In honor of last night’s Academy Awards, I thought it would
be fun to take a look at some cinematic classics that featured football. I selected just one or two films
per decade that any good fan should at least be aware of. Today, we look at films from the ‘20s, ‘30s, ‘40s,
‘50s and ‘60s. Check back to this space for
another post featuring classics from the ‘70s through the 2000s.
Classic from
the 1920s:
The Freshman
(1925): Not to be confused with the 1990
Marlon Brando/Matthew Broderick film of the same name, The Freshman is the only silent movie on our list. This comedy features an awkward college
freshman, played by Harold Lloyd, who is determined to attain notoriety on
campus. He finally tries out for the
football team. In the tryouts, Harold
only succeeds in breaking the tackling dummy and willingly takes its place for
the remainder of the practice. Impressed
by his enthusiasm, but not his physical talents, lets him be the team’s water
boy. Naturally, he is given a chance to
play in the school’s big game at the end of the movie—because so many of the
team’s players get injured—and feats of heroism ensue. In 2000, The
Freshman was included in the American Film Institute’s “100 Years…100
Laughs” list.
Classic from the 1930s:
Pigskin Parade
(1936): This Academy Award-nominated
film (for best Supporting Actor) is a jovial look at the college game, but it
is also worth noting as Judy Garland’s first feature film role. At age fourteen, Garland plays the younger
sister of an Arkansas hillbilly with a monster throwing arm developed by
throwing watermelons. He is recruited by
a married couple who coaches football at a small Texas school that was
mistakenly invited to play against Yale University (a football powerhouse at
the time) in big bowl game. The
challenge for the coaches is to get the school to admit their new star, who
they need to fill the shoes of their injured quarterback.
Classic
from the 1940s:
Knute Rockne, All
American (1940): This biopic about
Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne (played by Pat O’Brien) is the origin of
the classic quote “Win one for the
Gipper.” A young Ronald Reagan played
the role of George “The Gipper” Gipp, thus earning him the nickname that would
follow him into politics 40 years later.
O'Brien and Reagan |
Classics
from the 1950s:
Crazylegs (1953)
and Jim
Thorpe: All-American (1951): In the
first biopic, Elroy “Crazylegs” Hirsch played himself in a film that focused on
his collegiate career, which began at the University of Wisconsin. He played running back at Wisconsin in 1942,
but had to transfer to the University of Michigan because of a commitment to
the Navy. In his 1943-44 school year, he
became the only athlete at Michigan to letter in four sports in a single
year: football, basketball, track and
football). In the second film, the great
Jim Thorpe was played by Burt Lancaster and chronicles his athletic development
starting from young child on an Indian reservation to his celebrated collegiate
football career, his medal-winning performances in the 1912 Olympics and his professional
athletic career.
The real Jim Thorpe |
Classic from the 1960s:
Alan Alda as George Plimpton |
Paper Lion (1968): This comedy was based on the book of the same
name written by George Plimpton. In
1963, Plimpton wanted to see how the “average” man would fare in the NFL. With the coaches in on his plans, he joined
the Detroit Lions training camp under the pretext of trying out to be the Lions’
third-string quarterback. The book
discussed several of the Lions players, many of whom played themselves in the
film, including Alex Karras and Joe Schmidt.
Alan Alda played the role of Plimpton and several other football greats
were featured in the film, like Vince Lombardi and Frank Gifford.
The real George Plimpton |
My favorite is Brian's Song.
ReplyDeleteAre any of these football movies on netflix? I would love to get a chance to watch some of these movies from the old era and see how they were made back then.
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