Rudy (film)

Rudy
Rudy movie poster.
Directed by	David Anspaugh
Written by	Angelo Pizzo
Produced by	Cary Woods
Starring	Sean Astin Jon Favreau Ned Beatty Greta Lind Scott Benjaminson Mary Ann Thebus Charles S. Dutton
Cinematography	Oliver Wood
Edited by	David Rosenbloom
Music by	Jerry Goldsmith
Release dates	October 13, 1993
Running time	116 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Rudy is a 1993 film directed by David Anspaugh. It is an account of the life of Daniel "Rudy" Ruettiger who harbored dreams of playing football at the University of Notre Dame despite significant obstacles. It was the first movie shoot the Notre Dame administration allowed on campus since "Knute Rockne: All American" in 1940. In 2005 "Rudy" was named one of the best 25 sports movies of the previous 25 years in two polls by ESPN (#24 by a panel of sports experts, and #4 by espn.com users) [1]

Main cast

• Sean Astin as Daniel "Rudy" Ruettiger
• Jon Favreau as D-Bob
• Ned Beatty as Daniel Ruettiger, Sr.
• Charles S. Dutton as Fortune
• Jason Miller as Ara Parseghian
• Scott Benjaminson as Frank Ruettiger
• Lili Taylor as Sherry
• Robert Prosky as Father John Cavanaugh
• Vince Vaughn (Credited as Vincent Vaughn) as Jamie O'Hara
• Chelcie Ross as Dan Devine
• Steve Hely as Ed Silver

Plot

Daniel "Rudy" Ruettiger grew up dreaming of playing football at the University of Notre Dame. While achieving some success with his local high school football team, Ruettiger lacked the grades and money to attend Notre Dame, and talent and physical size (Ruettiger was only 5'6" and 165 pounds) to play football for the Fighting Irish. Instead, he takes a job at the local steel mill where his father (a huge Notre Dame football fan) works and prepares to settle down. When his best friend Pete is killed in an explosion at the mill, Rudy decides to follow his dream of attending Notre Dame and playing college football for the Fighting Irish, and leaves for Notre Dame, against his father's warning that "Ruettigers don't belong at Notre Dame." Ruettiger fails to get admitted to Notre Dame, and instead goes to a small junior college, Holy Cross, hoping to qualify for a transfer to the university. During his final semester of eligibility transfer, he is granted admission to Notre Dame. After walking onto football practice tryouts, Ruettiger convinces coach Ara Parseghian to give him a spot on the football practice team, where Rudy exhibits more drive and desire than some of his big-name varsity teammates. Upon Dan Devine's installation as head coach, Ruettiger fears he will lose the chance to dress for a home game, an arrangement he had with Parseghian. Late in the season of 1975, his teammates, lead by team captain and All-American Roland Steele, rise to his defense, demanding to Devine that Rudy be allowed to suit up in their place (by throwing down their jerseys, one at a time, on top of Devine's desk) for the final game of the season. In the penultimate play of that game, Coach Devine is persuaded to insert Rudy (after all the players and later the fans chanted "Rudy... Rudy... Rudy...,") who sacks the opposing quarterback to end the game on the subsequent play. Rudy is carried off the field by his teammates, the last Notre Dame player to have such a distinction.

Setting the record straight

• Fiction: 13-Year-Old Rudy says he's going to play football for Notre Dame. His father is very negative, and throughout the film, he belittles Rudy and his dream.

  Fact: His father wasn't as bad as comes across on film -- he agreed to allow his negative character traits to be exaggerated to help make the movie more dramatic.

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• Fiction: After high school, Rudy works in a steel mill for four years.

  Fact: For two years, Rudy was a yeoman on a communications command ship in the Navy. Then he worked in a power plant for two more years, before going to Holy Cross Junior College in South Bend.

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• Fiction: One of Rudy's older brothers, Frank, is a real jerk. He laughs at Rudy, puts him down, and then justifies his smirking verbal abuse thusly: "As long as my brother talks this crazy Notre Dame shit, he deserves anything that comes his way."

