Movies are the best
source of entertainment according to me. The whole movie experience turns out
exciting with good sound, video and commenting friends. I have watched all the
top 250 movies of imdb and many other movies. Some of them are French, German
and Japanese. Thanks to my college days and high speed internet. Watching
movies surely entertains me and sometimes inspires me too. Recently I watched
the movie ''Rudy'' in the inspirational genre. My morale was down, and was
searching for some inspiration and then I goggled for the most inspirational
movie. I then came across this movie ''Rudy'' which had many good reviews and
was praised by many. So thought to give it a try.
I was appalled after
watching the movie. It’s the true story of, Rudy, and
his endeavors to play football for university of Notre
dame. The struggles shown in this movie are similar to that many, though the
goal would be different. Few face it and win and few give up. I could connect
myself with Rudy in an emotional way because I am still on the path of
struggles and haven’t given up yet. Rudy, who is about 5ft and 6 inches and
from Illinois. His whole family is a fan of football team of University of
Notre Dame and so as he. He aspires to play for the team though he has a
smaller body built. His parents and siblings never support him and rather make
fun of him. The only person who understood him was his close pal, Pete. Pete
dies in an explosion at a steel plant where Rudy's father, Rudy and Pete used
to work. Pete always motivated him and was with him during all his failures and
struggling days. Unfortunately his last hope was gone. Obviously death is the
most disturbing factor to any human being. His death had shattered him. Rudy's
high school grades were not so bright to get an admit in the university of
Notre Dame. But Rudy's determination, dedication and mere focus on his dream
drives him to oblivion. He leaves his family goes to Notre Dame to know the
obvious of not getting an admit. He then talks to the local priest and shows
his dedication to study hard and work harder to achieve his goal. The priest
gives him asylum and sponsors his education at Holy Cross junior college and
advices him to opt for transfer to University of Notre Dame. Rudy feels
somewhat happy to have taken the first step towards his goal.
Studying in Holy Christ,
he frequently visits the football ground of Notre Dame to see the latest
happenings and the players. It was similar to the enthusiasm of a sports
enthusiast to watch and learn from his favourite team and players. He meets the
ground helper, Fortune, and requests him to accept him as his assistant. Upon
goading Fortune a lot, he agrees to accept him and pay him no money. Rudy
agrees for that. Without any doubt Rudy again explicates his enthusiasm and
love for the game to him. This was the story at his at the game front, at the
education front in Holy Christ; he meets with a socially perplexing teaching
assistant, Bob, a graduate from Notre Dame. With frequent interactions with
him, Bob comes to know that Rudy is suffering from dyslexia and assures to help
him. In return asks Rudy has to meet him up with a girl. Poor Rudy tries a lot
fixing up, but fails terribly. In the mean time, with Bob's help he slowly gets
better in studies and gains confidence. But finally Bob gets fixed to Elisa, a
homely girl and he is happy with her. Rudy's mark improves a lot and gets
better grades. Each semester he applies for a transfer but he fails. After
numerous failures, he finally gets a transfer to the University of Notre Dame.
Before getting the
admission, during Christmas, he visits his family and is again mocked by family
members and his girl friend is lost to one of his brothers. This hurts him a
lot. So after he gets the admission to Notre Dame, he goes to his father and
hands him the letter. Father reads it, shocked, unknown of words to utter,
tears rolling, feels proud of his son, and announces in the plant about his
admission to Notre Dame. Everyone acknowledges his victory with claps. His
brother too feels shocked and leaves the place without uttering a word No one
could expect him to get admission into the most coveted University.
Rudy develops a great
attachment with Fortune. He talks with about the players, game, and comment and
totally shows his complete passion towards the game. Fortune doesn't speak much
but only listens and contemplates. He finds that the cleaning room
in the stadium where Fortune spends his day is vacant at night. Rudy daily
sneaks in at night to sleep and leaves early in the morning to his junior
college. Fortune comes to know about this sneaking and one day when Rudy comes
to the room, finds the key on the bed. After he gets admission to the
University, he returns the key to Fortune and thanks him a lot. And asks him to
witness him playing. Fortune promises to come.
Life at the university
was not a cake walk at all. It was more daunting and tough. It was tough
because he was facing people who were much superior in strength, height and
weight. Its difficult to play for a team with mere determination. He joins the
selection group as a non scholarship candidate. Since it was his last semester
and his hard working had been pretty famous, so coach Ara, allows him to join
the practice squad. Upon a very tough selection procedure for the scholarship
players to the team, the assistant coach sees the determination and dedication of Rudy which is way better than the
scholarship holders. During the practice sessions, Rudy is hit by the beefy
players; he falls down hard and wakes up harder with only one intention of
playing for the team and never giving up. This prompts his coach Parseghian to
give him a chance to play for the home team so that his family, friends and
every one can watch him play as it was his last semester. But again bad luck
haunts him; coach Parseghian steps down as the coach and is succeeded by Coach
Dan. Rudy is excited to play for the team, but could not see his name in the
list. It depresses him and makes him angry and he quits the team.
The next day he meets up
with Fortune, and upon asking, tells that he has quit the game. Fortune
motivates him telling that he was a player for the Notre Dame but could not
continue playing because of his inferiority complex being black. Fortune tells
him ''You're 5 foot nothing', 100 and nothin', and you have barely a
speck of athletic ability. And you hung in there with the best college football
players in the land for 2 years. And you're gonna walk outta here with a degree
from the University of Notre Dame. In this life, you don't have to prove
nothin' to nobody but yourself. And after what you've gone through, if you
haven't done that by now, it ain't gonna never happen. Now go on back.''.
Being motivated he goes to the practice session the next day and is welcomed
with people with applauses. Finally he gets a place in the playing team of
Notre Dame, his parents, Bob and Fortune come to see his game with immense
happiness for the poor lad. Unfortunately he gets chance in the last 5 minutes
when Notre Dame had already won. He is carried up all his teammates out of the
ground. It has happened only twice.
The only mantra this
movie recites is ''Never and ever give up''. In one of the scenes
at Holy Christ College, Rudy failing numerous times, sits in the church and
meets the priest there. Rudy tells him that god had been very unfair to him and
he thinks that his prayers are not enough for him to get him admission. The
priest tells ''Son, in 35 years of religious study, I have only come up with
two hard incontrovertible facts: there is a God, and I'm not Him''. So it is in
our hands that we try hard and not worry about the rest.
I take lots and lots of
positives from this movie. It surely encourages and uplifts my ''never give
up'' attitude. I wish to come up successful and would like to be Rudy and not like Fortune.Well, I may not be a sportsman but I have my ocean of endevours. Things may not be looking good today, but some day I will win.
