Movie review: '42' worth seeing for historic value

(128 minutes, Rated PG-13 for adult situations and language.)

(6 of 10 stars)

I must admit to the reader that I generally do not like baseball movies and only see them after careful research and much discretion.

Please do not misunderstand. I am a baseball nut. I played years beyond college and fanatically follow my favorite team (no, I won't share which). I can explain with extraordinary detail baseball strategies such as the double steal, the bunt-and-run, and the Ted Williams shift (and yes, generally, I bore the hell out of my friends).

It is because of this passion and understanding of the game that generally cause me to avoid baseball movies. The absurdity of casting someone as bad as Tim Robbins in "Bull Durham" kept it from being in my top five all-time baseball movies (mind you, his acting was fine but he didn't look like or perform like an athlete and the baseball scenes were inanely bad.)

So, I went into "42" this opening weekend with a bit of trepidation. Being the baseball (minor) historian that I am, there is much to admire about the man Jackie Robinson — he's a true 20th century American hero. What scared me, beyond the potential for bad baseball scenes, was the question whether or not they would find the right plot point; whether this would be a true biopic of Jackie Robinson's life and the complexity that was his experience as the first African-American baseball player or a blatant hack-job in order to simply sell tickets.

The verdict? The moviemakers did a pretty okay job.

For you non-baseball people, I will assume that you know Jack Roosevelt Robinson was the first black baseball player to play in the segregated Major Leagues in 1947 and that it was a watershed moment in the civil rights movement in the United States. Robinson was a remarkable man by several measures, but this movie solely revolves around his signing with the Brooklyn Dodgers until the end of his first year in the major leagues.

Written and directed by Brian Helgeland, who has written several very good screenplays including "Mystic River" and "L.A. Confidential," "42" does a very nice, however linear, job of capturing the history of Robinson from his initial signing with the Dodgers in 1945 until the end of the 1947 (his first with the Dodgers) season.

While I was impressed with the baseball scenes (whew!) and the filmmakers desire not to exaggerate history, I was disappointed that the film did not provide just a little more detail or depth to the man. Robinson was an amazing four-sport athlete at UCLA who bravely served his country as an officer in World War II. He had a very successful business career after retirement and did a great deal for the civil rights movement, but none of this was seen.

Moreover, Rachel Robinson, Jackie's wife (very well played by the stunning Nicole Beharie) was a woman of extraordinary strength and intellect who founded the Jackie Robinson Foundation after his death in 1972. That organization has sent thousands of young African-Americans to college in more than 40 years. While the relationship between the two was accurately depicted as the soul mates they were, the stress of the 1947 season on their relationship was not even remotely explored.

For years, Spike Lee had been trying to make a sweeping biopic of Jackie Robinson's life (he could never get the financial backing) and part of me wonders how good that movie might have been.

Robinson is played remarkably well by Chadwick Boseman, who has solely done television work to this point in his career. Boseman just looks like a baseball player with a strong, lithe body and a boyish face, and he does a nice job of capturing the depth and essence of Robinson, albeit limited by the script. He is expressive with his eyes, and understands well the complexity of the character.

Ever more impressive is the performance Harrison Ford turned in as Branch Rickey, who plays the general manager and part-owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers who was primarily responsible for "the great experiment," as it was called at the time.

By 1947, Rickey was a living legend in the world of baseball. He is credited with the development of the modern-day minor league system and was responsible for the St. Louis Cardinals dominating the National League for most of the 1930s and 1940s (and subsequently for the Dodgers in the late 1940s and early 1950s). He was also a very religious man who was widely respected as "Mr. Rickey."

Harrison Ford turns in a performance that is Oscar-worthy. The man who gave life to Han Solo and Indiana Jones has only one other nomination in his career ("Witness"), but his performance of Rickey, replete with the cigar-smoking and bushy eyebrows, was astonishing. Ford vividly captures the true essence of a very complex man.

Also noteworthy were Alan Tudyk as the Philadelphia Phillies' manager who took racist bench jockeying to a level simply unfathomable in today's world (but truly did happen as depicted). The scene needs to be seen to be believed and I cannot imagine how horrid it must have been for all the actors to film.

On a lighter note, John C. McGinley was delightful as Red Barber, the Dodger's Hall of Fame announcer, and provided a wonderful background to the action on the screen. It made me realize how much I miss the Harry Carays and Jack Bucks of the world.

The film is exceptionally well-shot and you could tell great effort was used in finding proper sets that represented the time accurately. Moreover, the director and cinematographer made exceptional use of Computer Generated Imagery to give life to baseball stadiums that are now long gone. I found myself wanting more screen time for the stadiums and the character they offered then instead of the Camden Yard knock-offs that we see today.

Overall, while enjoyable, the movie left me wanting more. Racial integration into baseball was a complex issue and none of these inaugural baseball players wanted the notoriety that being the first African-Americans in the Major Leagues brought. They simply wanted what every other American kid wanted —to play baseball on the world's greatest stage. That reality was lost on the filmmakers.

It is because of people like Jackie Robinson that we got to marvel at the talents of athletes such as Henry Aaron, Willie Mays and Derek Jeter. To reaffirm that reality in your mind makes seeing this movie worthwhile and a great opportunity to take the younger generation and educate them about the world that was — and thankfully is no longer.

I give it 6 of 10 stars.

About the Author

Who was that mysterious man you saw in the theater last night? You tried to get a look at him but he quickly disappeared in a puff of smoke, his cackle trailing in the air, leaving behind his calling card: a half-eaten box of popcorn and a lukewarm soda. He is Our Movie Reviewer named Tim!