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RUDY (1993) (***1/2)

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In RUDY, director David Anspaugh returned to the genre that made his name — inspirational, underdog sports film. His HOOSIERS is one of the best sports movies ever made, if not the best. This time it’s not about an underdog team, but an underdog player.

Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger (Sean Astin, LORD OF THE RINGS) is short and light, but has dreamed his entire life to play football for Notre Dame. His father (Ned Beatty, DELIVERENCE) thinks his dream is foolish, much like everyone else in town. But Rudy knows that if he doesn’t give it a shot and just languishes his life away in the steel mill with his dad and brothers, he’ll live his life always wondering “what if.”

The cards are really stacked against him. Besides his size, he doesn’t have great athletic ability, is poor and makes lousy grades. At first he attends Holy Cross Community College near Notre Dame in an effort to get his grades up. He befriends shy, over-weight nerd D-Bob (Jon Favreau, SWINGERS), who helps him study. When Rudy finally makes it to Notre Dame, he heads out for open try-outs for the football team with the realistic goal of just being on the team and possibly suiting up for one game. Famed head coach Ara Parseghian (Jason Miller, THE EXORCIST) only wishes half his players had the heart of Rudy, who goes out there every day and gives everything he has in practice just to help the team.

Besides the obvious “follow your dreams” storyline, the film subtly works as a portrait of an obsessed fan. Astin brings total conviction to his character even when Rudy is making a fool of himself. What makes this underdog story special is that the filmmakers never let Rudy off the hook. They make his struggle daunting, allowing the character to show what he’s got and work harder to attain his goals. We get a real sense of Rudy’s nerve and the amount of sacrifice and hard work he had to put in just to touch his dreams a little bit. Because of his effort, the sappy ending doesn’t make us groan, but instead smile because if anyone deserves it, it’s Rudy.

Based on a true story, the film portrays the tale with a great deal of honesty for the most part. However, the film also works as pure fantasy, fulfilling our desire to attain our own unattainable dreams. AFI recently released a new list of the 100 most inspiring films of all time and RUDY ranked #54. It deserves to be there for it’s a film that takes a tried and true formula and makes us care. There’s a bit of magic in the way this film works on you. I dare you not to tear up at the end. I believe it’s a feat more daunting than Rudy’s accomplishments.

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Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
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