Best/Worst "Fitness" Scene: Rudy (1993)
Okay I am stretching the "fitness" part here but I am presenting one of my all-time favorite sports pictures and this particular scene illustrates why Rudy is considered a classic by so many people. (Clip below)
From IMDB.com:
Rudy Ruettiger (Sean Aston) grows up in a Catholic, working class family that loves Notre Dame football. He does not have the grades, the size or the talent to get into his beloved school so he follows his brothers and father into work at the steel plant. After his twenty-second birthday his best friend Pete (Christoper Reed) who always believed in him dies in an accident. Rudy then realizes that it is now or never to follow his life-long dream to play for the Fighting Irish.
Showing up is not enough to get him into the university, so with the encouragement of a priest (Robert Prosky), he enrolls in Holy Cross Junior College. There he gets help from a tutor (Jon Favreau) who helps him deal with his reading disability and finally get good grades. He works on the maintenance crew (Charles S. Dutton).
Finally, Rudy gets accepted and upon transferring in to the school, he gets a chance as a "tackling dummy" for the team for two years. Encouraged by his persistence and spunk, Rudy inspires the team and is allowed to dress for one game by the coach (Jason Miller), where he is triumphantly carried off the field by his fellow teammates. The story is based on the life of Daniel "Rudy" Ruettiger.
Rudy reminds me to keep moving forward when a challenge comes my way no matter how scary it seems. Over the years this film has served as an inspiration for me to branch out and raise my own expectations. To tell myself to get up and try again when I fall.
At the time I first viewed Rudy on cable TV, my life was pretty sucky. A year out of college, underemployed, lonely and feeling very stuck with my life in Northern California-- I just could not see my way out my rut.
Then one day while riding home from my retail job on the BART I could not stop thinking about Rudy. I thought about the kind of guts it takes for a kid to leave his comfortable life and do something that for all intents and purposes is grandiose and out of his league. Then a thought came to me: "Move to New York. Find a life there. If not now, when?"
Three months later I had sold my car, moved in with an INSANE cat-lady relative on Long Island and began looking for a job, apartment and really--my more authentic self.
That was 15 years ago and I cannot begin to imagine where I would be now if I had not given myself a kick in the pants. My life here in the Slope if filled with friends, good times, and a level of excitement that the East Bay will never be able to match. (Though I do miss that weather!)
Anyhoo, check out this scene for yourself. Let me know what you think. Sean Astin is most famous for his role in the Lord of the Rings pictures but to me he will always be "Rudy! Rudy! Rudy! Rudy!"
BFC
