Knute Rockne - All American poster & wallpaper
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Pat O'Brien, Gale Page, Ronald Reagan, Donald Crisp, Albert Basserman ... see more see more... , John Litel , John Qualen , Henry O'Neill , Owen Davis Jr. , Dorothy Tree , Johnny Sheffield , Nick Lukats , Kane Richmond , William Marshall , Howard Jones , Glen S. "Pop" Warner , Alonzo Stagg , Egon Brecher , David Bruce , William Byrne , Eddy Chandler , Cliff Clark , Frank Coghlan Jr. , Robert O. Davis , Billy Dawson , Edgar Dearing , Pat Flaherty , James Flavin , Bill Gratton , William Haade , Creighton Hale , Michael Martin Harvey , Harry Hayden , George Haywood , William Hopper , George Irving , Frank Mayo , Carlyle Moore Jr. , Gaylord "Steve" Pendleton , Lee Phelps , John Ridgely , Bill Sheffield , Bill Spaulding , Charles Trowbridge , Fredrik Vogeding , Pierre Watkin , Minor Watson , Charles C. Wilson , Dick Jones , George Reeves , David Dickson , Richard Clayton , Dutch Hendrian , Peter Ashley , Georgie Billings , Albert Bassermann

Knute Rockne-All American was Pat O'Brien's finest hour: thanks to intensive rehearsals and numerous makeup applications, he so closely resembled the title character that, in the words of Rockne's wid... read more read more...ow, "I almost expected him to make love with me". The life of the legendary Notre Dame football coach is recounted from his childhood, when young Rockne (played by Johnny Sheffield) startles his Norwegian-immigrant parents by announcing at the dinner table that he's just been introduced to "the most wonderful game of the world." As an adult, Rockne works his way through Indiana's Notre Dame university, under the watchful and benevolent eye of Father Callahan (Donald Crisp) A brilliant student, Rockne is urged by Father Nieuwland (Albert Basserman) to become a chemist, or at the very least remain a chemistry teacher. Newly married to Bonnie Skilles (Gale Page), Rockne at first sticks to academics, but the call of the gridiron is too loud for him to ignore, and before long he has built his reputation as the winningest college football coach in America. One of his most significant contributions to the game is the invention of the tactical shift, inspired by the precision choreography of a team of nightclub dancers! Among the players nurtured by Rockne are the immortal Four Horsemen-Miller (William Marshall), Stuhlreder (Harry Lukats), Laydon (Kane Richmond) and Crowley (William Byrne), and of course the tragic George Gipp, superbly enacted by Ronald Reagan. His career continues unabated until his death in a plane crash in 1931. The screenplay of Knute Rockne-All American tends to be all highlights and little story, with several of the more dramatic passages telegraphed well in advance (just before her husband's death, Bonnie Rockne comments forebodingly "It's gotten cold all of a sudden"). Still, the film remains one of the best and most inspirational sports biographies ever made, with a heart-wrenching conclusion guaranteed to moisten the eyes of even the most jaundiced viewer. Ironically, the film's most famous scene, George Gipp's deathbed admonition to "Win one for the Gipper", was for many years excised from all TV prints due to a legal entanglement stemming from an earlier radio dramatization of Rockne's life; fortunately, this and several related scenes were restored to the film in the early 1990s. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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58% liked it

1,132 ratings

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80% liked it

5 critics

Unrated, 1 hr. 38 min.

Directed by: Lloyd Bacon, Llyod Bacon

Release Date: January 1, 1940

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DVD Release Date: August 15, 2006

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Flixster Reviews (71)

  • codyfranklin2
    March 20, 2009
    codyfranklin2
    The one genre from the 30's and 40's that suffers the most is easily the biopic. There are some great ones from this era, but most of them are the paint by number biopics like Knute Rockne. You see tragedy approaching from a mile away and they are filled with unrealistic and wil... read mored statements like "Look there, the forward pass, that's gonna change football forever!" I love films from this era and almost all of them have a line or two like this, but Knute Rockne and many other biopics from this time are littered from beginning to end with this garbage. The performances aren't bad, it's just the structure is flawed and makes the film goofy. I am glad that biopics nowadays don't suffer the same fate as......wait a minute.
  • olujosh
    December 2, 2011
    olujosh
    A must for any Notre Dame fan, but what I found most interesting is how accurate it was (by Hollywood standards).
  • placeinthesun455
    April 27, 2009
    placeinthesun455
    while there's nothing especially stellar about this film--writing, acting, story progression, etc--it does possess a few redeeming qualities. Rock's speech in front of the college athletics evaluation committee was just outstanding, and the stock footage of old games is even to ... read morethis day some great football. overall, I thought the story was pretty weak and relied way too heavily on montage, but it's still a decent tribute to a true sports icon and the film sets a solid precedent for the great sports films to follow.
  • cavemanlawyer91
    March 22, 2009
    cavemanlawyer91
    It was pretty good. Wish Reagan was a bigger part of it though. Overall the acting seemed to have taken second place to the action and story which is all right if that's what you want.
  • thebailiffcooks
    January 9, 2008
    thebailiffcooks
    again Reagan in really small part overshadows Pat O'Brian and cast by his brief but believable role.
  • FangsFirst
    December 16, 2007
    FangsFirst
    I really only decided to check this out to finally hear the origin of that now-immortal line "Win one for the Gipper." I was also curious to see what Ronald Reagan was like as an actor, since I knew him best as object of scorn and derision by bands I enjoy like the Dead Kennedys ... read more(for his other famous role, of course, as president). Football fans are likely to be overcome with revulsion if I admit that I actually had no idea that this was based on a real person until about thirty seconds in when it began telling me it was made with the cooperation of Rockne's widow and estate. Oops. Well, that tells you how much I've attention I pay to college football, I guess. Heck, the only college I attended just won some title or championship or something and I didn't know until I was driving back from out of state and saw a billboard announcing it. So, let that be the place I come from when reviewing a movie about the "father of the forward pass" and all that.

