Rudy inthe raw

Sunday at 8 on USA Network

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AS many people feared it would, the unforgettable, heart-breaking video footage of the World Trade Center towers burning and collapsing on 9/11 has now become fodder for entertainment.

The footage, with attendant scenes of street-level panic and chaos, are cleverly combined with new footage featuring James Woods in the role of Rudolph Giuliani in USA Network’s new movie, “Rudy: The Rudy Giuliani Story,” premiering Sunday.

The scenes effectively re-create the shock and awe of that day, and they’re the most riveting sequences in the movie.

But then again, how could they not be? They’re the most dramatic real-life images most of us will ever witness. They also record the moments when thousands of people died.

For that reason alone, relying on them as the foundation for drama in a made-for-TV movie feels cheap and exploitative.

The 9/11 scenes bracket the entire movie. Based on a book by Wayne Barrett of The Village Voice, “Rudy” begins with the terrorist attacks and then makes its way backward in a series of flashbacks, revisiting 9/11 from time to time.

Thus, we see Rudy meeting Donna Hanover (played by Penelope Ann Miller) on the set of a Miami TV show, and then follow him through his career as a federal prosecutor who emerges as a potential candidate for mayor after making his name battling the mob.

The movie includes all the touchstones of Rudy’s life and times – his campaign to clean up the city by focusing on so-called quality-of-life offenses, the racial divisions that characterized the Giuliani years, his marital strife, cancer battle and most importantly, his leadership on 9/11 and the days that followed.

The movie benefits greatly from the talent of Woods, who lifts every scene he’s in. And since he’s in every scene, he’s really the entire movie.

Episodes in the former mayor’s romantic life – including his relationships with Christyne Lategano and Judith Nathan while still married – are among the least effective, if only because it’s always been difficult to accept the tough-as-nails mayor as some sort of ladykiller, true as the stories might be.

All in all, “Rudy” provides a pretty fair account of the Giuliani saga, despite its compression into just two hours.