According to wik, Rudy did get carried off the field. He is one of two Notre Dame players to get carried off the field, ever. If that's not worth a sports movie, what is? A walk-on scout team player gets carried off the field? How often does that happen, at any university? other things, boy NBC sports sure screwed up the music, it sounded like an old videotape that cuts out every two or three seconds. I had forgotten how good the music was. I wonder if that 60 player limit for home games was true? My first home game to attend at UT was in 1976, and I always thought there was a huge number of players on the sidelines.
I heard that the scene of the players walking into Coach Devine's office and laying down their jerseys so Rudy could play in their place was complete fiction. I also think Sean Astin's acting job was average. And, I hate Notre Dame. That said, I'm willing to suspend all that because overall it's a pretty good sports movie. And I agree, the musical score is fantastic. Also, I'm the guy who tears up at the end of Field of Dreams.
Rudy was an obsessive with an obsession over something hardly worth having considering the effort it took. He was so obsessed with wearing a uniform from a particular school that he made everything else secondary to it. I heard about this film for some years before watching it finally. It is just another feel good sports movie aimed at weepy men. It tells an interesting story about overcoming obstacles but in the end the obstacles are overcome to accomplish what? Nothing worth doing. Slumdog MIllionaire goes to South Bend?
I had heard there was a lot of fiction in this movie. Regardless I thought it was an average sports movie. On the subject of ND, I noticed a while back that I have a dilema, a real dilema... Notre Dame travels to Norman in November to play ou. gawd, I hate 'em both - what I am I supposed to do with a game like that? I suppose there is no way they could play and both lose? I will probably rationalize it with myself by saying - all things being equal - I hate ND more so I would accept ou winning by 1 point: 1-0.
How many of us have done that? Based on my experience as an academic assistant grading papers at UT for a couple of years, I would say there are hundreds of people who have done that. Every year. It was another hype job re ND. Mediocre student, mediocre athlete, gets on the field and everybody is happy for him. More interesting human interest stories at every special olympics meet.
He was like a team mascot. I would have been ashamed if that were my big moment--it was pity, that's all. 4 seconds in a game? Wow.
I think the story was riveting because if he didn't love football he would have never graduated from a major university, and the film hints that he would have never graduated from any university. How many people love a sport so much they will put their body out there to be bashed in every day of practice with virtually no hope of ever playing a game, but in the end they do get to play, and in this case get carried off the field? I guess I'm still struck by Joe Montana's comments, downgrading the whole episode, because ? I did notice in one of the articles that Notre Dame had invited some famous players back for some celebration, and they invited Rudy as well as Montana. I wonder if that sparked Montana's negative comments? And if it is true that Rudy orchestrated the whole PR campaign to get the movie made, etc., then I say give it up for him. It's the ultimate in making lemonade from a lemon. Turning one play and getting carried off the field into an entire career of motivational speaking, etc.
Any of you guys familiar with Richard Nixon's football career at Whittier College? He was so bad that he never got on the field even for Whittier. He was that bad, but he showed up for every practice and got thumped at every turn. Never quit. Until 1974. Guys like Rudy are to be pitied, not lionized. What exactly did he accomplish? He got a degree from ND but if he had put the same amount of effort into his education at some lesser known school and foregone football, he might have got an education.
I liked when Vince Vaughn busts out with the, "hell no, we're not taking a knee - we gotta score so Rudy can get back out on D!" Then he proceeds to throw a half back pass for a TD. Coach Devine was not happy with Vince. Whenever I see Vince in any other movie, I think, damnit, what a good guy for doing that. I am one of those people who is incapable of separating an actor with the character. I saw Ross from "Friends" one time and almost threw a coke on him for the way he treated Easy Company.
As Orangecat and others have pointed out, the music in the movie was masterful. It gave an emotional lift to a story that told poorly would have been as banal as some here have described it . I liked the movie and am not ashamed to admit that I have an emotional reaction when I watch it. I think Rudy became a better man because of his obsession with Notre Dame football.. I think it was a worthwhie movie and as much as the story may have been retouched, there was still a lot more reality in it than most movies I see. I don't see any reason to hate Notre Dame football and think that the great academic program and prestige that university enjoys has very much been driven and enhanced by the football program. It wasn't exactly the University of Chicago back in the day. I think U of C leaders wisely decided football was incompatible with its mission and Notre Dame leaders wisely decided a football obsession was helpful in achieving its place in academia.
