The movie 42(2013) came out, and it told us the true story of Jackie Robinson. As many of us know, he broke the color barrier in the MLB on April 18th, 1946. He also became a star player and is the only person to have his jersey retired in all of baseball. Players wear his number in April to commemorate this historic achievement. Read here for my review! Spoilers may follow.
To start out, Chadwick Boseman does a fine job portraying Jackie Robinson. Harrison Ford plays the man, Branch Rickey, who gave him the shot to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Neither role is flashy per say excluding one memorable scene involving Boseman breaking his bat in the dugout tunnel. They both just did it well. The production design is pretty good for this movie. A lot of movies that take place in the '40s don't let you feel like it is that time period whereas this film does.
The old stadiums, clothing, baseball uniforms, and other things kept up the appearance. I have always been a baseball fan, and that's why this movie was tempting to watch. Most of the movie's pacing was good. You could easily follow the plotline and how the events came to pass. It was important to break the color barrier including baseball, and the MLB was widely regarded as having no intentions for integration. The Dodgers decided to take a chance.
There are a couple of issues with the movie. First, there is no way they called a scout and had him find Robinson at a random gas station while he was using the bathroom. That is a five-minute turn around at most. It was 1946. They didn't have a cell phone to call him or anyone else to see where their bus was. Next, a couple of the actors who played on the Brooklyn Dodgers didn't give passable performances in my opinion. Lastly, you are slightly surprised when the movie ends because you did not know it was the finale. Something more should have been done.
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