Excellent if not all that flattering documentary of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani who on the eve of the Septemer 11, 2001 attacks was all but washed up as a force to reckon with in NY politics. It was then that overnight Rudy became the most recognized and talked about political figure not only in New York or the USA but in the world earning himself the title of Time Magazines Man, or Person, of the Year 2001.
Rudy's life is shown in a number of stills and newsreels as well as interviews with his friends and enemies. We get to see how he grew up as a New York Yankee fan right in the heart of Brooklyn, just five blocks away from the Dodgers Ebbits Field, and how he had to fight almost ever day with fanatical Dodgers fans for openly rooting for the hated New York Bombers who, up until they finally were beaten by the lovable Brooklyn Bums in the 1955 World Series, were always beating the Brooklyn baseball team in the post season fall Championship Classics.
It was in 1981 at the age of 36 when Rudy was appointed by the just elected President Ronald Reagan the head Federal Prosecutor of the Southern District of New York State that Rudy made a name for himself as a two fisted no BS lawman who feared no man or crime syndicated that he came in contact with. Growing up what can honestly be called "Mafia" himself with his old man Harry, who ran a Mafia front bar called "Vincent's" in Brooklyn, being a mob enforcer. Mobster Harry liked to crack heads, with a Louisville Slugger, of those who were late in their lone-shark payments as well as him having served time in Sing Sing for armed robbery. Yet his son Rudy was anything but kind to the organized crime mobsters that he prosecuted running them out of business and out of town and into Federal Prison. Rudy got the best results in putting the biggest dent into the up until them almost invincible Mafia since NY DA Thomas Dewy back in the 1930's & early 1940's.
In 1989 Rudy and his many supporters felt that it was the right time for him to run for Mayor of the city of New York. In a hard fought campaign that year against David Dinkins he lost by a nose only to run against Dinkins four years later. It was four years later in 1993 that Rudy became the first Republican Mayor of NYC since John V.Lindsey was elected the Republican slandered barer, Lindsey was re-elected in 1969 but on the Liberal not Republican ticket, back in 1965 almost thirty years ago. As Mayor Rudys attempt to curb crime, and make a name for himself by doing it, it became an obsession with him to the point where he forced his police commissioner Bratton, who was the person who really did all the cleaning up of crime, to resign his post because he was getting all the credit for keeping the crime rate low in the city.
Rudy also had the cops go after non-violent law breakers like squeegee men, all 74 of them, and panhandlers as well as breaking into peoples, most of them law abiding, homes. These extreme actions had the city faced with hundreds of law suites, most of which it lost, for excessive force and police brutality that it almost drove the "Big Apple" into bankruptcy. Rudys second term as Mayor resulted in two high profile police brutality cases, Abner Louima & Amadou Dialo, that rocked the city as well as the country. This caused people to look into Rudys fascistic use of the police in almost turning the City of New York into a police state.
In 2000 with Rudy not being able to run for a third term as mayor, because of term limits, he and his advisers decided that Rudy run for the New York State Senate seat against the then First Lady Hillary Rodam Clinton. In May of that year with both him and Hillary in an almost dead heat in the race for the Senate Rudy was diagnosed with prostrate cancer, that is now in total remission, that forced him to drop out of the race.
Things didn't get any better for Rudy over the next few months when it was revealed, by him no less, that he was leaving his devoted wife and mother of two children Donna Hanover Kofnovec for the former Judith Stish Nathan, not the woman who some people think is the heir to the world famous Colney Island Nathan hot-dog fortune, whom he met at a mayoral function the year before. The way Rudy treated his now estranged wife Donna was the last straw to the many people who supported him over the years. Rudy had her find out, by not having the guts to tell her face to face himself, that he was leaving her as a tearful and distraught Donna watch her heel of a husband "Rudy Kazoody" announce the breakup on TV. This despicable and heartless action on Rudys part just about spelled curtains for his already stalled political career.
It's as if fate or providence has something big in store for Rudy when on that fateful morning of September 11, 2001 the worst terrorist assault on the United States happened and he, as the mayor of the city attacked, was right in the middle of it. Overnight Rudy became not only the man of the hour but, what looks like now in late March 2007, the man to get the Republican nomination as its candidate for President and very possibly, to the delight of those who support and utter shock of those who despise him, being elected the 44th President of the United States!
