Robinson's Character the True Star of '42'

It is a good movie indeed that can turn all of your preconceived notions upside down and make you wonder if everything you ever believed was a lie.

In the movie 42, Brian Helgegard did just that, taking an era that people often refer to as “the good ol’ days” and bringing the camera lens right up to the ugliness that Jackie Robinson had to face as the first black man to play in major league baseball.

Misconceptions about the innocence of baseball were also dashed, as the movie focused on the motivation behind getting Robinson into the game: greed. The bottom dollar, at least as far back as the forties, was money, just as it is in today’s game.

Star Chadwick Boseman played Robinson as a man facing challenges every day that many of us couldn’t dream of with a stoic inner strength that played out beautifully on screen. The movie focuses on Robinson’s first two seasons after being called up, but largely glosses over his first season, with the Montreal Royals, before honing in on the meat of the story, Robinson’s first year with the Brooklyn Dodgers.

His life as a husband and as a father were passed by entirely, but this wasn’t a movie called “Jackie Robinson: a Husband and Father.” It is a movie about baseball, and boy, was it ever. The supporting cast was fantastic, with Nicole Beharie turning in an excellent performance as Jackie’s wife, Rachel, and Christopher Meloni, as suspended Dodgers manager Leo Durocher, bringing the character’s tough choices to life in a subtle but powerful turn.

Aside from Boseman, however, the true star of the show was the actor who played Branch Rickey. It was at least half an hour into the movie before I realized it was Harrison Ford. Ford made Rickey equal parts growling and sympathetic, with his motives behind bringing Robinson up very clearly in favor of the moneymaking aspect of the decision. Still, it was hard not to like the character, and any true story-style movie that makes me research the historical figure after watching it is a well-crafted flick, indeed.

Despite the unflinching look at racism that this story portrayed, the PG-13 rating is apt, and this would be a kid-appropriate movie. Film distributor Warner Brothers focused on the story in all the right ways, and the more people who can see their portrayal of Robinson’s struggles, the better. It’s important for as many people as possible to understand how far things have come, both in baseball and in our history as a country.

It’s true that baseball ain’t like it used to be, but maybe that’s a good thing.