic '70s hairdos always grates, but "Rudy" is a winner, another in a long line of sports movies that present a case for man's transcendence in an otherwise dreary plane of existence.