42

Do you like sports? 

Do you enjoy the competition and the rivalries, the awesome plays, and the teamwork exuded? 

This is probably my most obvious series of rhetorical questions that I have ever asked on my blog. Pretty much everybody loves at least some sport whether it be football, basketball, hockey, soccer, golf, tennis, or in the case of 42, baseball. 

The thing that I don't think many people understand is just how much Jackie Robinson changed not only baseball, but the American sports world in general. Baseball was arguably the biggest sport in the United States in 1947 and because of the Gandhi-like Robinson, he began a change of opinion about black people in professional sports that paved the way for some of the greatest sports stars we have ever seen. By resisting the temptation to fight violence and hatred with more violence and hatred, Jackie Robinson showed that he could play better than the white man and act more professionally. Granted, the argument could be made that eventually someone would have come along and done the same thing and we would still be where we are at today. But I call that argument invalid. Jackie Robinson WAS that person who came along and took it upon himself to go against the status quo. It's probably the most important story in American sports history and Jackie's legacy is linked to every African American player who has entertained us across various sports fields: Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali, Tiger Woods, Barry Sanders, LeBron James, etc. etc. etc. 

So if it's the most important sports story to tell, how is the movie about it?

Rounding third base and sliding into history...

The movie, 42, certainly has its faults, but it is very good overall. I really don't think it will be a classic the way Remember the Titans or Spacejam became (I know, I know. Spacejam isnt a serious movie about race. But EVERYONE loves it!!) but it's worth a viewing in its own right mainly to just see what Jackie Robinson and all those who supported him had to go through. Which that right there might be one of the highlights of the movie. Clearly Jackie Robinson was the person who took the brunt of the jeers, violence, and ridicule. But one of my favorite aspects of the movie was how it showed just how much most of his team supported him. Many of them would defend him because they knew he was a great person and a fantastic ball player. Branch Rickey, played pretty well by Harrison Ford, was the executive who signed Robinson to the Brooklyn Dodgers and continued to show his support for him throughout the following seasons. Just someone having the guts enough to do that is impressive all things considered. I guess what I'm getting to is that Jackie Robinson didn't change history all by himself and the movie did a great job of displaying that. 

Silencing the crowd by doing the right thing...

What 42 also excels in is its acting and baseball sequences. Everyone turns in a home run performance here (pun intended), particularly Chadwick Boseman who plays Jackie Robinson. He is a great lead and has the capability to display a wide range of emotions all very believably. Harrison Ford is great as Branch Rickey, my only complaint being that it took me a good half hour to get used to his guttural, raspy voice. It's not every day you see Han Solo/Indiana Jones on screen talking like they just coughed up a lung. In addition, the baseball sequences are well shot from a cinematography standpoint and had great color to them. An odd thing to notice, but I really like how saturated the color on screen was during the game of baseball. That being said, there really is no exciting baseball to be seen in this movie save maybe one or two scenes. If you are looking for a sports-action movie, you will be disappointed. 42 is here to tell the story. And on that note I bring you to the film's biggest weakness.

"Ya see kid, there was this huge Death Star and
then Sean Connery was my dad...wait...
ah dammit! I'm mixing up my movies again!"

As I mentioned earlier, 42 has an important story to tell, and much like Lincoln, it decides to focus on just one section of the title character's life. Now I'm not saying that I want a movie that starts from the time Jackie Robinson exits the birth canal to the time that he dies, but I honestly just felt a little short changed in 42. It progresses logically, if not a little sporadically, through the baseball season of 1947 with a little bit of time being spent on preseason proceedings. It comes to the point where the Brooklyn Dodgers are playing a game that will send them to the World Series and then it just....ends. As the screen went to black I was kind of taken aback, expecting it to continue in some fashion. But I guess they just decided that the movie was done then and there. At the end there are some classic sports "Where are they now?" type of conclusions with still frames and text on screen, but that doesnt count for much. Ultimately I left a very good sports movie saying, "That's it?" which is never a good thing.

The real Brooklyn Dodgers. My hats off to
all they did to change the world of sports,
Jackie Robinson in particular.

Before I wrap this review up, I want to address a scene in the movie that I found to be very powerful. I am a firm believer that we can learn a lot of life's greatest lessons by the power of movies and I hope that some people learn a lesson from this one. In 42, there is a scene where Jackie Robinson is walking out on the field in Cincinnati and he starts to get booed. One father, who had previously been shown as nothing but loving towards his son, yells out, "N****r!! Get out of here!". His little boy sitting next to him sees Robinson on the field and all the white folk yelling similar sentiments. Then the little boy yells, "N****r!! Get out of here!". A few moments later, we see Pee Wee Reese, one of Jackie's white teammates, come and put an arm around his friend, Jackie Robinson. The little boy sees this and his face is immediately plastered with shame over what he yelled out. In this day and age, with all that is going on in the world, I hope that parents take their children to see this movie. And maybe somewhere, some little boy or girl will see the little boy on screen, and be changed. They will learn that just because their parents, family, friends, peers, religion, or elders are saying something doesn't always make it right. Like I said, it struck me as one of the more powerful scenes I've seen in recent memory and I applaud the movie for putting it in there. 

To make a long review short: go with your family or your loved ones to see 42. It's not a perfect movie by any means, but it tells an important story. And sometimes, that's as good a reason as any to see a movie.

Pros:

• Everyone does a great job acting, Chadwick Boseman in particular
• Doesn't shy away from some of the harsher things that Jackie Robsinson went through. At times it can be jarring (one scene of constant ridicule in particular), but I think it all serves a higher purpose to show just how impressive it was that Robinson didn't get violent
• Jackie Robinson didnt change the face of sports all by himself and the movie does a phenomenal job giving credit where credit is due to teammates and managers who took chances 
• When there are baseball scenes, they are done really really well
• Some very powerful scenes

Cons:

• It can be very cheesy at times, but then again, what sports movie isn't?
• Ok but seriously, the original score is BEYOND cheesy. I'm pretty sure that music was the same music I have heard in any sports movie ever
• I think it hurts the movie to focus on just one section of Jackie's life. A montage of his career would have been a great movie
• The ending is very awkwardly abrupt in my opinion. It felt like it came out of nowhere

Rath's Review Score: 7.5/10