BEFORE: Moving up to college-level ball tonight - happy Bowl Week, everyone!
Last year we had Thanksgiving dinner at the home of my brother-in-law's future in-laws, out on Long Island, and after dinner they watched this film. I'd eaten so much deep-fried turkey, with all the trimmings (God, but I love trimmings...) that I slept right through it. So let me make up for that mis-step now.
THE PLOT: Rudy is determined to overcome the odds and fulfill his dream of playing for Notre Dame.
AFTER: Another Hollywood sports film - one that shows that with enough pluck, determination and hard work, a person can fall just short of their goals. I kid - Rudy knows that he's five-foot nothing, and 100 pounds soaking wet, so he really has no shot at playing football for Notre Dame. But regardless of that fickle mistress reality, that is still his dream. So he's (mostly) content to work as an assistant groundskeeper, and then later as a part of their practice squad, essentially as a human tackling dummy.
But we're led to believe he's got this quality called "heart", or "pluck", or "spunk". (As Lou Grant famously said, "I hate spunk.") He wants it more than some of the actual team members, probably because he can't have it. And in the end he achieves his dream, just not in a way that he could have predicted, plus he accidentally gains the benefit of a college education, and learns some valuable life lessons.
And this film can function as a metaphor for anyone's career path - how many of us have achieved our goals, but in an unpredictable fashion? Doesn't everyone, on some level, have to learn to balance getting what they want with wanting what they get?
I connected with this film in an odd way - because it reminded me of my first few years in the film business. I've spent years working for an animator/director whose name many people recognize, and many times I've found myself being envied by people who are just starting out in animation - they ask me how I got where I am, and how they can do the same thing. I always try to discourage anyone from walking the path that I took, and not just because I don't need the competition - no, it's because that experience was unique, and they have to find their own way to their own pipe dream.
One day in high-school I was told that I needed to pick a direction, so I said I'd go into the film business - I was told that with my grades I could choose anything, but that still raised a few eyebrows. Even my guidance-counselor's career-choosing computer advised against it, saying I didn't have the personality required to pull it off. But I forged ahead anyway, since it seemed like it would be interesting at the very least, and possibly fun on some level too.
So this film reminded me of the lean years, the times that I had to bring home food that was leftover from craft services, or the times I worked back-to-back studio shoots so that I didn't see sunlight for three days. Mostly these experiences are now my "war stories", which I tell to entertain the interns - like the time I spent 12 hours looking for the right stool for an Apollonia music video (it appeared on camera for about 3 seconds), or the time I'd been driving the production van for so long that I was dozing off at red lights, or the time I overslept and delayed an entire shoot from driving to Philadelphia, since I had the keys to the van. Or the time my van ran out of gas in the middle of traffic on 23rd St., and I had to figure out how to get some gas in the tank and get to the film lab before it closed.
See? Nothing to be envied there. Nostalgia is fine, but I have no desire to get back into live-action production on any level. If I've got any pipe dream now, it's to be a contestant on Jeopardy! - but if game shows and reality shows have taught me anything, it's that for every person who makes it, there are 10 other competitors vying for that same title, and 100 (or more) others who never even make it to the show. This goes for athletes, chefs, writers, actors, you name it.
So kudos, Rudy, for being the one-in-the-million who made it to the show, and then was able to excel. Everyone else, go out and find your own pipe dream - mine's taken.
Starring Sean Astin, Ned Beatty (last seen in "Charlie Wilson's War"), Robert Prosky (last seen in "Christine"), Charles S. Dutton (last seen in "Secret Window"), John Favreau (last seen in "Iron Man"), Lili Taylor (last seen in "Born on the Fourth of July"), and a cameo from then-unknown Vince Vaughn (last seen in "Mr. & Mrs. Smith").
RATING: 7 out of 10 rejection letters
Our modern understanding of the horrible, debilitating long-term effects of repeated, untreated concussions adds a new twist to these old football movies.
ReplyDelete"...And by unanimous vote, Rudy was awarded the team ball. He'd proven what guts and determination and focus can achieve. Of course, twenty years later, he was on disability because of the debilitating cognitive disabilities he'd developed, but it was nice that he had that game ball."
Even "Brian's Song" seems to have a happy ending. "At least the cancer took my friend quickly, and he had his faculties intact to the very end. Unlike me. Do you know that yesterday I couldn't remember the name of my grandson? Maybe it was just a senior moment, sure, but still, I live every day in fear that I'll become a drooling wreck."
So, I guess my mother was right in forbidding me to try out for varsity sports. Not that I wanted to, but the fact that it was expressly taboo did make it somewhat appealing.
ReplyDelete