Rudy (1993) — the second production, fifty-two years later

Filmed October–December 1992 · TriStar Pictures / Fried–Woods Films · released 13 October 1993

The production record: The fullest account of the Rudy shoot that the record holds is the one the American Film Institute compiled from the production notes preserved in the Academy's library files, and this entry follows it. The fifty-day shoot, the notes say, began in South Bend in late October 1992, and six weeks of filming took place at Notre Dame, at Holy Cross Junior College, and at a local bar the notes name as Cap N' Cork; the Notre Dame locations the notes enumerate are the twin lakes, Notre Dame Stadium — the notes call it, in period fashion, Knute Rockne Stadium — the Church of the Sacred Heart and the Golden Dome. Crowd scenes were filmed at halftime during Notre Dame's games against Boston College and Penn State; the climactic scene, in which the players carry Rudy off the field, was filmed during the Boston College game, and the 59,000 fans in attendance were enlisted to chant Rudy's name. The university's own Notre Dame Report, telling its readers the premiere was coming, put the crowd figure at 59,075 and the date at the victory over Boston College on 7 November. The football action scenes were shot by NFL Films, the league's cinematic arm. After the six weeks here, the production moved to Chicago, where the Thompson Steel Mill, just south of the city, was filmed, and the nearby town of Whiting, Indiana, stood in for Joliet, Illinois — the film's Illinois childhood is Indiana ground, as the Famous Locations history notes. The picture was directed by David Anspaugh from Angelo Pizzo's screenplay — the pair who had made Hoosiers — produced by Robert N. Fried and Cary Woods, with Daniel Ruettiger himself as consultant, and released 13 October 1993.

The dates, printed as the record gives them: Two points of the production chronology stand in the sources unreconciled, and both print. The film's published production histories give the first day of filming as 24 October 1992; the AFI catalog gives the production dates as 26 October to mid or late December 1992, and its summary of the Academy's production notes likewise has the shoot beginning 26 October. And the South Bend premiere stands on two dates one day apart: the Notre Dame Report announced, and the Morris's own history records, a premiere on 5 October 1993 at the Morris Civic Auditorium, a benefit sponsored jointly by the university and the city with the proceeds divided between South Bend's Center for the Homeless and a second beneficiary; the AFI's premiere information gives the South Bend premiere as 6 October 1993. Neither pair is averaged here.

The city's own ground in the film: Beyond the campus and Holy Cross, the production worked one documented unit in the city itself, and it belongs to the Bars history's telling: filming Pete's funeral at St. Casimir parish on the west side, the company found Joe's Tavern, at 1201 Dunham Street, down the street, and shot the brothers' bar-fight scene in it — Joe's plays a Joliet bar in the finished film, and its co-owner's first-hand account, published in Notre Dame Magazine, calls it "the other Rudy bar," the famous one being the bar on LaSalle Avenue that took the film's name. That bar stands in the record under two names, as the Famous Locations history prints them without choosing: the production notes and the published location lists call it Cap N' Cork — the Cap and Cork of the Bars history, which its buyer renamed for the film — and a university photo caption of the filming calls it Corby's. The university's histories fix the film's place in the campus record in one sentence, which this section adopts as its own: Rudy was the first film the administration allowed to be shot on campus since Knute Rockne, All American in 1940.

Sources

1. AFI Catalog of Feature Films, Rudy — production companies (TriStar Pictures; Fried/Woods Films); producers Robert N. Fried and Cary Woods, co-producer Angelo Pizzo; production dates 26 October–mid or late December 1992; South Bend premiere 6 October 1993 in the catalog's premiere information; the summary of the production notes in the AMPAS library files (the fifty-day shoot beginning 26 October 1992 in South Bend; six weeks at Notre Dame, Holy Cross Junior College and Cap N' Cork; the twin lakes, the stadium, the Church of the Sacred Heart and the Golden Dome; the halftime crowd scenes at the Boston College and Penn State games; the carry-off filmed at the Boston College game before 59,000 fans; NFL Films on the football action; the move to Chicago and Whiting).
2. Notre Dame Report, 1 October 1993 (University of Notre Dame Archives) — the premiere of 5 October at the Morris Civic Auditorium, a benefit sponsored jointly by the university and the city for the Center for the Homeless; the first film produced with the university's cooperation since Knute Rockne: All American in 1940; the climax re-enacted at halftime of the Boston College victory of 7 November, with 59,075 fans as extras.
3. The film's published production histories — filming commenced 24 October 1992; the fifty-day shoot; the same location list.
4. Mike Schmuhl, "Another Round at Joe's," Notre Dame Magazine (2026), carried whole in the Bars & Nightclubs history in this record (Bars & Nightclubs, bnc-joes) — the 1992 filming of Pete's funeral at St. Casimir and the bar-fight scene at Joe's Tavern, 1201 Dunham Street; pointed to here, not retold.
5. The Famous Locations history in this record (Famous Landmarks, sb-fl-screen-map and sb-fl-morris) — the screen map and the Morris premiere; the Cap'n Cork / Corby's naming as the record gives it.