This movie was dubbed a football version of "Rocky" except for one exception --it is an actual true story!! If you can watch "Rudy" and not have a lump in your throat during several scenes, especially the ending, then you are a hard to please critic!! This movie deserved much better than the 7.1 than the "critics" gave it. Sean Austin did a magnificent job playing overachieving Rudy and for those who ridiculed the fact that he only played a few seconds at the end of a lopsided game missed the whole point of the story. Rudy's dream was to play football at Notre Dame and earn everyone's respect (including his doubting family). With his lack of talent for both academics and athletics, the mere fact that he was even admitted into Notre Dame after struggling so hard to get good grades at Holy Cross (the Junior College Rudy went to in an attempt to prove himself worthy of Notre Dame since he had been out of High School for several years and made poor grades in High School.) He overcame his learning problems that had held him back in High School and this was a monumental achievement in itself. The scene where he was finally admitted into Notre Dame on his final attempt (he had been rejected 3 earlier times) was uplifting indeed. Rudy overcame reading difficulties thru hard work much the same way he overcame his lack of size to make the Notre Dame's football team --thru a gut-busting, never quit attitude. His teammates were so impressed with his attitude that they forced the coach (Dan Devine, a real jerk in the movie) to dress him for the final game. The final scene where the entire stadium was hollering "Rudy, Rudy, Rudy" in an effort to get him into the game at the end was spine-tingling! Rudy busting thru the line to sack the quarterback at the end of the game and get carried off the field with the stadium going nuts chanting his name---Well, movies don't get any better than this. And all this really happened!! Amazing how one of the best stories ever told in movies involve an "average Joe" who achieved his dream thru hard work----a Horatio Alger story indeed--10 out of 10 definitely ---For some of you "critics" that rated it worse than a "7" --you should take a class in movie critic reviews --you definitely would flunk my class if you gave this one a worse score than that!!
