Rudy - The Rudy Giuliani Story

Starring:James Woods, Penelope Ann Miller, Michelle Nolden, John Bourgeois, Kirsten Bishop, Mark Camacho, Maxim Roy, Sam Stone, Mariah Inger, Michael Jeffrey Woods, Brian Wrench, Alan Fawcett, Philip Pretten, Philip Spensley, Francis X. McCarthy, Jim McNabb, Jack Langedijk, Vlasta Vrana, Ted Whittall, Jesse Camacho
Director: Robert Dornhelm
Studio: Bfs Entertainment
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
With a standout performance by James Woods, Rudy: The Rudolph Giuliani Story is a warts-and-all portrait of New York City's lame-duck mayor, who rose from political disfavor to unexpected heights of heroism and leadership in the wake of September 11, 2001. Originally broadcast on the USA Network and based on Wayne Barrett's muckraking biography, it's a condensed, Cliff's Notes rendition of Giuliani's political career, with each commercial break serving as a chapter stop, beginning on the eve of 9/11 and alternating past and present highlights from Giuliani's rise to power. The film offers an unflinching portrait of a devoted public servant who's as fallible as he is competent: his wife (Penelope Ann Miller) understandably suffers while extramarital affairs and political fearlessness are all seen as byproducts of Giuliani's compulsion to improve the city he loves. As Robert Dornhelm's clunky direction combines actual news footage with exacting recreations of 9/11 and its aftermath, Woods's charismatic performance wisely avoids mimicry to show us a flawed but noble man who, in the final analysis, deserves our conditional respect. --Jeff Shannon
Description
When two hijacked planes crashed into New York's World Trade Center, one man rose to save the city. To his political opponents, Mayor Rudy Giuliani (James Woods) was a bully and a tyrant. To women, he was irresistible, but couldn't be faithful. Yet, on 9/11, he became an American hero. This is the inside story of the man who held a terrified city - and a shaken nation - together with sheer guts and heart as the skies rained fire on its citizens.

From his days as a tenacious D.A. to the mistresses who put him in the headlines, see how the events of his complicated life all led to one moment of extraordinary courage. Scandal may have rocked his personal life, ego may have dominated his professional life - but when it really mattered, Rudy stood tall even as the Twin Towers crumbled.

Amazon.com

With a standout performance by James Woods, Rudy: The Rudolph Giuliani Story is a warts-and-all portrait of New York City's lame-duck mayor, who rose from political disfavor to unexpected heights of heroism and leadership in the wake of September 11, 2001. Originally broadcast on the USA Network and based on Wayne Barrett's muckraking biography, it's a condensed, Cliff's Notes rendition of Giuliani's political career, with each commercial break serving as a chapter stop, beginning on the eve of 9/11 and alternating past and present highlights from Giuliani's rise to power. The film offers an unflinching portrait of a devoted public servant who's as fallible as he is competent: his wife (Penelope Ann Miller) understandably suffers while extramarital affairs and political fearlessness are all seen as byproducts of Giuliani's compulsion to improve the city he loves. As Robert Dornhelm's clunky direction combines actual news footage with exacting recreations of 9/11 and its aftermath, Woods's charismatic performance wisely avoids mimicry to show us a flawed but noble man who, in the final analysis, deserves our conditional respect. --Jeff Shannon

Description

When two hijacked planes crashed into New York's World Trade Center, one man rose to save the city. To his political opponents, Mayor Rudy Giuliani (James Woods) was a bully and a tyrant. To women, he was irresistible, but couldn't be faithful. Yet, on 9/11, he became an American hero. This is the inside story of the man who held a terrified city - and a shaken nation - together with sheer guts and heart as the skies rained fire on its citizens.

