Watch Jim Thorpe – All-American For Free

The Worst Film Ever

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Yep. With 1951's "Jim Thorpe - All-American", Hollywood, once again, gives one of its nation's most beloved sports heroes the royal, Tinseltown treatment. And, naturally, when Hollywood produces a bio-film of this sort, they're bound to colour fact with their own special brand of fiction.Anyway - Jim Thorpe (who was of both Native & European ancestry) is considered (even today) to be one of the most versatile athletes of modern-day sport. And, taking into account Thorpe's mixed ancestry (along with the severe racial inequality in the USA at the onset of the last century), it's quite surprising that this dude actually achieved what he did in the ever-competitive arena of sport.Even though I thought this sports/bio picture was fairly entertaining, for the most part, it only achieved an "average" rating of 5 stars in my books. This was mainly due to the miscasting of actor Burt Lancaster as the title character.Not only was Lancaster (38 at the time) way too old to be playing the part of the 20-year-old Thorpe - But his blue-eyed, Irish, good looks were hardly enough to convince me that his character had even an ounce of Indian blood running through his veins.

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.

Emotional and heartfelt story of athlete Jim Thorpe (superbly portrayed by Burt Lancaster), a multi-faceted individual who dominated several sports of the early-20th Century. The film follows the title character from his youth at his reservation (Thorpe was a Native American) and proceeds through his college, professional and Olympic careers. Tragedy strikes on more than one occasion though as the super-star goes into a tail-spin, feeling that his nation and even God have turned their backs on him (due to his Olympic medals being stripped and the death of his young son). Through it all the film is told in wonderful flashbacks by Coach "Pop" Warner (the always outstanding Charles Bickford). Definitely worth a look. An under-rated and somewhat ignored gem from the director of "Casablanca" (Michael Curtiz). 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Burt Lancaster and Charles Bickford give convincing portrayals as Jim Thorpe and Pop Warner respectively. It is too bad that Indians could not have played many of the characters but then this was 1951. Thorpe himself was an advisor bringing credibility to the film related to its accuracy.