ABSTRACT
This chapter broadly analyses the cultural work of the 1940 biographical film Knute Rockne: All American. A critical viewing of this film (and related extra-textual materials) helps set the context for the presumed civilising and educational function of football as a distinctly American institution. This chapter takes us back to a time in football’s evolution when the benefits of the sport were understood to clearly outweigh the costs. In 1940, the ideological constellation of Americanism, masculinity and violent sport was mutually supporting. The articulation of these mutually sustaining values is examined in the film itself, archival materials on the production and promotion of the film from Warner Bros. studio, and materials in the popular press from the time of the film’s release.