Customer Reviews:

Rudy as Abrasive Egomaniac.......2004-03-02

I recall meeting Rudy Giuliani at a book signing. The bookstore employees warned us several times that Giuliani will be unable to speak with us or personalize the signatures because the turnout was much greater than expected. When we got there, he very pleasantly asked us how we were, what our names were, gave us a personalized signature and wished us a good day. He struck me as someone who, generally, would be a decent person to work with. I realize he is a politician and politicians know its wise to be pleasant in public, but this side of Giuliani was missing from this documentary. The Giuliani of this documentary is an egomaniac who's abrasive 100% of the time. This documentary definitely gives you the feeling that you have to be obnoxious to get ahead.

The flashbacks between September 11 and the chronological depiction of his life were done unskillfully, at best.

Among the "special features" is a documentary on September 11 from the perspective of the photographers that was created with much more skill.

I can imagine some reasons to buy this DVD, certainly for a school library or as audiovisual material for a current events class. May be worth watching once. However, I doubt anyone would watch this more than once.

Woods is great but the film is a hatchet job on Rudy........2004-01-02

I have always liked James Woods and I always will. I did not much care for this film despite Woods' fine portrayal of Giuliani. The film is watchable, and more than watchable, that I'll grant. But it focuses obsessively on Giiuliani's marital problems and foibles, and only touches briefly on the truly wonderful things he did for New York. Golly, you don't suppose the producers were Democrats, do you? I mean, you could almost feel the pain of the producers of this film each time they were forced to discuss something intelligent that Giuliani did as mayor, and then of course the film would snap back to its main theme--that Giuliani was possibly a less-than-ideal husband or has other faults as a person, i.e. ego, ambition, vanity. What great man or woman lacks these traits, anyway? Nothing wrong with including this as part of the film, but I felt that the story lacked balance and shows an underlying hostility to what Giuliani set out to and did accomplish as mayor of New York.

I was disappointed in the film and the only good thing about it is James Woods. He makes the film watchable, but this movie falls far short of its potential. Then again, one cannot realistically expect Hollywood to make a movie about conservative politics rescuing New York City from turning into an ungovernable mess.

James Woods Shines.......2003-11-30

This is a fascinating portrait of a complex political figure. James Woods gives an incredible performance. That said the film suffers greatly from an abrupt and weak ending. I also didn't understand some the of characters...The people in his life. Some of their motives and their backgrounds just weren't clear enough. Worth seeing for the effective 9/11 sequences and for Woods'performance in the title role.

Good.......2003-11-04

James Woods actually looks pretty much like Guiliani and he acts beautifully as always but I must admit this movie could have been heaps better. Anyways, watching it means going back through september eleven again and it hurts just as when it first happened. It made me cry. Also there's things we never knew about Guiliani's life. According to the movie he made New York better than it was so...well done Rudy.

A good film but lacks some items.......2003-11-01

This film based on a book called 'Rudy' is sopposed to tell the inside story of 'Americas Mayor'. It does a commendable job. It looks at Rudy's early courtship of Donna Hannover. It looks at Rudy's role in breaking the mafia and wall street, which gained him fame. It looks at Rudies first dismall election campaign and the pogroms and upheavels of the Dinkins stagnation. It looks at Rudy's many quirks and his affairs with Christine Latigano and his subsequent affair that ended his marriage. The meeting with Ray Harding of the Liberal party is portrayed well as is the infighting on his campaign and his relentless crusade to cut useless jobs at city hall.

It looks at his conflict with Bracken and the Amadou Dialo killing.

Yet the movies failure is in its odd portrayel of Sept 11th. Although the scenes are shocking the moves cinematography of the Sept 11th incident feels to much like a soap opera, rather then the 'real life' portrayel the directors were going for. I think the scenes could have been better. Nevertheless I loved the use of real footage from Sept 11th, soemthing we dotn see anough of.

I was dismayed not to see more of Rudys crusade against the Bums, against the honking and throwing Arafat out of the U.N as well as his attack on the diplomatic parking problems in N.Y.

Guliani was the biggest of the big mayors, like a modern day Laguardia. THis is a great film but it does lack somethings and does miss the boat in some scenes. The latigano affair was emphasized at the expense of losing coverage of some of the great quirks and crusades of the Guliani era which cleaned up the city.

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