In my opinion Rudy is one of the best football movies of all time and should be one of yours too. It tells the true story of former Notre Dame walk-on Dan "Rudy" Ruettiger (Sean Astin) who beat incredible odds to make the Fighting Irish Practice squad before earning the opportunity to dress for his final game and then actually get on the field.
I've found that a lot of people are split on Rudy because there isn't ton of football action for most of the movie (for example it was only rated the #24 best sports film by ESPN's experts but ranked #4 overall according to the fans). I think Rudy works so well because the entire film builds up to what I consider one of the best movie endings of all time. We follow Rudy's journey from "5 foot nothing, 100 and nothing" day-dreaming high school student and steel mill worker all the way to him being carried off the field in the final game of his senior season at South Bend (no Irish Player has been carried off since).
This movie features some of Sean Astin's best work as an actor as well as a number of terrific supporting roles from the likes John Favreau and others. The soundtrack by Jerry Goldstein fits the 1970s college football culture perfectly and makes the film all the more inspirational. As I said before the final scene may be one of the most moving works of filmmaking I've ever seen and I still get choked up every time I watch it (just like anyone else who's familiar with the movie i'm sure). The moment when Rudy proves to he actually made to it everyone who doubted him is pure genius so here's a little clip of it. I also found the actual game footage from 1975 included below.
I hope everyone who hasn't seen Rudy gets a chance to do so and don't be alarmed if you start shedded man-tears by the end. It just happens.
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