Director: David Anspaugh
Cast: Sean Astin, Ned Beatty, Charles S. Dutton, Jason Miller
Have I Seen It Before: Oh, sure.
Did I Like It: There’s a certain emotional target that I imagine most films are probably aiming for, and if they hit that target they move beyond the confines of normal movies. It is an ephemeral goal. For every, say Rocky (1976) or Saturday Night Fever (1977) that hits it, there are any number of examples like say… Staying Alive (1983) (to mix and match the same ingredients) that miss it entirely.
It doesn’t matter what the topic of the film is, if the target is hit correctly. I return again to my affinity for the Rocky (and by extension, Creed) films. I couldn’t possibly sit through a single boxing match. For that matter, I don’t really have any particular desire to serve in a maximum security prison, but I don’t think that a year has gone by where I haven’t watched The Shawshank Redemption (1994).
If the target is hit, it doesn’t matter if the story is schmalzy or too melodramatic for its own good. It doesn’t matter if—in the case of Rudy—that the “based on a true story” parts are, if Joe Montana is to be believed, more of a joke than a rousing triumph of the human spirit. As long as that spirit is right and properly roused, we tend to ignore any and all flaws.
Maybe it’s all tied to Jerry Goldsmith’s score (which I could eat with a spoon, were the opportunity afforded), or maybe it’s that deadly earnestness at the film’s core, but Rudy hits the target with room to spare. It doesn’t really matter that I couldn’t give even a little bit of a crap about football or the University of Notre Dame. It doesn’t matter that Rudy’s (Astin) goal is kind of singularly nuts and he may just need some therapy*.
But it’s probably a good thing he Ruttiger didn’t get involved with ending the Cold War.
*They had therapy in 1972, right?