MovieChat Forums > Jim Thorpe -- All-American (1951) Discussion > That was a rotten school

That was a rotten school

posted 13 years ago by Molly-31
3 replies | jump to latest

Carlisle was founded as a school but it was really a prison to "kill the Indian and save the man". You didn't say things like "I'm not sure I'm going to stay". You didn't make choices. They were made for you. Carlisle students didn't go on to college; they were trained for various manual labor jobs, servant work. At the same time they were being "civilized" to Anglo ways, they were taught they would always be second-class citizens. I don't know about the time Thorpe was there - that was later when it was more of a prep school, so maybe talking like that was allowed, maybe things were a little more free. But the stuff they show you about not speaking Indian and so forth were real. Children were beaten and worse. The lucky ones were taken away by their families, or ran away, or died. I have trouble believing that something like the traditional Indian songs, dances and dress at the vacation party would have been allowed even as an exhibition. As I said, maybe things had changed a bit by Thorpe's time. When the one guy says "These natives I'll never get used to them" and he's Indian himself, that's what they wanted you to do. You had to change all your thinking around. Look up Carlisle Indian School on line.

Let's just say that God doesn't believe in me.

[–] GunsGirlsCars 13 years ago

Molly....you forgot one major item!
White women shouldn't mate with strong viral male Indians! Unless you want to lose your baby to mixing of the races!!
Talk about Haters during Hollywood's post WWII brain phuc movies being shoved down our throats?
It was a obvious Hollywood rant for returning colored (Black,Indian,Asian and Latino) soldiers from Europe! They got to mix with white women without laws preventing sexual contact. Therefor.. White women in the USA being brainwashed about the dangers of Mix-Race Children being inferior?
Yes...worst Burt Lancaster movie ever!
NO...The Unforgiven!!
Now, that really sucked!

[–] Molly-31 13 years ago

What got me in that bogus story line was.... HE DIDN'T KNOW SHE WAS WHITE UNTIL SOMEBODY TOLD HIM!!!

But you're right -- like, how the little boy died. (he really did, but he was only two.) They made out like oh, Jim wanted him to be a super athlete like him (and to a certain extent his own father) and he just couldn't. They don't say this but the implication is it's because he's part white. Phooey.

Let's just say that God doesn't believe in me.

[–] powersroc 12 years ago

I just watched an excellent PBS documentary on the life of Jim Thorpe.It confirms what you say regarding how terrible Carlisle was to its students.More a prison than a center of education.The administrators would send some of these young people to live at farms.Sometimes the farm owners would work the Carlisle students like a horse with no regard for them as human beings.Jim worked at one such farm & promptly ran away.He was punished by being placed in a guardhouse jail at Carlisle.Glen"Pop"Warner was not the avuncular figure in Thorpe's life as depicted in the film. He had no hesitation of using Jim for his own reasons,including holding onto his job as a coach at the school,then betraying Jim over the Olympic Medals Jim received.He sold Jim down the river in spite of Thorpe trusting Warner & remaining loyal to Warner.I've always enjoyed this movie,it made me aware of who Jim Thorpe was & his place in history.It does deal with his successes & failures,the prejudice towards Indians in the U.S.& the performances are very moving by the cast.However,I realize too that the film took great artistic liberties with Jim's life at times.It never touches upon his twin brother whose death at a young age profoundly affected Jim for the rest of his life.In spite of all that though I still appreciate the film in that it makes people realize who Jim was,but I also highly recommend reading reputable books about Jim Thorpe in order to find out the real story about his life & times.