Knute Rockne

(On Cable TV, October 2022) I have already mentioned that I don’t get Americans’ fascination with football, especially when it goes beyond sports viewership and jumps into something akin to an abusive religious cult. Knute Rockne All American isn’t quite there, but there’s a serious amount of worship at play here, and the film had an oversized impact on later political discourse. Clearly enough, it’s about the life of college football player-turned-coach Knute Rockne, who came to define much of American college football from 1910 (first playing year) to 1930 (last coaching year). While apparently restrained by the standards of 1940, the film plays like a cavalcade of hagiographic clichés today, so much does it venerate its subject, his college and the institution of football. Ironically, this film is now best remembered for a bit line from a bit player—except that this was future-President Ronald Reagan having a deathbed scene in which he implored fellow players to “win one for the Gipper,” a line that was dredged up from the archives of Hollywood history when Reagan became a preeminent national politician. The big surprise for any twenty-first century viewer is how little time Reagan has in the film—and how that line is not part of the climax. Add to that the perplexing matter-of-fact deification of Rockne, Notre Dame and football in general and the film becomes almost alien to anyone who’s not an American.