Rudy: The Rudy Giuliani Story

Rudy is the TV film shown recently on USA starring James Woods as Rudolph Giuliani. It begins on September 10th, 2001 and then when the tragedy hits we go to flashbacks starting in 1982 when Rudy was associate Attorney General. The back and forth between the present (September 11th) and his past is a hard to pull off editing job that works well.

The 911 scenes go back and forth between actual footage Woods' portrayal, which again is effective and realistic. To his credit Woods didn't try to assume the mannerisms of Rudy too much so avoided the danger of lapsing into parody, but rather played the role as intense high drama...which wasn't exactly appropriate to Rudy's more low key reality.

Other flashbacks we get are 1984 when he's the US Attorney in New York who cracks down on the Mafia, 1989 when he loses the Mayoral race to Dinkins, 1992 when he grandstands for racist cops, 1993 when he wins the Mayoral election, as well as his marriage and his 2 extramarital relationships.

Overall a sympathetic portrayal of 2 decades of public office which of course culminates in 911, which is really what most of the film appropriately points towards. You will come away respecting Rudy if perhaps not agreeing with him.

Finally it's significant that James Woods got this role, as he noticed the highjackers on previous "test flights" and he reported his suspicions to the flight attendant. He reported it to the FBI post-911 and they confirmed they were the highjackers on his flight.

It's too bad the talented Penelope Ann Miller was cast in this garbage! Her talent and acting ability should be used for much better roles than this. As usual, Penelope is always outstanding, no matter what she is in but this role was sickening. Hope to see her in better stuff than this in the future.

STAR RATING:*****Unmissable****Very Good***Okay**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead*Avoid At All Costs

It would have to have been Ray Liotta in the title role.He's probably the only other actor who could stand a chance of matching the nigh on terrifying manic intensity with which he plays Giuliani.This aside,this biopic,charting Giuliani's rise and fall to triumphant rise again as mayor of New York,from his initiation in 1994 to his prostate cancer scare in 2000,to his leadership during the dark days of and the aftermath of the notorious twin towers attack in 2001,is dogged by other problems.It's TV movie all the way,with see through production values and what's almost certainly borrowed real life footage,and it's ultimately told in too much of a downbeat and depressing way to be truly endearing.But it's not completely unwatchable.**

A superficial puff-piece about a fascinating political character that stays so much on the surface that it verges on soft-core propaganda. Neither James Woods nor the script really bears a particularly close resemblance to Guiliani, both making him look better than he really was.

One example that can symbolize many others: Guiliani is shown as a devoted Yankee fan, but there is no mention of his various overt and covert efforts to funnel millions of public dollars to George Steinbrenner and his baseball team.

The director's and writer's point of view is not only essentially pro-Guiliani, but the narrative framework is also centered within his political cadre, rather than being informed by the insights of detached and balanced observers.

I would have liked to have seen more about where Rudy came from -- geographically, socially, and psychologically -- to help understand how he became such a capable yet massively flawed figure on the New York political stage. This movie trivializes its subject matter, focussing on a two-dimensional cutout rather than a three-dimensional character within a complex context.

I was all waiting for 'Rudy' which profiled mostly the latter years of Rudolph Guliani to be mostly a puff piece, since I have seen the (excellent) critical documentary on him, Guliani Time. But actually, I was quite pleasantly surprised at how balanced this seemed to be. While I'm some people are jumping up and down protesting that last comment, let me explain. I'm sure there are very very deep explanations about the flaws and mistakes Guliani made that were basically brushed over in this film, but really, with a 90 (??!??) minute time frame, how much info can you put in? This isn't a fluff piece, Guliani's mistakes, including his ridiculous womanizing, his almost fascist stance on crime, and his deep dark family past are all examined, and of course, that all disappeared when he was made into a National Hero because of 9/11. I mean, this is not the first time a guy with a dark history walked away a winner is it? The film itself looks amazing. I really like the mixture of video (for the 9/11 scenes) and film (for all the back story), it deftly cuts into stock footage seamlessly, and this looks quite amazing.

The only problem I have, believe it or not, is James Woods playing Rudy. Not that I don't consider him a fine actor (which of course I do) it's just that whenever I see him as Guliani, I see Roy Cohn. LOL