The Film Rudy: A Coming Of Age Tale

1115 Words3 Pages

The film Rudy (Fried, Friedman, Mayes, Mintz, Pizzo, Woods & Zinman, 1993) is a coming of age tale centered on the protagonist, Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger’s, attempts at gaining admission to Notre Dame University, and subsequently playing on their football team. Rudy encounters significant academic resistance as he works to get into Notre Dame, and then once again as he is simply a “tackling dummy” for the football team for much of his college career. However, Rudy is determined to succeed in his dream of suiting up to play as a Notre Dame Football player. After some success playing high school football, Rudy realizes his grades and inability to afford tuition will prevent him from attending Notre Dame right away. Going to work in the local steel mill like his father and older brothers gives him time to reflect on his choice. …show more content…

He travels to South Bend, the town Notre Dame is in, and applies to Notre Dame but is not accepted initially. With the counsel of Father Cavanaugh Rudy enrolls at a local junior college where he works to achieve grades that will facilitate admission to Notre Dame. While studying at Holy Cross Junior College, Rudy befriends a local tutor, who helps Rudy discover he is dyslexic. Rudy is able to use his new diagnosis to improve his scholastic aptitude; however he has not yet earned his families respect, losing his fiancé to one of his brothers. Rudy befriends a groundskeeper at Notre Dame who eventually provides Rudy with somewhere to live while continuing to study at Holy Cross. After finally gaining admission to Notre Dame, Rudy walks onto the football team, is given a place on the practice squad, and again warned by a coach of the difficulty of playing for Notre Dame. Rudy continues to show incredible determination, and is able to take the field for his final college football

More about The Film Rudy: A Coming Of Age Tale

Open Document