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wombat_sochoWell, not really shojo, because Rudy is nobody's idea of a chick flick, but there's some tropes in there that look awfully familiar.
There's a plot summary here if you want one, but boiled down to its essentials this is the story of someone who believed they could do what everyone else said was impossible. Hard work and persistence earn our hero a place at Notre Dame in his senior year after four years in a steel mill and three years' brain sweat at Holy Cross Junior College; the same hard work and persistence earn him a spot on the scout team, a "opposing forces" squad that the varsity uses to sharpen up for the real games. Scout team members are eminently expendable; as the coach says on the opening day of walk-on tryouts, "You're on the scout team because frankly, we don't care if you get hurt." Rudy's all-out style antagonizes some players, but over the course of the year he wins over the majority of the varsity players, and eventually he gets the chance he's always dreamed of - to run out of the tunnel at the stadium and play on the team in a real game.
Sounds like a lot of shojo anime I've watched - all full of believing in yourself and not giving up and working hard. It's inspirational, and it's very good. The movie had a couple of scenes where I fully understood how mundanes think about fans, because Rudy is a total Notre Dame football otaku. He memorizes motivational speeches by legendary coach Ara Parseghian. He knows all manner of obscure trivia about the team, and is more than happy to share it. At great length. Sound familiar? ;)
Anyway, great movie. I'll probably be watching this one again soon.
There's a plot summary here if you want one, but boiled down to its essentials this is the story of someone who believed they could do what everyone else said was impossible. Hard work and persistence earn our hero a place at Notre Dame in his senior year after four years in a steel mill and three years' brain sweat at Holy Cross Junior College; the same hard work and persistence earn him a spot on the scout team, a "opposing forces" squad that the varsity uses to sharpen up for the real games. Scout team members are eminently expendable; as the coach says on the opening day of walk-on tryouts, "You're on the scout team because frankly, we don't care if you get hurt." Rudy's all-out style antagonizes some players, but over the course of the year he wins over the majority of the varsity players, and eventually he gets the chance he's always dreamed of - to run out of the tunnel at the stadium and play on the team in a real game.
Sounds like a lot of shojo anime I've watched - all full of believing in yourself and not giving up and working hard. It's inspirational, and it's very good. The movie had a couple of scenes where I fully understood how mundanes think about fans, because Rudy is a total Notre Dame football otaku. He memorizes motivational speeches by legendary coach Ara Parseghian. He knows all manner of obscure trivia about the team, and is more than happy to share it. At great length. Sound familiar? ;)
Anyway, great movie. I'll probably be watching this one again soon.
