Le chevalier du stade

This is a powerful story of the trials and tribulations of Jim Thorpe, a hero in the true sense of the word. Burt Lancaster plays the extremely talented Native American Indian. We see the football heroics at Carlisle College; being stripped of his coveted Olympic medals, and the sinking into an alcoholic oblivion.

Charles Bickford plays Pop Warner, Thorpe's coach at Carlisle. Phyliss Thaxter is the patient and concerned sweetheart. Also in the cast are Suni Warcloud, Jack Big Head and Al Mejia. The legendary Michael Curtiz directs. Lancaster is excellent as the multi-talented Thorpe, from the hills of Oklahoma.

Parts of this movie were filmed at Bacone College and Indian Bowl in Muskogee, Oklahoma.

Not being much of an athlete myself, it follows that I am no sports fan but, sometimes, movies dealing with that topic have managed to be engrossing for me nonetheless and, to some degree, the film under review is another such example. At 38, Burt Lancaster is absurdly overage playing renowned Native American athlete Jim Thorpe as a student but, overall, he is ideally cast as the man who became known as "America's greatest athlete of the first half of the twentieth century." I would not really know but Thorpe's feat of excelling in just about every sport he tried his hand (or feet) at – from racing to long jump, from javelin to high jump, from baseball to football, etc. – is probably unparalleled in the history of sports. As a biopic, it follows the standard pattern of similar Hollywood fare: from rebellious childhood to uneasy student to formidable athlete to Olympic champion, followed by first professional and later personal tragedy and the subsequent, gradual fall from grace (including divorce and public humiliation). Equally typical of the genre, however, is the heavy streamlining of the subject's life that, in this case, jettisons Thorpe's other two wives and his Hollywood career as an extra in several notable films like KING KONG (1933) and WHITE HEAT (1949). Prolific director Curtiz adds another biopic to his repertoire (even if it fails to scale the heights of the best of them) and the cast is rounded up by Charles Bickford (as Thorpe's coach and conscience), Phyllis Taxter (as his first wife), Steve Cochran (as his rival in love and football team-mate!), Dick Wesson (as his best friend) and Nestor Paiva (as his resigned but sensible Indian father). By sheer coincidence, just yesterday I came across Kon Ichikawa's acclaimed documentary of the 1964 Olympics, TOKYO OLYMPIAD (1965) and, under the circumstances, I could not pass up a chance to acquire it!

Another of those great old biopics they did so well back in Hollywood's heyday. This one's from Warner Bros. and is directed by Michael Curtiz. It stars Burt Lancaster as Jim Thorpe, a Native American athlete who excelled in many sports in the first half of the Twentieth Century. He even won two gold medals at the 1912 Olympics, only to have them taken away from him on a technicality. As is the case with most biopics, then and now, liberties are taken with the facts of Thorpe's life for the purpose of telling the story in a more condensed and dramatic way. This is always a point of contention for many. As I've said in the reviews for numerous biopics before, it really doesn't bother me. I find that biographical pictures today are just as 'wrong' as then and for worse reasons. The main difference seems to be back then they glossed things up and tried to focus on the positive parts of a notable person's life story, whereas today the negatives are focused on and, in many cases, rumors and innuendo are passed off as fact.

However you feel about the authenticity of these kinds of movies, it's hard to deny they were often very well-done dramas with great acting and top production values. Here we have a fine performance from Lancaster, as well as Charles Bickford as Thorpe's coach, Pop Warner. A solid supporting cast is another plus. The sports scenes are all fun and manage to incorporate old footage with the new nicely. Overall, it's not my favorite classic Hollywood biopic, or even in my top ten, but it's an entertaining one about an important figure in American sports. Definitely worth a look if you don't have a bug up your rear about the historical accuracy of biographical movies.

For anyone who watches this film, I think they should seriously consider this one since its real awe-inspiring. Jim Thorpe was truly a REAL American icon not because of what he did for the world of sports; but because he was a Native American First Nations person who had achieved a heck of a lot in his life which as a result made him out to be very famous! :D I don't know if anyone knows this or not but Jim was the very first NFL commissioner way before Pete Rozelle and all those other guys came into the picture. Of course, he super excelled at the football with the track and field activities. So he was really a multi-sport personality.

But........... anyways........ this is why I gave this film a 7 out of 10.

This was a great film, and was Lancaster at his best, he seemed so strong in this roll, winning almost everything he took part in had to be a sight to see, Thorpe was a good American, and

should never had his medals taken away, but that was life in those days. I know that he must have been really low at that time and disgusted with all of sports, I would have like to have seen him play but that was way before my time. The ending was sad, but it kind of left you wondering what he did do after sports.