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Interestingly, Goldsmith's score has also come under an unfair share of criticism and has experienced a slight backlash due to its immense popularity. One published argument against it many years ago claimed that the score is a softly repetitive, non-complex, and bland piece of music. Others have criticized the score and album for not including enough Irish spirit or simply the theme song for the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame. Most of these arguments, however, come from the mainstream, a mass that doesn't much care for Goldsmith's early 1990's habit of concentrating on character scores like Angie, Love Field, and Forever Young. As for the complaints about a lack of Irish flavor, Goldsmith integrates hints of old Irish influence into the swing of his secondary theme for the football sequences, leading to some general similarities between the rhythmic movement of this theme in Rudy and the far more verbose variant of the same idea to be heard in The Ghost and the Darkness. There is some merit to criticism about Rudy's simplicity; the score is really nothing more than an alternation between its two primary themes. Not a cue on the album passes without either one of the two themes in performance, and as such, the short length of the album is quite welcomed. Both themes have merits, though one easily overshadows the other. The weaker is ironically the title theme, representing the heart of the title character during his journey. The most robust performances of this tender theme exist in "Main Title," which is actually heard over the end titles in the film (the real opening cue is not provided on the jumbled album), and the climactic performance in "The Final Game." While the theme utilizes the same pleasant woodwind performances of a score like Powder, Goldsmith here emphasizes the larger than life aspirations of Rudy with a light choral accompaniment. The choral contribution in the two aforementioned cues is sometimes mixed so conservatively that you can barely determine its presence, and this very slight handling of the fantasy element continues until a full burst at the end of the film. Some listeners will find this theme too sappy for enjoyment, and if you don't typically appreciate Goldsmith's highly personal woodwind themes of the era, then you'll easily favor the more memorable secondary theme in the score.

The most attractive parts of Rudy exhibit the rhythmically charging, optimistic theme for the football sequences themselves. Just as Goldsmith used a secondary theme in Hoosiers to anticipate and drive the action on the basketball court, he creates a theme and accompanying rhythm that builds in intensity throughout the score as Rudy comes closer to realizing his dream. While only suggested in "A Start," the theme begins innocently (as Rudy watches the practice scrimmages of the Notre Dame team) with solo woodwind in "Waiting" before handing off to solo trumpet and eventually involving the entire ensemble in subsequent cues. In "Back on the Field" and "Tryouts," the theme is accompanied by rumbling timpani and (eventually) tambourine, with the string and brass sections alternating primary and counterpoint statements of the deliberate, but powerful progression. By the final game of the season, heard in "Take Us Out" and "The Final Game," this theme is joined by snare rips and a significantly more anxious tempo. This theme so well balances the competitive spirit of the game with the fierce determination of Rudy that the maturation of this theme throughout the score is one of the highlights of Goldsmith's later career. The ambitious merging of the two primary themes in "The Final Game" would cause the performing ensemble to give the composer a standing ovation at the end of the recording of that cue. The affect of the score on the film is, as with Hoosiers, immeasurable, and the score is a necessary inclusion for any Goldsmith collector. Additionally, it has been suggested that the theme that Goldsmith wrote for the football sequences in Rudy is the best ever written to represent the game, regardless of the college or professional level. In 2006, NBC commissioned John Williams to write a theme for their newly acquired Sunday Night Football broadcasts, and while adequate in its task, its trumpet-heavy flair has never seemed appropriate for the bold brutality of the sport. Anyone who has heard the cue "Take Us Out" from Rudy could likely make a strong argument that these two minutes of music would much better serve as an orchestral football anthem. On the whole, this score may not have the powerful appeal of Hoosiers, but it remains one of the more remarkable sports-related scores ever written.  ****   @Amazon.com: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Jerry Goldsmith reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.29 (in 113 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.31 (in 143,701 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.

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