When it comes to baseball legends, there are players like Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, and Ted Williams who have made their mark on the game of baseball. But, it can be argued that none have made quite an impact on not just the game but also the history of America quite like Jackie Robinson. It was in 1947 when Robinson, a shortstop first turned first baseman and later second baseman, made history by becoming the first African American player to play in Major League Baseball when he signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Even amidst all of the racism that he had to deal with, Robinson’s character and talent paved the way for future African American ballplayers and he played a key part in the Civil Rights movement. He has become such an icon that his number 42 was the first, and currently only, number to have been retired across the Major Leagues and every year on April 15th (the same day Robinson made his big-league debut) since 2004 Major League Baseball honors him by holding ‘Jackie Robinson Day’, where all players wear 42 in honor of him. ‘42’ the movie, while not the first Robinson biopic (there was also a 1950 film which Robinson himself starred in), mainly focuses on Robinson’s groundbreaking rookie season.
In 1945, Brooklyn Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey (Harrison Ford) makes the bold decision to sign an African-American player, the first in MLB history. He finds his man in Jackie Robinson (Chadwick Boseman), a shortstop from the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro League. After a year with the Dodgers’ minor league affiliate, the Montreal Royals, Robinson makes history when he joins the Dodgers in 1947. Now faced with harsh racism from all over the country, from the other teams in the league to even some of his Dodger teammates, Robinson is instructed to keep his cool, because if he ever retaliated against it, then everyone would blame it on him and not those who provoked him. He would have to prove himself on the field to become the legend that we know him as today.
One of the best things that a filmmaker can do when making a biopic is to not glorify the person the movie is focused on. Recent films like ‘Lincoln’ and ‘My Week with Marilyn’ excelled at doing that, and for the most part this film also does a good job at doing that as well. However, while the respect towards Robinson is there, this leads to my sole problem with the film in that it plays it just a bit too safe. The movie doesn’t ignore the hostility that Robinson encountered and what it was like for any African American in this country during that time, but key aspects of Robinson’s struggles, which even included death threats directed towards Robinson and his wife (played here by Nicole Beharie), are mostly just glanced over. Really, the film just feels a bit too clean and would have benefitted from being a bit grittier, which probably means that Hollywood had a big hand in shaping the final product.
But that does not mean this is a bad movie; far from it in fact. While the movie doesn’t really do Robinson’s struggle full justice, it is a good ‘feel-good’ movie. It’s also one of the best-looking baseball films to date, with some top-notch cinematography and baseball action. The film also benefits from solid acting all around, most notably from Chadwick Boseman and Harrison Ford. Boseman, a relative newcomer when it comes to film, shines as Robinson, as he perfectly captures the attitude of the Dodgers’ star. As for Ford, he also does a fine job while chewing up the scenery as Branch Rickey. Overall, the acting is solid all-around, including Beharie as Rachel Robinson and Lucas Black as Pee-Wee Reese, who was perhaps the most supportive of Robinson’s teammates on the Dodgers.
In the end, ‘42’ is a really good baseball flick but as a biopic, it really doesn’t do Jackie Robinson full justice. The respect towards him is there, but the movie would have worked a whole lot better had the filmmakers done more in showing what Robinson really went through during his rookie year with the Dodgers because as is, it’s more of a ‘feel-good’ movie. One could only imagine what it was like for him, but this film really serves more of an introduction to Robinson. But while that may be the case, the movie is still a well-acted, well-shot, and overall well-made film that, for some, will serve as a good introduction as to who Jackie Robinson was and the impact that he made in the Major Leagues.
Rating: 4/5
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