Rudy: The Rudy Giuliani Story (2003) (TV)

Director:

Robert Dornhelm

Writers (WGA):

Wayne Barrett (book)
Stanley Weiser (written by)

Release Date:

30 March 2003 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama

Tagline:

He divided a city. He united a nation.

Plot:

Biographic movie of the witty, overachieving, hot-tempered Rudy Giuliani, spaning from his rising days...

Plot Keywords:

New York City | Mayor | September 11 2001 | Terrorism | World Trade Center New York City

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Primetime Emmys. Another 2 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

James Woods	...	Rudolph 'Rudy' Giuliani
Penelope Ann Miller	...	Donna Hanover
Michelle Nolden	...	Cristyne Lategano
John Bourgeois	...	Peter Powers
Kirsten Bishop	...	Judith Nathan (as Kirsten Bishopric)
Mark Camacho	...	Tony Carbonetti
Maxim Roy	...	Beth Petrone
Mariah Inger	...	Carrie Foster
Sam Stone	...	Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik
Michael Jeffrey Woods	...	Sam (as Michael Woods)
Brian Wrench	...	Bill Simon
Alan Fawcett	...	FDNY Chief Peter Ganci
Philip Pretten	...	FDNY Commissioner Thomas Von Essen
Philip Spensley	...	Howard Safir
Francis X. McCarthy	...	Jim Kossler (as Francis-Xavier McCarthy)

Also Known As:

Rudy! (USA) (working title)
Rudy's Wars (New Zealand: English title)

Runtime:

120 min | Argentina:104 min | UK:93 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Singapore:PG | Netherlands:MG6 | Finland:K-7 | Argentina:13 | UK:PG | Norway:11

Filming Locations:

Montréal, Québec, Canada

Company:

Carlton America

Trivia:

Real footage of the 11 September 2001 attacks was used.

Goofs:

Continuity: In the scene where Giuliani is telling his wife about going after the crime bosses, as she approaches, he lifts up the cigar in his left hand, but in the next shot, the hand with the cigar is back on the table and never lifts it up.

Quotes:

[During a memorial service for a FDNY officer.]
Rudy Giuliani: September 11th... was the worst day in the history of this city. And it will never be the same. In the aftermath of destruction, the loss of life was almost too much to bear. And it will be, for some time.
[pause]
Rudy Giuliani: I met Captain Timothy Stackpole at the Burn Unit, Cornell Medical Center, in 1998. And I remember him saying, 'My mother always warned me I should put on clean underwear, but I forgot to put them on today.' On September 11, Captain Timothy Stackpole formed a company of firefighters...

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Saturday Night Live: Kirsten Dunst/Eminem (#27.19)" (2002)

Rudy Toot Toot

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