Last night, Amanda and I were playing Scrabble (no comments, please; we enjoy it). As we were playing in the living room, we decided to turn on something as background noise. Ultimately, we decided to watch something off of Comcast's On Demand service.
Now, if you've never used On Demand, it's basically a storehouse of free movies and TV shows you can watch whenever you want, along with all of the pay-per-view stuff you can order. As far as free movies go, there are essentially two different kinds.
The first kind are the movies offered for free from the subscription movie channels like HBO, et al. You only get these if you subscribe to that channel (which we do) and they're pretty good. There's some stuff I wanted to see but never did, some old favorites, etc. Some good stuff.
The other kind are the free movies offered to Comcast because they either 1.) lost a bet, or 2.) found them abandoned in a box on their doorstep. Maybe both. Anyway, this is the dumping ground for all the crappy films on Earth.
If you ever wanted immediate, on-demand access to movies like Caveman or The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, this is your one stop shop.
Anyway, we poked around in the Forbidden Zone there for a bit, and lo and behold, what should pop up in the menu but Rudy.
As I've explained before, Rudy is this film my brother has a strong affection for. After yakking about it here, Amanda wanted to watch it to see what the deal with it was.
So, we watched it. I have to admit, this was the first time I've seen it all the way through. (Ry, I'll bet you thought I was going to say "I have to admit, I liked it" or something like that. Not so.)
My feelings about it are exactly the same as they've always been. The central theme of the movie is "If you dream big enough and long enough, enough people will take pity on you to get you close to your dream, even if it's not exactly what you thought it would be."
Here's the short version of the movie for those who haven't seen it:
Little kid named Rudy wants to play football for Notre Dame but he sucks. His brothers don't want to play with him. He only has one friend.
They grow up and go to work in a steel mill. No one believes in him. He wants to play football for Notre Dame. He only has one friend. His friend dies.
He goes to Notre Dame and bothers an old priest. The priest takes pity on him and gets him admitted to a Community College next door.
He's lame and no one wants to play with him. He only has one friend. He wants to play football for Notre Dame. He bitches about it to everyone he knows.
Soon Groundskeeper Whomever, John Favreau, and every other character within a five mile radius is taking pity on this guy. He gets into Notre Dame. Coaches take pity on him. Players take pity on him. He plays for 1 minute in a football game.
The end.
Wow. Fascinating. What a heart-warming tale about a guy who's life reaches it's peak at the age of 27 or so. Incredible.
Please, don't make a sequel, Hollywood. I couldn't take 2 hours of Rudy telling everyone he meets about how he played for Notre Dame for one minute in 1970whocares.
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4 comments:
Dude, Rudy is one of the best sports movies ever. Solid stuff, and just because you have a heart of coal is no reason to diss the flick.
I have to say.. it's a good little movie. I don't think people were taking pity on him. In fact, people were criticizing him at every turn. When faced with the criticism, Rudy was positive and introspective. That's rare -- most people would lash out at critics and become bitter.
Anyway, moral of the story as I saw it: Be positive and grateful, and people will help you when they can.
...but the end was a little lame--until they said "this is a true story" -- that always saves a bad ending. =)
Listen, show me a movie that's "based on a true story" and has a person (preferrably a teacher but a school setting is ok) inspiring others by going against the odds... and I'll show you a top 10 movie of mine.
You know, I liked School of Rock. I thought it was a good little movie. Maybe it's just because I like rock more than football.
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