42

“In 1946 there were 16 major league baseball teams, with total of 400 players. Everyone of 400 players were white. But when the opening day came in 1947, that number dropped to 399 and one man stood apart.”  So said Wendell Smith, sports editor for the Pittsburgh Courier.  Though he shouldn’t need an introduction, that man was Jackie Robinson.

Starring Chadwick Boseman and Harrison Ford and directed by Brian Helgeland, 42 tells the story of his entrance to Major League Baseball.  It concentrates on the few pivotal years surrounding Robinson’s joining the Brooklyn Dodgers.  Boseman plays Jackie Robinson and Ford plays Dodgers executive Branch Ricky. The film depicts segregation that occurred at the time as well as some of the opposition that Robinson faced.  It was a brutal time and it took a special man to withstand the onslaught.

The film focuses on the relationship and actions taken by Robinson and Branch.  It portrays Branch not as some hyper-altruistic integrationist, but rather someone who saw  the financial upside of the situation and had no problems with having African Americans on the team.

Jackie Robinson’s story is amazing.  42 the film, is decent.  Any legitimate attempt to make a movie about Jackie Robinson is bound to be at least decent.  Feature films based on true stories always have a difficult job of trying to walk the line between being a documentary and being Hollywood magic.  42, at times, feels more flat like a documentary, but the two hour film didn’t seem to have enough time to be detailed enough for that type of treatment.

The film would have been better served by having a more clear-cut main character.  Number 42 is obviously Jackie Robinson, but it’s hard to describe his role as being the irrefutable star of the movie.  Brach Ricky was an interesting enough character but the film would have been better served if it had either told his story, or gave him a smaller role.  Likewise, sports writer Wendell Smith seemed like he could have had a very interesting story to tell, but instead seemed to be more a prop than anything else.

Prominent civil right’s leaders deservingly get lots of praise and remembrance, but how many people showed up to a stadium and watched Jackie Robinson play ball?  During years that predate what anyone would refer to as the Civil Right’s era, how many people heard Jackie Robinson play ball on the radio?  Despite some of the film’s clutter, Jackie Robinson’s impact on the world cannot be understated.