42

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0453562/

Following the re-election of our 42^nd president who happens to be African-American, we have the story of Jackie Robinson, one of the original barrier breakers who played with the number “42” on his uniform. The arrival of Jackie Robinson to big league baseball was no accident. This was a carefully calculated business decision that recognized that returning WWII veterans who were black and a nascent civil rights movement were ready to stake a claim to the freedom for which they’d just fought

Harrison Ford gets a well-deserved break from playing Harrison Ford in his movies. His performance as Branch Rickey, the energetic general manager of Dem Bums, the Brooklyn Dodgers not only hearkens back to the cigar chomping impresario of the classic Hollywood era but adds a sense of moral duty in breaking down the race barrier.  And he hoped to win some ball games too.

42

As sports movies go, this one is breezy and straight forward. Branch Rickey lays it all out in the first ten minutes – it’s time to move black players into white-dominated major league baseball because the players are too good to ignore. Rickey is convinced America is ready for desegregation so his Dodgers might as well get the pick of the best players out there.

Early in the film Rickey searches for the perfect candidate. He wants a player good enough to play under all the pressure and not fly off the handle when inevitable jabs and jibes come his way. Such was the likely the search by the director, Brian Helgeland, to find an actor who could portray the restrained rage while being ever charming. He hit the mother lode with Chadwick Boseman who delivers a force performance and looks like an athlete as well. Nicole Beharie, as Robinson’s wife, is sexy and strong as she endures some torturous bouts of racist behavior with her husband. Another highlight is John McGinley stepping up to the mic as Red Barber, savoring lines like, “This game is as tight as a pair of new shoes on a rainy day.”

There are no gimmicks or tricks in this movie, just a straight forward baseball story with the elements of leadership and courage that is supposed to make athletics great.  This is the kind of movie you take the kids to and many a kid in attendance wore his little league uniform. One kid even took off his cap in a scene where the national anthem is played. Play Ball!  Nothing is really wrong with the picture, but it doesn't stray too far beyond the headlines and for that I’ll split the difference and give 42 three Wilders out of four.

   

 This week’s Overlooked Film of Significance – Of all the civil rights films the best has to be Spike Lee’s Malcolm X. Beyond its subject matter, it’s also one of the best American films of the last 25 years.  I highly recommend this honest and in-depth story of about one of the pillars of the civil rights era.