User Reviews

In a recent biography of Burt Lancaster I read that Lancaster had to learn the sport of football in order to play Jim Thorpe. It wasn't something he played growing up on the streets of East Harlem back in the Teens and Twenties. Of course Burt's natural athleticism stood him in good stead in this part. He got a better biographical treatment than Babe Ruth did who was the runner up in the competition for greatest male athlete of the century.

Both Thorpe and Ruth certainly abused their bodies, the difference being that Thorpe did it primarily after his active sports career was over. Both films of their lives have the presence of Charles Bickford in it, playing the real life mentors both men had. In the Babe Ruth Story, Bickford played the real life Brother Matthias who was one of the Catholic brothers that ran St. Mary's School in Baltimore where Ruth grew up. Here in this film, Bickford played legendary football coach Pop Warner, whose own career as a pioneer in the sport began with his discovery of Thorpe while coaching at the Carlisle Indian school.

I did a review of We Are Marshall when that film came out and in it remarked about how the NCAA relaxed its arcane rules when the tragedy involving the Marshall varsity football squad happened in order that the team compete the following year. Where was this crowd when Jim Thorpe needed them? Thorpe came from a poverty stricken background and between semesters at Carlisle, he had to do real physical manual labor just to put food on the table and pay his rent. He took an offer to play semi-professional baseball one summer, thereby causing unforeseen consequences down the road.

Those consequences were while as a track and field star and winner of several medals in the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, Thorpe was stripped of his medals and trophies and his records stricken from the books. Of course it was all reinstated 70 years later in 1982 after intense lobbying of the NCAA. New and somewhat human beings were in charge then. The episode damaged his soul for the rest of his life. It was like Sir Cedric Hardwicke ordering the name Moses stricken from all public records in Egypt.

The film ends after Thorpe attends the 1932 Olympics and Pop Warner notes that the guy opening the Olympics held in Los Angeles that year was Vice President Charles Curtis. To date Curtis is the only man to be either President or Vice President to be not completely Caucasian, he was American Indian on his mother's side. It's about the only distinction Curtis had in office as Herbert Hoover's Vice President.

The film ends around 1932 and the rest of Thorpe's life after the action in the story is his attempts to make ends meet. Money went through his hands like water, he did a lot of bit roles in films, playing Indians of course in westerns of varying quality. He died in debt in 1953, living off the income that he got from Warner Brothers selling his life story to them. I'm sure he wished his life had come out the way the film did.

Still Jim Thorpe -- All American is a nice tribute to our greatest athlete ever.

What do you want out of this film? This is the question you have to ask before you can discuss how good a film it is.

If you want biographical accuracy, you might better read Wikipedia. For example, in the film Thorpe had 1 wife and 1 son; in reality he had 3 wives and 8 children. In the film he pulled himself up by the bootstraps after his fall from stardom; in reality, after his fall from grave he took jobs such as construction worker, doorman, bouncer, and ditch digger; he also joined the U.S. Merchant Marines and was a chronic alcoholic late in life...none of which is mentioned in the film. When being treated for skin caner in the 1950s he was admitted to a hospital as a charity case.

On the other hand, if you want to watch a well-made relatively fictitious biopic that is quite entertaining, step right up. In that respect, it's a very good film.

And, if you want to see Burt Lancaster is a great performance, also, step right up. He's terrific and does much of his own sports work here. And I give that praise for an actor I was never really very enamored with.

Other primary actors here include Billy Gray ("Father Knows Best", Bud) as the young boy Jim Thorpe, Charles Bickford as "Pop" Warner (a fine performance as Thorpe's mentor), and Phyllis Thaxter as his only wife in the film.

It would be interesting to see this film remade in today's political climate. How would a filmmaker today treat the Carlisle Indian School, for example? While this is an absorbing film, I walked away from it not impressed with the totality Jim Thorpe the man...even without all the failure that accompanied his later years.

Today we would recognize this as a biopic but in 1951 Hollywood was just coming off its heyday (the 30s and 40s), musicals were disappearing, consumerism was coming in, and styles were changing. First this is a 50s film with 40s sensibilities. That's important because, as any cinephile will tell you, the 50s -- when Hollywood "discovered" teenagers, and wasted its time catering mainly to that market -- is the closest thing to a lost decade in film history that we have. It is an OK film but not a great one. What is astonishing is Lancaster. I have reviewed several of his films on IMDb and, before this exercise is over, I may just review a few more. The versatility of the actor is still the stuff of legend, and rightly so. In 1951 Burt was was in his late 30s but HERE HE IS PLAYING A WORLD CLASS ATHLETE IN HIS 20s and, typical of Lancaster he pulls it off. Five years later, in his 40s, Lancaster in his 40s did Trapeze, another role that showcased his athletic prowess. And 10 years after this film, he did Judgement at Nuremberg, one of the best portrayals of his career, playing a much older judge with "second thoughts" on morality. Bottom line: for Lancaster fans only.

