Almost a decade after their first sports-themed collaboration, the basketball classic Hoosiers, composer
Jerry Goldsmith reunited with director David Anspaugh for 1993's Rudy, the inspirational true-life tale of Daniel Ruettiger, a walk-on football player who beats the odds to earn a spot on the Notre Dame roster.
Goldsmith's score effortlessly communicates the commitment and will that drive Rudy to succeed, and what would no doubt seem mawkish and sentimental in the hands of a lesser composer proves genuinely rousing here. Themes like "Take Us Out" capture the power and glory of the gridiron in vivid detail.