Football Movie Marathon #5: Knute Rockne All American (1940)

Of the major American team sports baseball probably consistently produces the most quality movies. Until the 80s brought us The Natural, Eight Men Out, Major Leauge, Field of Dreams and Bull Durham, the gold standard for baseball movies was probably The Pride of the Yankees (1942). I bring this up because this week's marathon movie is perhaps the football equivalent of the classic Lou Gerhig biopic. Whatever you thought about one of them, you'll probably think about the other. Both feature a complete lovefest for what are now completely insufferable teams, both paint about as flattering potrayal of their subjects as possible, and both offer one of the best "big speech" moments in sports movie history.

Knute Rockne All American basically is a telling of the legendary sports figure's life and career as the Notre Dame football coach. Rockne is credited with popularizing and innovating several tactics. As a player in his younger days, he was the recipent of several forward passes in the Notre Dame offense that utilized the play better than anyone. As a coach, he is often credited as the first to put "men in motion" prior to the snap (he did it with his whole backfield until rules limited teams to only have one man allowed to move before the snap).

Perhaps the primary draw to the film now is the supporting role of George Gipp, played by none other than future President Ronald Reagan. Gipp is considered one of the better college football players of all time (ranked the 22nd best ever college player on ESPN's list a couple years ago, by people who are undoubtably experts that have watched a ton of 90 year old football games). If you were ever curious where the "Win one for the Gipper" quote came from, well, here it is.

Overall, this is a decent football movie and a fun watch, although it feels incredibly dated, even by the standard of 1940s movies. Seemingly today, a biopic can't be made unless the subject was once drug using womanizer (Ray, Walk the Line) or somewhat mentally unstable (The Aviator, A Beautiful Mind). Put simply, you might see a Roger Clemens movie someday, but probably not a Greg Maddux one. Knute Rockne is potrayed about as good of a guy as you'll ever find for 100 minutes, and that's the movie. I didn't find it all that off putting, but can certainley see why many would.

Note: You probably should not watch this anytime soon if you're a UW fan bitter about the recent game against Notre Dame. This movie loves the school more than Rudy does.

Football Movie Marathon Rankings
1. Brian's Song
2. Knute Rockne All American
2. Varsity Blues
3. Invincible
4. Two For the Money