If you watch "Jim Thorpe--All-American" expecting to see a full account of the famous athlete's life, you'd be disappointed to know that it's pretty incomplete. However, it does capture the essence of the man and his many foibles (it IS a warts and all bio-pic). Plus, while Burt Lancaster looked almost nothing like the man, his athleticism was a definite plus (Lancaster having been an acrobat and very physical specimen). It's enjoyable, that's for sure.

The film begins during Thorpe's childhood and difficulties his parents had getting him to stay at the residential Indian school. I have no idea if this really occurred--but it was pretty cool. Then the film jumps ahead to his entering Carlisle College--at which he distinguished himself as an amazing athlete. To Hollywood-ize Thorpe's life, the film makers created a romance. While it IS true that he married this woman, Thorpe was married three times and had many kids--whereas the other two marriages and all but his first child were omitted. I really don't see why--and it did seem dishonest only mentioning the one kid who died tragically.

The rest of the film is reasonably accurate but also a bit sketchy at times. It DID show his many failings but again, this was very sketchy. The problem for me is that although Lancaster was dynamic, the film entertaining and the ending inspiring, it was woefully incomplete. In fact, his life was so much more complex and interesting that it is perhaps a better made as a mini-series--as 105 minutes isn't enough. Good...but not worthy to truly be called the life story of Jim Thorpe.

Jim Thorpe was an incredible athlete and this movie shows this much,it is pretty accurate in the description of his athletic achievements. Where it fails miserably is in the telling of his personal life,for some strange reason it makes up a tragic story of Thorpe's life,concentrating on the fictitious death of his supposedly only son when a young boy, and the tragic consequences that follow,turning him into a sad,miserable and lonely middle-aged man. The truth is ,that Thorpe had 8 children,a son and 3daughters from his first wife and 4 sons from his second wife.His son from the first marriage died at age 2, but Thorpe had other children and the loss of his son did not destroy him. Furthermore ,after he divorced his first wife he didn't end up alone and miserable as the movie shows but remarried twice. Whatever problems he may have had later in his life,they were caused by other reasons and one wishes this movie tried to explain the true story of Thorpe and not make up one instead. Burt Lancaster is OK in the role,physically he seems perfect for the part,but the script doesn't help him understand this man by making up most of his personal life.

The movie itself isn't outstanding in any way. Michael Curtiz, the director, keeps the bodies in motion and wastes no time on pretentious touches. Burt Lancaster is solid without rising above the rather banal script, in which Jim Thorpe, a Sac and Fox Indian, starts out an impoverished kid on the reservation, rises to athletic stardom at Carlisle Indian School, goes on to win a bunch of hard-earned medals at the 1912 Olympics (in which George C. Patton was a member of the boxing team), marries the girl he's always loved, has a child on whom he dotes as the reincarnation of his self, and then -- one by one -- loses it all.

One can hardly blame him for his downward slide. His Olympic (or Olympian) feats are nullified because he played baseball for money during a summer vacation from Carlisle. Along with them goes the coaching job he's been hoping for. His beloved son dies later. His bitterness drives away his wife -- for good. He soldiers on, playing professional football, but for less prestigious teams and lower salaries. Like the rest of us, as he grows older he loses his stamina until he can't find any work in sports. He plays host at a marathon dance in the 1930s dressed as a cigar-store Indian. He alienates his few remaining friends, including his college coach, Pop Warner (Charles Bickford), who gave him his start.

Finally, he drives a truck over a football belonging to a gang of kids, gives them a new football and teaches them the elements of the sport. "Gee, thanks, Coach," says one of the kids. A broad smile spreads across Lancaster's face when he's so addressed and he -- in the words of Pop Warner -- "finds himself." The final scene has him being honored at a vast reception, looking gray at the temples, neatly dressed, grateful and distinguished. The applause deafens the listener.

It's something of a cop out, that ending. Not just because the real Thorpe never managed to climb out of one of the lower socioeconomic classes, but because it panders to an audience that wants a typical Hollywood happy ending, or at least an ending ambiguous enough to suggest ultimate redemption, like "Young Man With a Horn," about a Bix Beiderbeck character. Hardly any mention is made of alcohol.