  Fact: Rudy had 13 brothers and sisters, none of them named Frank. That character, Ruettiger told the New York Times, is a composite of "everybody who ever discouraged me."

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• Fiction: Rudy shows up at dawn at the Notre Dame school gate and says he wants to talk to someone about attending the university. He meets Father Cavanaugh (who at first mistakenly believes Rudy came to become a priest), and says he can get him into Holy Cross College, across the street from Notre Dame, where Rudy can then transfer to Notre Dame later if his grades are good enough. Cavanaugh remains a presence for Rudy throughout the film.

  Fact: Rudy did meet Cavanaugh, who also happened to be a former president of the University. But the character is a composite of Cavanaugh and one other priest, writes Dorothy V. Corson in her article, "A Cave of Candles," which appears at the Notre Dame web site.

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• Fiction: Rudy becomes friends with the head groundskeeper, Fortune.

  Fact: There was no "Fortune" in Rudy's life. He's a composite character.

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• Fiction: At Notre Dame, Rudy plays football, works, studies and that's about it.

  Fact: If you had been at Notre Dame in the mid-'70s and knew of Rudy, it was probably because he frequently traded punches in benefit boxing matches called "Bengal Bouts." "I was always the underdog," he told Newsday. "See, I'd fight guys bigger than me. In boxing, it's not how good you are; it's how tough you are. That's how the student body knew me. I got everyone to know me."

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• Fiction: From the stands, Rudy watches Notre Dame play Penn State.

  Fact: Notre Dame didn't play against Penn State in either 1974 or 1975. However, the Irish did play Penn State in South Bend on Nov. 14, 1992 -- a game that Notre Dame won, 17-16.

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• Fiction: Rudy quits when his name isn't on the dress list for the Georgia Tech game. He quits before what another player calls the last practice, implying that the Georgia Tech game is to be the final contest of the season. Coach Devine also says it'll be the last game for the seniors.

  Fact: The Irish played Tech in its final home game of 1975, on Nov. 8. They still had two away games remaining -- they would lose to Pittsburgh the following week, and defeat Miami in their final contest.

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• Fiction: One of the team's captains is Roland Steele.

  Fact: Notre Dame's co-captains in 1975 were Ed Bauer and Jim Stock. Steele is a fictional character.

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• Fiction: The night before the final game, Steele leads the players as they walk, single file, into new Head Coach Dan Devine's office, and place their jerseys on his desk, saying they want Rudy to suit up.

  Fact: According to the Houston Chronicle, Devine was furious about the scene. "The jersey scene is unforgivable. It's a lie and untrue. coming on the heels of 'Under the Tarnished Dome' (a book critical of the university's football program). I don't think it's a very good thing for Notre Dame."

  And Ruettiger knew he would dress for the final home game. "Dan made the announcement that I'd be playing at practice and everybody cheered," he told the New York Times. Linebackers coach George Kelly added, "There's no question he was on the dress list. It was posted on Thursday."

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• Fiction: Devine is not only reluctant to let Rudy suit up, but is visibly angry when, at the end of the Tech game, Rudy goes in to play.

  Fact: Devine took a bad rap he didn't deserve. "The coach (Devine) hollered, 'Has everyone been in?' " remembered former assistant coach George Kelly. "Someone tapped me and said, 'Rudy,' and I put him in."

  In his autobiography, "Simply Devine," he wrote, "I told Angelo (Pizzo) that I would do anything to help Rudy, including playing the heavy. I didn't realize I would be such a heavy," and added that he had planned to have Rudy suit up and play all along.

  Pizzo responded to Devine's criticism: "I told Devine, 'You're going to be the bad guy in a sense, but I'm not going to make you evil. You're going to be an obstacle to Rudy playing.' And he said, 'That's fine.' In a recent conversation, I reminded him of this, and he said, 'I didn't think I'd be the worst guy in the movie.' "

  So how did Rudy finally get to play? Some players simply mentioned Rudy's situation to an assistant coach, who relayed the message to Devine, who allowed Rudy to suit up.

The fact and fiction information above is credited to Jeff Merron at ESPN.com.

External links

• Rudy at IMDb