What can I say? I've seen the movie three times, and each time I was moved by the story of the kid who wouldn't let his dream die.
Even though I grew up Protestant in Texas and loved the Longhorns, I reveled in the history and the tradition of Notre Dame football. While I was in junior high and high school, I read lots of books on the history of college football, and naturally Notre Dame was a prominent part of each book. I can only imagine how strong a pull Notre Dame would have had for a football-loving boy in a Catholic family in the Midwest in the '50s and '60s. I thought the filmmakers did a reasonable job of showing enough about the conflicts in Rudy's life without getting mired in a lot of subplots that in my opinion would've detracted from the storyline.
I like the fact that they spent so much time actually developing the story of how he struggled to get to become a Notre Dame student. A lot of filmmakers might've opted to focus on the actual Notre Dame experience, which I think would've made the film a lot less effective.
Anyway, the music was wonderful, Sean Astin gave a great but understated performance, all the football sequences were real enough to make you wince, my wife who knows next to nothing about football or Notre Dame loved the movie, and it made me want to head to South Bend someday and take in a game.
Why do so many great sports films (Breaking Away, Hoosiers, and Rudy) take place in the upper Midwest? Just a random musing...
And here's a little factoid that to the best of my knowledge is still correct--Terry Gannon, who played on North Carolina State's national championship basketball team in the early '80s and now is a sports broadcaster, has the actual helmet that the real-life Daniel Reuttiger wore in the game.
