Rudy: The Rudy Giuliani Story
September 2003 Reviewed by: Wes Phillips Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

Rudolph Giuliani remains a controversial figure -- ambitious, abrasive, frequently insensitive -- but even his detractors admit that he has had moments of greatness, particularly in the seconds, hours, and days following the attacks on the World Trade Center on 11 September, 2001.

Rudy: The Rudy Giuliani Story is a made-for-TV film that uses those pivotal events as a framing device for a headlong look at Giuliani's life, mixing documentary footage with dramatic historical re-creations.

James Woods does a wonderful job at sketching Giuliani’s character -- never descending into mere mimicry. He captures the bluster extremely well, and even lifts the veil concealing the man's ongoing second-guessing of his rivals, his colleagues and, most revealingly, of himself. It is an acting triumph for Woods who has all too frequently seemed to be slumming in material not worthy of his talents. The rest of the cast is fine, though relegated to little more than walk-on roles.

The title is accurate -- this is Rudy's story. Unfortunately, it tackles a complex, fascinating personality in a scant 91-minute running time, so most of the events it depicts are no more than allusions to the big plot points leading up to 9/11 and its aftermath. Giuliani's early notoriety as the Assistant AG who prosecuted Haitian boat people is merely used as a setup for his first encounter with Donna Hanover (Miller), who later became his wife. More attention is paid to his role as Manhattan DA when he attacked the mob, and then campaigned against David Dinkins, culminating in his election as mayor.

The most detailed portion of the film concerns Giuliani's personal life: his wooing of and marriage to Hanover, his fight with cancer, and his relationship with Judith Nathan (Bishop). There is a strong implication that he had an affair with his press aide, Christyne Lategano (Nolden) -- long rumored, never confirmed.

However, the events following the terrorist attack on the WTC form the backbone of this particular tale, as they should. Giuliani's actions on September 11 and the days that followed brought out his best qualities: workaholism, a strong sense of duty, his immense love of New York (particularly of its uniformed public servants), and his personal courage. This is where the film's strengths and shortcomings come to the forefront.

In terms of capturing Giuliani's actions, Rudy does a great job, but the juxtaposition of documentary footage with scenes shot on a sound stage (many in Montreal) merely highlights how impossible it is to match the awesome realities of the events themselves. The re-creations look fake, taking the viewer out of the dramatic moment established by the documentary footage.

It is hard to imagine how the filmmakers could have overcome this deficiency. Even full-scale re-creations of 9/11 would lack verisimilitude compared to the real thing, and it would have been impossible to leave those events out of this particular tale.

The DVD includes a 61-minute documentary, The Day the Towers Fell, which interviews several photographers who covered the story. It's a powerful piece of work -- and includes a story I'd never heard before: how the city's boating community helped evacuate lower Manhattan on a day when all the trains and buses stopped working.

Other extras include a time-line of Giuliani's life. The single disc contains widescreen and full-screen versions of the film, both very decent transfers. The film's sound is clear, but undistinguished.

I enjoyed Rudy: The Rudy Giuliani Story more than I expected, but not enough to want to see it a second time. Your mileage may vary, of course, but I suspect that the final version of this tale will need to be told in the fullness of time. At the moment, Giuliani's story does not have its final chapter and we lack the perspective to judge his accomplishments truly. Both Woods and The Day the Towers Fell, by the way, have been nominated for awards.

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