RUDY
A film review by Scott Renshaw
Copyright 1993 Scott Renshaw
Starring: Sean Astin, Ned Beatty, Charles S. Dutton. Screenplay: Angelo Pizzo. Director: David Anspaugh.
Here's where I get to come off like the callous, cold-hearted critic that I am. The subject is RUDY, the new fact-based story of a would-be college football player. RUDY is uplifting; RUDY is inspirational. It's feel-good Hollywood entertainment in all its glory. It's also just not all that interesting. RUDY is too diffuse, takes too long to get where it's going, and skimps on what should be its climax.
RUDY is the true story of Daniel "Rudy" Ruettiger (Sean Astin), a working-class Indiana youth who dreams of playing football for his beloved Notre Dame. The two main obstacles: he's too small, and his grades aren't good enough to get him in. Instead, Rudy joins his father (Ned Beatty) and brothers working at a steel mill for four years, until a pivotal event motivates him to give Notre Dame his best shot. He's set up at a community college near Notre Dame by a helpful priest (Robert Prosky) to earn the necessary grades, and spends all of his free time helping out Fortune (Charles S. Dutton), the head groundskeeper of Notre Dame Stadium. The next two years become a race to get admitted to Notre Dame and make the team before his eligibility runs out.
RUDY's primary structural flaw is that its script tries to cover too much time and too many different (and tangential) aspects of Rudy Ruettiger's story. The body of the film covers eight years, and involves several "time passes" montages, making it hard for the establishment of any narrative momentum. It also drifts into an unnecessary subplot involving Rudy's friendship with his socially inept tutor, a choice which seems all the more ill-conceived when compared to the time spent establishing why Rudy is so tenacious in the pursuit of his dream. However, I was most frustrated by what seemed to be an indecision on the part of screenwriter Angelo Pizzo and director David Anspaugh as to where the triumph in Rudy's story lies. A series of individual victories begins with Rudy's inevitable acceptance to Notre Dame, each of which could have been a testimony to an indomitable spirit. But at a certain point, Rudy stopped seeming determined and started seeming obsessed. I was glad for Fortune's lecture regarding why Rudy should consider himself a success, but by the end I had lost some necessary sympathy for Rudy.
This is not the fault of Sean Astin. He's quite good at bringing across Rudy's earnest determination, and looks the perfect part with his solid but undersized body. Unfortunately, I don't think the script gives him a firm enough grasp of Rudy's character. The brief sequence showing Rudy as a child doesn't do it, nor do the confrontations with his family which seem intended to do so. Indeed, most of the characters suffer from such an overly broad stroke. Charles S. Dutton's Fortune is a bit too cliche as a gruff mentor, as is Beatty as the father with low expectations. Prosky gets a couple of nice scenes, but there's not much freshness to his character either. This is a script with too many lines like, "If I don't do this now, I won't be any good for you, or me, or anyone," and, "Not a day goes by that I don't regret it." It's the "one from Column A, one from Column B" school of sports film screenwriting.
To its credit, RUDY does a great job with the atmosphere of Notre Dame and Notre Dame football; in fact, the South Bend campus becomes a character more carefully developed than most of the humans. The Golden Dome, the stadium locker room, the mosaic known as Touchdown Jesus are all photographed with an eye to the mystique that is Fighting Irish football. However, with such effective buildup, I was disappointed with the handling of the final game sequence. Things happened far too fast, and an important shot involving Rudy's last play is just badly directed.
It's too bad. RUDY has a great deal of energy and an interesting, improbably heroic story to tell. It's a moderately entertaining film, with a message and content appropriate for the whole family. What it lacks is focus.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 tackles: 5.
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