    Anyway, Knute Rockne (as an adult played by Pat O'Brien) is a Norwegian immigrant who works hard to acquire enough financial support for himself to enter college. He chooses the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, bringing his childhood love of football with him. He trains in chemistry and is encouraged by administrators to pursue this field over something like football, but he chooses his love instead. He carries Notre Dame through lengthy winning streaks, many, many wins and a number of famous players--including George "The Gipper" Gipp (Ronald Reagan) and the "Four Horsemen." He espouses the importance of football to the country, education and boys around the world.

    The film is designed in a way very similar to another I recently watched--Tucker: The Man and His Dream. Coppola made that film as an homage to a man he admired, patterned as an advertisement of sorts that painted everything in broad and clear strokes. Here things are painted in a similar way, but more because the grey of reality had a tendency to be ignored in film in favour of more easily categorized ideas and characters. So, unlike that much later film, Rockne the film comes off as a completely serious ad for Rockne the man, and seems designed for football fans to puff out their chests in pride at the sport's history and grand importance to things. Don't get me wrong--I enjoy watching football fairly well, but it's obviously nowhere near the center of my life. I don't sneer at it, or look down at it, but this is a bit much. I don't think it's useless or unnecessary, or that the committee that claimed it should be removed was right--though certainly, and Knute apparently agreed, any coach falsifying academic records of players to maintain their active status was a no goodnik--but I think this is a little excessive. It's a little chuckle-inducing to see the importance bestowed upon the idea of the game, or on Rockne as a coach. I think it's fantastic that he was that strong a figure and leader to all of the players under him, and that he is admired by fans all over. I have nothing against that--but this seems to be painting him as a bit of a saint (for instance, his run-in with a gambler seems so stage-y it's just shy of ridiculous, with O'Brien the only thing holding the seams together) and completely unrealistic, without that sense of acknowledgement that Coppola imbued his film with.

    O'Brian has a strange habit in this film of never moving his neck and staring at nothing and no one. I can't figure out if this is some sort of reference to the real Knute Rockne, or if the director was just incompetent. I know O'Brien could act before this and after it, so I can't imagine it was on him (though, admittedly, I'm thinking of films directed by greats like Capra and Curtiz) responsible for that oddity, which always sort of screwed with the feeling of scenes. Reagan is lackadaisical as Gipp, he seems to not care one bit about the performance he gives, is mostly awkward and "dead," and I am not impressed. This sort of puts strikes against both of his careers in my book--and it was really sealed when he delivered a horrible and saccharine speech about Rockne not only poorly, but by making eye contact with the audience. Ever heard of a fourth wall, Ronnie? Maybe that was director Lloyd Bacon's fault, too, though. I can't be sure.

    I feel I should note that I was actually taken aback at one point when I could swear there was actually a handheld pan. I don't think I've seen one like that, a simultaneous pan and zoom by hand, in a film of this age ever before. Usually it's either stationary cameras or mechanical/craned cameras with smooth, clear movement. Later, during practice of Rockne's new shift, there's a pretty great set of shots with the players passing to the camera and then catching from the camera, the camera acting as middle man between multiple actions in the whole practice, including being tackled and tackling a few times. It's a fun experience, though I cringed a bit each time and wondered how many lenses and cameras were lost...
  • JasonDennis91786
    July 19, 2007
    JasonDennis91786
    a solid by-the-numbers biopic that holds up well to the test of time. i just wish they wouldn't show that stupid reel of the 1939 all-americans at the end every time it's on tv.
  • Glinda
    May 7, 2007
    Glinda
    "Win just one for the Gipper" So, I'm kind of ridiculous and named my plant for the Gipper - Ronald Oregano.

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Critic Reviews

January 25, 2008
Entertainment Weekly

Perhaps Ronald Reagan's greatest talent was his ability to float to the top. Full Review

Variety Staff
January 25, 2008
Variety Staff, Variety

Carries both inspirational and dramatic appeal on a wide scale. Full Review

January 25, 2008
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Corn doesn't grow any higher than this male bonding tribute to testosterone. Full Review

John J. Puccio
August 2, 2006
John J. Puccio, Movie Metropolis

The movie...is corny and sentimental, but it set the bar for all future sports pictures. Full Review

Dennis Schwartz
March 14, 2005
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews

It set the way for how the Hollywood sports biography was to be subsequently made. Full Review

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  • Top 100 Movie Quotes Which 1940 movie has the quote "Tell 'em to go out there with all they got and win just one for the Gipper."?   Answer »
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