The ending makes no sense. How does an individual "find himself." What does it MEAN? It's like saying that someone "got in touch with his feelings." And after having been a winner in grueling competitions like the Pentathlon and the Decathlon and having become world famous, meeting with the King of Sweden, and relishing it, are you really saved if a handful of raggedy slum kids call you "Coach" and run away after you kick their new football in their direction? Thorpe became a big, shambling wreck and picked up a few bit parts in Hollywood movies. If you want to see what he was like in the late 1940s, watch the scene in John Ford's "Wagonmaster" in which the LDS members dance in a circle with the Indians, and Ward Bond looks up with awe at the giant next to him.

The soft landing notwithstanding, it's an exciting movie, and an exhilarating one. Great to see Burt Lancaster in the track and field events. (He didn't play football and wasn't much at baseball.) Lancaster was as fit as a fiddle. He kept himself in shape through regular exercise and practice. He never lifted weights so he was sinuous rather than muscle-bound like some screen narcissists.

Being a hero is a tough row to hoe, or at least I would imagine. Not only is it tough being an athlete, but it raises the question of what you do for an encore. Like ex-presidents, ex-athletes must have a difficult time dealing with the discrepancy between what they once were and what they now are. Perhaps wisely, this movie focuses mainly on what Jim Thorpe was, and gives us a foolish ending so that we can walk away from the film feeling all warm inside. To treat Thorpe's later career seriously would involve a very different kind of movie.

The Warner Brothers biographical movies of its golden era (1930's through mid 1950's) were mostly formulatic stuff that were entertaining but followed the same pattern. Future inventor/songwriter/political hero rises from poverty to fame, undergoes romantic troubles, gets through them, then all of a sudden is given a big tribute as the hero/heroine clinch with their partner at the end. That almost happens here. Young Jim Thorpe, a young native American (a phrase never used in the film) on a reservation is first seen running lickity split through the woods to get back home after going in one door and out the back of the school his father tried to take him to. Pop and kid have a chat, then we see Burt Lancaster, getting total camera focus as he first appears, trying to settle into an all Indian school. He excels as an athlete, and then is all of a sudden a football hero thanks to Pop Warner (an outstanding Charles Bickford). He falls in love with a pretty young student (Phyllis Thaxter) who turns out NOT to be Indian, but they marry anyway. He gets into the Olympics, looses his medals over a stupid law that forbids students from getting paid for athletics (even though it was only for living expenses), then embittered, gets into pro baseball, pro football, and ultimately destroys his marriage after tragedy hits the family. His descent into a side show attraction (hosting a dance marathon in full Indian garb!) and possible alcoholism is shown briefly but realistically. But Lancaster manages to keep the audience on his side; His hurt pride and anger are most understandable, if not fixable. Bickford returns at the last minute to try and rescue him, which sets up the finale.

What really surprised me was not Lancaster's total emersion into this role; He is one of the true greats, whom I think has not gotten the honors he deserves. What I found most amazing was the destruction of Thorpe's marriage, which cannot be fixed for the fade out at the end. The writers don't cheat the audience and fictionalize what really happened; Once Thaxter walks out on him, we know it is for good, and probably best for her sanity and the last step to Thorpe's downfall, which will ultimately help him see what he needs to do to pull himself back up. Whether he fully did in real life is not dealt with fully here; It is only insinuated, but gives an idea of his re-buildup. After seeing him recently in about half a dozen films, he has become one of my top favorites of classic leading men.

Sadly, most of the performers playing his Indian pals, particularly Dick Wesson, are extremely unrealistic, and made me uncomfortable. Jack Big Head is probably the closest to a realistic portrayal of a Native American. It must be assumed he was really a Native American. Lancaster, whose quiet masculinity seems perfect for the role, was probably 10 years too old for the part where Thorpe is in college, but doesn't suffer too badly because of that. I wonder if dark make-up was used on him in the racing scenes; He does appear to have been filmed darker than the other athletes. If they were to cast a non-native American playing an American Indian, then Lancaster was probably the best choice.

Usually the Warners bios were predicable; hero/heroine suffers in the romance department, gets a musical number, battle scene, or ballgame to triumph in, then gets honored as the Warners shield appears. All with that brassy no-holds barred musical score behind them. Here, that is also the case, but the dramatic twists put this one notch above average. Yet, I couldn't fully praise this one, but cannot help but admire it for its desire to stray away a bit from formula.

