42
{4.5/5} “Baseball was proof positive that democracy was real. A baseball box score after all, is a democratic thing. It doesn’t say how big you are, or what religion you follow. It does not know how you voted, or the colour of your skin, it simply states what kind of ballplayer you were on any particular day.”
In 1946 all 400 Major League Baseball players are white. Brooklyn Dodgers executive Branch Rickey decides he’s going to bring a black player to the team. He wants a person who’s a great player and who won’t get angry when faced with racism. He selects Jackie Robinson. Jackie sees himself as a baseball player — but others see him as a hero.
42 was released earlier this year. It’s based on a true story. As usual there are a few deviations from what really happened but it seems to be pretty accurate — Robinson’s widow was consulted on the movie.
It’s a story worth being told. Things have changed a lot in the last 67 years, but even today there are some people who think certain things about a person based on the colour of their skin. That won’t be the case forever.
Although there’s a lot of baseball in the movie, you don’t have to be a baseball fan to appreciate the historical importance of the events.
The general direction of the story is fairly obvious but it’s a great story nevertheless — with Boseman and Ford in particular giving superb performances.
Robinson’s jersey number while on the Dodgers was 42.
The inspiring music is by Mark Isham (Crash).
Chadwick Boseman (the TV show Persons Unknown) plays Jackie and Harrison Ford (Random Hearts) plays Branch. Christopher Meloni (Man of Steel), Max Gail (the TV show Barney Miller), and Alan Tudyk (the TV show Firefly) play managers. John C. McGinley (the TV show Scrubs) plays an announcer.
The movie was directed by Brian Helgeland (A Knight’s Tale).