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When I first saw the movie Rudy I was deeply moved. Since then I have watched it over a dozen times here and there, and each time the inspiration that comes from the story is just as effective as it was the first time. Rudy is one of those movies that makes you say to yourself or your buddies, Man doesnt it make you just wanna go play football again, or for that matter just excel in any sport, and have people cheer you on. In this paper I will look into what key elements are vital in the making of an inspirational movie, and also use examples from other movies involved with sports to make the point apparent. To start off, sports are a great story basis for toying with the emotions. Sports have many emotions involved with them.
The first is the thrill of victory. Everyone dreams of winning in front of a huge crowd, and having everyone cheer you on. The next is the issue of the underdog. It seems no matter what sports movie you watch you can always predict the outcome of the conclusion no matter how great the odds they face are.
It is just simple knowledge that no one would make a movie about a team that beats all the odds only to lose in the end. Granted there have been some movies like that, but the majority deal with the outcome being victory in the end. One of the concerns that ties along with movies about sports is that they offer cheap thrills, and their storylines are predictable and cheesy. For the most part, your Little Big League, and Major League, do use the sports to put people in the seats, and offer the cheap thrills with B-movie quality laughs, but some other movies, such as The Natural, The Bad News Bears, and Bull Durham, are movies great examples of how a movie about sports can also be deeper than just shots of the game, and flashes of exciting plays. These movies, like Rudy, are well-respected among the film critics, and also by sports fans, which is a great accomplishment in its own right. Besides seeing Rudy, which would not have made for a great paper on just the sole viewing of, I also went out and rented a bunch of other sports movies that I thought would help me write my paper.
The first movie I viewed was, Raging Bull, a film which stars Robert Deniro. This movie was rather old, but it was a great example of the camera angles and views that we discussed in class. You get to see the fight from the fighters perspective. This movie reminded me a lot of Rocky, because it dealt with a New York street kid who fights his way out of the slums, while earning millions and the love of a beautiful woman.
But he's a head case who can't control his rage. You get a strong sense of the boxer's rage in the ring, with brutal scenes, as well as innovative sound and visual effects. The thing I liked most about this movie was how you could get such a great sense of the boxers rage and emotions through the movie. The next movie I saw was Hoop Dreams. This movie deals with a whole other aspect of sports films. This film is a documentary that deals with real life.
This film is not considered inspirational, because it really has no end result. Actually the ending is quite depressing, because they both end up failing in their pursuit of NBA dreams. The story, itself, deals with Documentarians Steve James, Frederick Marx and Peter Gilbert originally started following around two inner-city NBA hopefuls, hoping to make a 30 -minute PBS documentary. They soon discovered they were onto a story way too deep to tell in 30 minutes and much too amazing for public television's limited audience. The reason why I think this film is so relevant in my paper, is because of the storyline.
Besides dealing with the lives of two inner city hoop talents, this film is also about the great American racial and economic divide and the everyday struggles of poor, urban blacks. It's about an exploitative sports machine, with coaches and recruiters who lie and deceive, and its also about an elitist educational system that only wants inner-city kids for their athletic talent. And, perhaps most of all, it's about maintaining hope in spite of very, very long odds. I really enjoyed this film, because it was so real. The filming technique was also not like any other movie Id seen before, because it was so granular, because of the documentary format. The unforgettable Rocky was a movie I had seen prior to this.
Rocky is a classic film, despite its cheesy story-lines, and numerous sequels. This movie is about Rocky Balboa, a boxer, who came all the way from punching sides of beef in his native Philadelphia to nearly upsetting world heavyweight champion Apollo Creed. Once again claiming the underdog theme as its story line. This movie is filled with great dialogue, and memorable characters, but most of all it deals with is its climactic fight scene: the epic battle between the arrogant champ -- replete with entourage -- and the great no-name. An effective mixture of graphic ring violence and a musical soundtrack that inspires thoroughly made this movie's fight scene perhaps one of the most exciting ever. The final movie I watched was the classic Hoosiers.
This film is famous for its tale of inspiration about a tiny high school in Indiana, which barely has enough players to field a team. They defeat all odds and this story deals with their great comeback. After viewing this film, it made me realize a lot about sports in general. It seems that all the great sports films have emotional side stories that revolve around the sport. All the great sports films arent just great movies about sports, but they involve other stories besides whats going on, on the court, or on the field.
For instance in Hoosiers deals with the comeback of their coach, the revival of the town drunk Shooter, and most of all the triumph of such a small school in the huge basketball state of Indiana. Like Hoosiers, Rudy is about defeating great odds. Also like Hoosiers, Rudy deals with life outside the sport. In Rudy throughout the story the main character goes through the death of his best friend, the betrayal of his family, discrimination, and also facing personal failure in life. What he does is follow his dream of becoming a football player at Notre Dame. This is a great tie in of events, because it makes the viewer feel so much sorrow and heartache for the main character that in the end they are literally out of their seats cheering him on.
I think the thing that got my emotion tangled up in this movie was when Rudy first sees the Notre Dame field for the first time. The camera usage is amazing, as every blade of grass looks so green, and every other element is so perfect. It was almost as if you were in his mind viewing it for the first time yourself. Then there is the factor of the music. I absolutely loved the music in this film. Im not a fan of classical music, but in this movie the use of it is a necessity to your viewing pleasure.
It seems whoever made this movie knew just the write song to play at the write time. An example of this is in the final scene when Rudy finally gets into the final game of his career with one play left. The music, along with the crowd chanting RUDY, RUDY! ! makes you cringe with excitement in anticipation for what will occur next.
I think the reason Rudy like so many other movies succeed in trapping our hearts, is because we can relate, and it is fact that we cheer for the average human being accomplishing more than they expected to be capable of. I for one think it is a perfectly healthy process to dream beyond what you are capable of. If you dont have dreams or aspirations you dont have hope, and you will never accomplish anything. The other issue is, is that this film is also a true story, which like Hoop Dreams can make you really pay attention, because you are aware when watching it that this actually happened. I can remember when this movie first came out, it didnt get a lot of publicity or even great reviews. I can think back and remember never even seeing it in the theater.
I watched or read some review on it, and they said it was a poor quality film. So I sat back and, being the avid sports person that I am, I waited till it came out on video to rent it. I obviously feel in love with the movie, but the fact is I can see why many critics stereotypes about the sports genres may apply to it I guess. If you dont love sports in the first place I suppose movies like this may not appeal to you, but then again a movie about a piano player may mean exactly what Rudy means to me to a piano lover. The biggest thing I got out of writing this paper, and participating in this class is it gave me a whole new outlook on perceiving things, and opened my mind to a whole new gateway of things in film that I would never have looked for before. I really enjoyed this class and I would encourage others to take it as well.
Free research essays on topics related to: hoop dreams, notre dame, main character, first time, fight scene
Research essay sample on Notre Dame Hoop Dreams
