The HISTORY Channel expands its sports footprint with Jim Thorpe: Lit by Lightning, a two-hour documentary about the legendary and varied life of icon Jim Thorpe. But what else the documentary does is remind viewers of the importance of sports docs in the first place.

Unscripted sports content has shifted massively over the last few decades, as players and former players corner the market. Broadcasters have opined that their roles are increasingly being filled by ex-athletes. And athletes have more direct access to fans than ever before, whether it’s through social media or web sites like The Players’ Tribune or being involved in the production of their own stories. Jim Thorpe: Lit by Lightning is produced by LeBron James and Maverick Carter’s UNINTERRUPTED shingle, and they’ve found an effective balance between telling Jim Thorpe’s story and letting him tell it himself.

The documentary uses excerpts from Thorpe’s unpublished autobiography, which it disclaims at the top of the program. These quotes form a sort of spine for the proceedings, and of course the man’s own words are far more powerful than any talking-head narration when it comes to what Thorpe experienced and battled against. At the same time, relying too much on his comments would make the documentary entirely subjective. Director Chris Eyre and his creative team are careful to utilize Thorpe’s quotations where they are the most relevant and most impactful.

Yet Lit by Lightning also is an example of why documentaries and documentarians are important. As much as fans want to hear from the subjects themselves, the best life stories have an objective eye. Not only to check facts, but also to provide important context—particularly on HISTORY Channel, where the whole point is how much relevance Jim Thorpe had in not only sports history but American history. Eyre has to take an individual story and make it universal, which he does consistently well. The biggest stylistic criticism of the project is that it goes in the traditional chronological order, which makes the opening act a bit dry. But that’s something that most documentaries haven’t been able to shake up.

The documentary does attempt to cover an impressive amount of ground in untangling the many layers of Jim Thorpe’s life and career. There are times when it seems like Jim Thorpe: Lit by Lightning would be better as a miniseries rather than a standalone project. Eyre and company want to delve significantly into so many points, from Thorpe’s significance as a Native American athlete, to his versatility across multiple sports, to the story of a man who never quite emotionally recovered from his Olympic controversy. Any one of those could be a peg for a separate episode. By putting them all into just shy of 90 minutes, there are a lot of balls to keep in the air.

But this is a valiant effort to put Jim Thorpe’s story back into the public eye. It feels constructed for those who have little to no knowledge of this decorated athlete, and because it’s produced by an athlete, it comes with a more informed perspective. Jim Thorpe: Lit by Lightning wants to be straightforward when another project would have leaned into the tragedy that befell Thorpe, especially later in life. If its biggest issue is that it tries to do too much, that’s not a bad critique to have. Athletes and entertainers may be on a public stage, but they don’t always connect with the public, and this documentary reconnects Jim Thorpe with the modern fan.

Jim Thorpe: Lit by Lightning premieres Monday, July 7 on HISTORY, and will be available to stream next day on the HISTORY app. Photo Credit: Courtesy of HISTORY.

Article content is (c)2020-2025 Brittany Frederick and may not be excerpted or reproduced without express written permission by the author. Follow me on Twitter at @BFTVTwtr and on Instagram at @BFTVGram. For story pitches, contact me at tvbrittanyf@yahoo.com.