UCLA Thesis Project: Jim Thorpe was an Olympic gold-medalist, professional football, baseball, and basketball player, proud member of the Sac & Fox Nation of Oklahoma, and perhaps the greatest athlete of the early 20th Century.This project, based on the 1951 Michael Curtiz film of the same name, seeks to correct many of the errors and misrepresentations made in the film that was, unfortunately, a product of its time.

Non-Native actors were cast in leading roles and the reality of life at Carlisle Industrial School was irresponsibly rewritten to be more palatable to a Non-Native audience.

Through this reimagining, themes of isolation and forced assimilation are explored as well as the dawn of sports as entertainment and the exploitation of both Jim’s talent and his Indigeneity.