The sport begins with the struggle, and the events begin as Rudy grew up in a steel factory town, where most people ended up working, but they wanted to play football in Notre Dame instead. There were only two problems. His grades were a little low, his athletic skills were bad, he was half the size of the other players only. But he had the motivation and spirit of 5 people, and set his goal in mind when joining the team.
Corny and manipulative as it is, Rudy is a movie that makes you want to cheer -- if not for the real-life Rudy Ruettiger's public relations triumph, at least for the mythical Rudy's brave pursuit of an All-American dream.
The film is so effective because Rudy is never seen as mock-heroic, and he's never lifted toward unrealistic achievement. He simply does the very best he can.
Directed with composure, but no great fervour, the film's conspicuously uninterested in American football, and much concerned with testing the limits and the resilience of the American dream.
Rudy is one of those beating-the-odds tales that no one does better than Hollywood. A film that hits all the right emotional buttons, it's an intelligent, sentimental drama that lifts an audience to its feet cheering.
Anspaugh, whose Hoosiers showed he knows from feel-good movies, directs this story as if he were conducting Bolero, carefully building climax upon climax as the story spirals to an underdog triumph every bit as tearful as that of Rocky.
