One of the best football movies!

Rating: 10/10 (6 December 2002)

This is without a doubt, one of the best football movies I have ever seen. Sean Austin does such a superb job at Rudy Rutigger, a young steel mill worker from Joliett, Illinois who aspires to attend Notre Dame, and play football. He is very undersized (5ft 7in) and 170 pounds. He makes it known that he intends to make the team. First of all, Rudy had to fight really hard just to get into Notre Dame. Rudy hires himself a tutor, and constantly applies for admission. Just when everything looks bleak, he is finally accepted. Coach Ara Parshigan sees that Rudy has a lot of heart, and wishes all his players were the same. Rudy makes the team, and is assigned to the practice squad. At first he puts up with a lot of flack from the other players who think that Rudy is making them look bad. They finally come to realize that he really wants to make the team. When Rudy fails to find his name among those that are being allowed to suit up, he is disgusted, and quits the team. He has a conversation with one of the janitors at the field, who is Rudy's good friend, and is told that he must not quit. Rudy finds out that this person was also on Notre Dame's football team, but never got to play, and quit. He points out to Rudy that "not a week has gone by that I didn't regret my decision." Rudy returns to practice, and is welcomed by his teammates. He goes to Coach Parshigan, and asks to be allowed to suit up for one game the next season. The coach agrees, but later on resigns. The new coach, Dan Devine, does not see Rudy the way Parshigan did. When the last home game of the season against Georgia Tech comes, the players all want to give up thier starting spots to allow Rudy to play. Rudy fulfulls the dream of a lifetime when he gets to lead the team out of the tunnel. As it turns out, Notre Dame completely dominated Georgia Tech, and the players realize that Rudy might not get to play, despite their begging Coach Devine to let him play. The offense scores one final touchdown, with time running out, and Rudy comes on the field as a special teamer. He is then told by the assistant coach to stay on the field, and on the next play, Rudy sacks the quarterback just as time runs out. This is a very moving movie, and I would highly recommend this movie to anyone. I just added this movie to my collection, and the DVD version is the best. The real Rudy Ruttiger does a short commentary, which eveyone should see.