Jim Thorpe -- All-American (1951)

Billy Gray: Jim Thorpe - as a Boy

Quotes 

• Jim Thorpe - as a Boy : [Young Jim returns home and hugs his grandmother]  Oh, Grandmother.

  Charlotte Thorpe : Jim!

  Hiram Thorpe : [Hiram pulls the wagon to a stop]  Whoa. Well, the boy's in school, Charlotte. I think he'll stay there this time. I took him far enough away...

  Hiram Thorpe : [Hiram sees Jim holding a horse's reins]  Jim? How'd you get here?

  Charlotte Thorpe : He ran.

  Hiram Thorpe : You ran 15 miles?

  Jim Thorpe - as a Boy : Only 12, Pa. I came through the hills.

  Hiram Thorpe : Did you hear that, Charlotte? 12 miles through the hills.

  Charlotte Thorpe : I hope he enjoyed it, because he goes back to school tomorrow.

  Jim Thorpe - as a Boy : I'll run away.

  Charlotte Thorpe : You're his father. You taught him all the things he likes to do; now teach him what he has to do.

• Hiram Thorpe : Jim? Jim, you going back to school?

  Jim Thorpe - as a Boy : No.

  Hiram Thorpe : Come here. I ain't never took a whip to you, Jim, and I ain't gonna start. Come here. Look out there, what do you see?

  Jim Thorpe - as a Boy : Coyote Run, where I've got my traps set.

  Hiram Thorpe : What else?

  Jim Thorpe - as a Boy : A hollow cottonwood where the owl lives. Three buzzards circling a dead lamb.

  Hiram Thorpe : Do you see yellow fields of grain? Do you see fat herds grazing on young prairie grass?

  Jim Thorpe - as a Boy : No.

  Hiram Thorpe : That's right, you don't see nothing but a boy's world. That's all you'll ever see here on the reservation. They'll give you a piece of land, and you can sit around wrapped in a blanket. Or else, you can try to make something of yourself, be something.

  Jim Thorpe - as a Boy : Be what, Pa?

  Hiram Thorpe : Whatever you want to be, boy. It's all in the books, and the books are in the schools.

  Jim Thorpe - as a Boy : But I don't like school.

  Hiram Thorpe : You must change, Jim, for your own good. Just let the white man teach you his ways. Before you know it, you'll be out in the world, with your head full of learning... and you'll make your people proud of you.

  Jim Thorpe - as a Boy : Do you want me to go away?

  Hiram Thorpe : No, boy. I'd rather have you here with me, but I know it's the right thing to do, and I know something else.

  Jim Thorpe - as a Boy : What, Pa?

  Hiram Thorpe : Anybody wants something from you, he ain't gonna get it by whipping you.

  [Jim hugs his father]