1 Toruno Justin Toruno HUM 3321 17 7/28/07 Word Count 1,616 Final Essay Success and achieving one's goal are always portrayed in very different ways but throughout a variety of movies. Majority of the time when stories of success are brought from the depths of the hero's thoughts and displayed on the silver screen, directors will often leave out certain details that would make the hero seem, not so loved and brilliant. Often, when telling stories of success, majority of what is told are the key details that emphasize on the hero's highlights rather then show his downfalls and blunders. Rudy is a film about a young man who had dreams of playing football for The Fighting Irish at Norte Dame. Unfortunately, his grades are not the best and he is undersized to play football at the university. As Rudy set his dreams on gaining entry to The University of Norte Dame, he had to attend junior college to boost up his grade point average and at the same time, train on his own so he would be ready for the next season of Norte Dame Football. Along the way, Rudy goes through many hardships that would deter most people. Rudy is constantly being put down by his elders and how he will never succeed in obtaining his dreams and goals. His high school teacher even shows his negative attitude towards Rudy when he attempts to visit the campus of The University of Norte Dame. Rudy's main source of negativity however, came straight from his family. His older brother constantly put him down saying that he was chasing a childhood dream and that he was silly for doing so. While attending junior college, his final blow came when he returned back home to find out that his girlfriend of more then a couple of
Toruno 2 years, had left him for another one of his brothers. Even with all the turmoil that Rudy goes through with his family, he still has other problems such as getting into The University of Norte Dame. Rudy receives rejection after rejection when trying to transfer from the junior college and his acceptance finally came on the last time he could apply to get into the university. However, Rudy's will and determination was his key factor in achieving and succeeding in his goal. As the movie, Rudy, unfolds we learn more and more of the main character, Daniel "Rudy" Ruettiger, and how he comes from a large family where he does not receive the attention a son would from a normal sized family of two or three kids. This main ingredient of a large family and kid trapped right in the middle is a story of success in the making. This is because when someone is being suppressed as much as Rudy was and always being told that he will never achieve his dream, he is bound to strike out in a way that will separate him from the rest of his siblings. Rudy does this by leaving the small town he resides in with his family, and attends a junior college that is the sister school of The University of Norte Dame. These are the type of events that make a success story develop into what people want to see in a movie. People do not go to movies to watch someone try to succeed in their dreams and fail; they go see a movie like, Rudy, to see them achieve their goal, even if they fail at first. When key parts of a success story are left out, it is usually something that the director or the person who the movies being based off of, does not want people to see. These types of embarrassments are seen as something that would destroy the entire character as being the hero that everyone loves. Of course, not all things that are left out of success stories such as Rudy are negative. Sometimes, there are so many details and so many characters in the hero's life that it is to much information to put into one movie. Also, directors may change certain details of a movie to make it flow better as the story develops. For example, in Rudy, there was a very influential priest that helped Rudy overcome many of his problems while he was going through
Toruno 3 junior college. In the actual story of Rudy, there were actually three priests that helped him through his problems, but there was not enough time in the movie to develop all three priests, so they rolled all into one. Another very important detail that was added into the movie was the addition of a fictional character that played as the groundskeeper. This character was fabricated for the sole purpose of condensing many people the real Rudy met that had given him their wisdom and insight his to problems. Also, in the movie, they had Rudy sleeping in the maintenance room at the football stadium, but in reality, the real Rudy actually slept in the basketball arena where they had a room. All these changes throughout the movie help it develop into a more understandable story of success. Besides the fact that the certain aspects of the real story are changed on their way to the silver screen, usually when stories, such as Rudy's, are put from words to pictures, you will find little secrets throughout the movie. For example, the real Rudy appeared in the film, not as a main character or even as a supporting character, but as an extra. The real Rudy can be seen standing behind he movie father during the final game of Rudy's senior year. This is not just an isolated idea, but the real hero's of stories of success usually end up being an extra in their movie. After Rudy has made it into the University of Norte Dame, he walks onto the football team. To his own surprise, he makes the practice squad and gives it his all every single day he is out there. As Rudy's time as a football player gets closer and closer to the end, he eventually is promised playing time from the head coach. Unfortunately, the coach is replaced before he was ever able to run out of the tunnel and into glory. In the movie, the new head coach, Dan Devine, is shown as a person who is totally against letting Rudy dress out in the uniform. But, the director of the movie wanted to portray Devine's character as being really hard on Rudy, when in reality; it was Devine's idea to let Rudy dress out and run onto the field.
Toruno 4 The director obviously left and added certain key parts and characters to help make the hero seem like he had more of a difficult struggle to obtain his goal. This is usually done in almost all cases when these types of movies are being made. As previously stated people want to see a movie that is based on success and want to see the main character, succeed in whatever they are after. Of course, there are times when directors need to add some sort of fabricated detail just to give the plot some excitement rather then keep a very boring storyline. But when the directors do make an adjustment to the hero's story, they are sure not misconstrue their story to much to the point where they are telling a lie. The reason why Rudy succeeded in obtaining his goal and dream of being able to walk out of the tunnel during a football game is due to several reasons. I say this because many people try to play football that are just as determined as Rudy was but, fail. They fail because not all coaches are willing to even blink an eye towards someone who is undersized during tryouts. I believe that Rudy came to tryout on a day when one of the coaches was feeling very open to seeing someone out of the norm, and in this case, it was someone who did not look like your typical college football player. This is what made Rudy such a success, not only did Rudy have such a strong desire to make the team that he put every ounce effort on that practice field, but because the coach that believed he would be a great prospect to the team. Even if he was only on the practice squad, Rudy still encouraged the real players to always give it their all. The one detail that will never be changed in history or in movie is how Rudy was carried off the field. At no point in time before or after this has any University of Norte Dame football player, been carried off the field. There have been countless stories of success that have made it to the big screen and all of them unique in their own way. Rudy was an excellent example to write an essay about how success is portrayed in films. It shows, after a little research, that certain details were slightly
Toruno 5 askew because the director knows that it will make the movie flow better. Majority of success stories that are retold, but in pictures, will show the same evidence that the movie Rudy has shown to be slightly altered, but for the better of it to make it more understandable. Without having movies that help build up people's confidence, there would be no more personal stories of success to make movies about, and possibly no more motivational speakers because there would be nothing to inspire them. Often, when telling stories of success, majority of what is told are the key details that emphasize on the hero's highlights rather then show his downfalls and blunders.