Film:42
Release Date: April 12
Studio: Legendary Pictures
Grade:A
In 1947, Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson became the first black man to play in Major League Baseball. Amidst receiving racial slurs and bigotry from fans, other players and even his own teammates, Robinson began desegregating professional baseball in America.
The film 42 tells Robinson's story and the struggles he went through during his first season in the MLB with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Harrison Ford (Cowboys & Aliens) portrays Branch Rickey, the general manager and innovative executive of the Dodgers in 1947. This role is the first historical character that Ford has ever had to play, and his performance as Rickey is undeniably incredible.
Ford wore body padding and facial prosthetics to look similar to Rickey. Not only did Ford look and speak like Rickey, but his acting captured the late Baseball Hall of Famer's passion for desegregation and love for the game.
Director Brian Helgeland (The Order) pays an incredible tribute to the heroic and seemingly impossible fight for equality in America. Rather than creating a movie of Robinson's entire career, Helgeland focuses on the most definitive years of Robinson's life. The time leading up to the 1947 World Series was a time of personal growth and hardship for Robinson.
The film was shot purposely from the perspective of the spectator; the audience is asked to look racism square in the eye. This was not a period of American history that should be ignored - this was one of the darkest times in American culture and history, and audience members are asked to reflect on that.
One scene in particular depicts a young boy and his father sitting in the stands before one of Robinson's games. The young boy is ecstatic to be at the game with his father and waits in anticipation for the players to run onto the field.
As Robinson runs onto the field, the boy's father starts heckling Robinson with racial slurs and obscenities. The boy, confused, looks at his father and notices how all the other white men in the stadium are yelling. It takes the boy all of 10 seconds to join his father in heckling Robinson, even yelling the 'N-word' after hearing his father do so.
Although it's uncomfortable to watch, the short clip is necessary to show how easy it is to influence children and how quickly they adopt their parents' behaviors and values. It is because of those behaviors and values that so many African Americans, like Robinson, had to endure the torture of cruel societal norms and stigmas.
A tremendously talented cast of young actors gives insight into the confusing, difficult era after World War II. In war, all men are colorblind. Black men fought beside white men, only to return home to racial injustice and fear.
Chadwick Boseman (The Kill Hole) takes on the influential and emotional role of Robinson. Boseman delivers an amazing depiction of Robinson's hardship in the MLB. Boseman portrays Robinson with heart-aching grace, taking the audience through every racial slur and every hurtful comment Robinson was forced to ignore. Boseman's Robinson gives life to an untold story.
Nicole Beharie (The Mirror Between Us) plays Robinson's wife, Rachel, who founded the Jackie Robinson Foundation, a cause that funds minority students in higher education. Boseman and Beharie share beautiful on-camera chemistry as lovers and fighters in a war against prejudice and racism. Beharie gives a performance of a woman deeply in love, but also a strong, inspiring woman believing in her rights as an American.
An inspiring score beneath melodramatic action and dialogue also assists the film. Mark Isham (The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Peter), known for his work on the television series Once Upon a Time, imagined beautiful, stunning music that matched the dramatically heightened emotions in the film.
Costume Designer Caroline Harris (The Awakening) had the difficult task of creating historically accurate costumes for the main characters and the hundreds of extras who filled the seats in the stadiums. Harris created a believable 1940s world of fedoras and stogies.
The film is supported by the spectacular lighting design, as well. Boseman is constantly silhouetted in a ray of heaven's light, reinforcing the heroic image Robinson is meant to have.
42is not just a sports movie. It's an inspiring journey one man began that changed baseball, and eventually the United States, forever.
Email: arts@ubspecrum.com