. . . their medals, when Jim Thorpe's remain stolen? Any country with an ounce of guts would refuse to participate in the Olympics--OR GIVE THEM ONE THIN DIME OF TV RIGHTS MONEY--as long as this travesty continues. As this movie proves, the removal of his medals destroyed Jim Thorpe's life. He lost his sobriety, the life of his son, his career, and his marriage after they were taken away. Instead of living out his time on this earth as a revered honest Indian elder, he was hounded from team to team by scandal, a drunken wreck. Meanwhile, the East German swim Frankenfrauleins of the 1970s were pumped full of steroids--and everyone knew it at the time! The much better skilled American girls lost their only chance for greatness, and the German weaselettes are still basking in their ill-gotten golden glory--even after everyone has admitted the con and snickered all the way to the bank. Either give the German Olympic program the "death penalty" for the next 20 years, or give those medals to their rightful winners, the American gals! And while they're at it, return Jim Thorpe's, too! Whatever little peccadillo some jealous snitch may have alleged doesn't change the fact that the King of Sweden said Jim was the best athlete of all time--how can a few cigar-chomping stuffed shirts be allowed to second guess the KING? Jim was NOT pumped full of steroids, either--just all-American burgers and fries! Watch this movie--then write a letter to your U.S. Congressman. I sure did.

As a self-confessed sports junkie, I enjoy sports films. To me authenticity is a vital component in sports movies, particularly when a film involves an individual of Jim Thorpe's stature. I don't think that it's sufficient, or worthy, to merely issue a general disclaimer professing that characters and events may be different than those portrayed in the film. It's my belief that the true greatness of a person's accomplishments are obscured when accuracy is not maintained. Thorpe's football accomplishments at Carlisle Indian Industrial School are legendary. A number of sequences in the movie deviate a bit from events that actually transpired. The movie chronicles a big game in the 1908 season between Carlisle and Penn. While it is accurate that Carlisle played Penn that season, the actual score was a 6-6 tie not the 13-13 tie asserted in the movie. In the film, Thorpe kicks a 50 yard field goal with 25 seconds remaining to tie the score. In actuality, Thorpe missed three field goals that day. The film contrives a rivalry between Penn's Tom Ashenbrunner and Thorpe. Problem is that there was no Ashenbrunner that played for Penn. In actuality, the Penn running back (star) was All-American Bill Hollenback. He was the Penn player who faced Thorpe that fateful October afternoon in 1908. In real life, Thorpe claimed that Hollenback was his toughest and fiercest rival. Pop Warner, Carlisle's coach, advises Thorpe that Allegheny College is searching for a coach, and that the school has narrowed the search to Ashenbrunner and Thorpe. Presumably, how they perform in the big game will determine who gets the Allegheny coaching gig. In reality, Bill Hollenback was hired by Penn State in 1909 to coach their team, not Allegheny. In retrospect, one must wonder if permission was denied by Hollenback to use his actual name in the film. Given the crowd shots, it could be implied that the Penn game was (seemingly) played at Carlisle and not Franklin Field. That implication is simply inaccurate. Carlisle routinely played road games against smaller, closer opponents (e.g. Muhlenberg College). Do any of these inconsistencies diminish Thorpe's achievements? I would claim they don't, but they certainly test the veracity of the film. If Ashenbrunner is fictitious, did Jim Thorpe actually set a particular record or complete in a certain Olympic event? As correctly indicated by various reviewers, Jim Thorpe was married three times, but only one wife is depicted in the film. The one son that we are introduced to in the movie, who tragically passes away, was actually one of eight children fathered by Thorpe and his three wives. Of course liberties must be taken so that a storyline has continuity and the audience is engaged. But omitting and altering facts is very disconcerting. Instinctively, I enjoyed Jim Thorpe All American. It's a likeable movie about an American hero. Burt Lancaster is a great actor, and his portrayal of Jim Thorpe is captivating. And Charles Bickford is a terrific coach/mentor Glenn S. "Pop" Warner. However, no matter how good Lancaster acted in his role of Thorpe, there will always be incessant issue of authenticity. That persistent foible of integrity was never overcome in this classic film.

I understand Burt Lancaster was a trapeze performer before he made a successful try at Hollywood, and the advantages of his conditioning for performance on the trapeze plus his overall natural athleticism and very direct method of acting is very much in evidence in this film. He had an innate grace of movement in any film he starred in, whether he was jumping hurdles in this one, or climbing the periscope shears of the USS Nerka to rescue the ship's cook accidentally left topside during a dive in "Run Silent, Run Deep." A keenly controlled, well-directed compactness of precisely-directed effort. It telegraphs tension but control and focus as well.

I realize Hollywood could not cover every detail of the story in this film but the lapse of judgment on Thorpe's (Lancaster's) part in playing for money for a few weeks in that minor league team should have been dealt with by the coach prior to break. It's a dead-level cinch most if not all the athletes portrayed in the film hadn't been briefed on what would make them a "professional" in their chosen sport. I still feel his coach and the school let him down by not advising a young athlete with his obvious potential about the pitfalls of playing ANY sport during summer break unless it was for fun and for free.