Rose Bowl: A Football Soap Opera From Another Century

Is this worth the watch?

Honestly, only if you have a soft spot for 1930s collegiate fluff. If you want a serious sports movie, keep looking. If you enjoy watching characters fall in love because the script demands it, you might have a good time here.

It’s not exactly The Last Moment in terms of gravitas, that's for sure. The whole thing feels like a stage play that got lost on its way to a stadium.

The Football Part

The football scenes are... something else. It feels less like a sport and more like a high-stakes dramatic performance where everyone is constantly worried about their public image. Paddy and Ossie are supposed to be these big shots, but they mostly just stand around looking concerned about who is dating who. 🏈

The logic is shaky at best. Paddy gets suspended for having a girl in his room? On the night before the biggest game of his life? It’s the kind of decision that only makes sense if you’ve never actually met a college athlete in your life.

The Romantic Web

The love square—or is it a pentagon?—is exhausting. Cheers likes Paddy, but she loves Ossie. Ossie loves himself. Florence is in the mix just to make things more complicated. It feels like a precursor to the melodrama you’d find in something like Career Woman.

• Ossie is the classic guy who talks about himself in the third person, metaphorically speaking.
• The drugstore scenes felt surprisingly cozy, if a bit forced.
• That moment where the newspapers suddenly decide the love life of a backup player is national news? Classic.

Watching them try to navigate this is like watching a car crash in slow motion. You know exactly what’s going to happen, but you can’t look away. It’s not profound, but it’s very 1930s.

Maybe it’s the lack of actual stakes, but the film just sort of drifts along. It doesn't have the grit of Doc or the weird charm of Ladies Must Love. It’s just... there. A relic of a time when football was a gentleman's game played by people who were apparently very confused about basic social boundaries.

Still, seeing these old sets and the way they filmed the "big game" is worth a few minutes of your life. Just don't go in expecting a sports documentary. It’s pure, unadulterated melodrama with a few shoulder pads thrown in for good measure. 🤷‍♂️