Movie Review: Rudy
If you plan on watching a movie with champions and winners this is not the movie for you. If you want to see immense physical talent in sports you are not going to find it in Rudy. This movie just simply embodies the dreams, trial, and tribulations of every childhood Notre Dame football fan. Rudy, overall, is a fantastic sports film that inspires athletes as well as sports fan to always remain loyal to their sports.
This film by David Anspaugh recounts the football career of Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger. Rudy played by Sean Astin is shown growing up in a small town in Illinois, where his entire family is huge Notre Dame football patrons. He tells his father that he plans to play for Notre Dame when he goes to college, and his entire family laughs at him.
Once seen in high school, the audience becomes aware that Rudy is quite small, and not a very gifted athlete, but he works harder than anyone else on his team. At first he does not succeed in being accepted into Notre Dame, but after life events put things into perspective for him, he decides to continue to pursue his dream. He works his way through being a groundskeeper for the football field and attending junior college to eventually one day be accepted into Notre Dame and play for the team.
The world of sports is always gauged on success (wins and losses). Those of us who are athletes always feel that the only way we can ever truly achieve anything in our respective sports is to become championships. Sports films, in almost every case, rely on these championship stories of elite athletes to tell their stories. However, the pinnacle of Rudy’s life was to just be given the chance to suit up one time for a collegiate football team.
He never planned to win a game for his team, score a touchdown, possibly not even play in a single down. Even so, all the work he put in was to simply be “part of the team”. He is exactly the kind of teammate that every team truly needs to be successful.
Shortly after he starts to practice with the Notre Dame squad, an offensive lineman takes it “easy” on Rudy, because of his size. Rudy jumps in the lineman’s face and says that if he doesn’t bury Rudy’s head in the dirt during practice their would be no chance they could win on Saturday. This kind of emotion from a guy who has never even been named to a game roster is incredibly inspirational. The entire team was made better through the effort that Rudy puts forth in their practices. The coach later goes on to tell Rudy that he wished that his players with more talent could have been given the same heart Rudy had. This “5 foot nothing” kid from Illinois personifies the efforts that so many student-athletes put in for just a single glimpse of recognition.