Story of the man who broke through baseball's colour barrier

Rating: Null/10 (16 December 2014)

42 is a movie about one of the most important stories in professional baseball, the breaking of the racial barrier with the first black baseball player. Chapman Bosemann is an incredible lookalike for Jackie Robinson, third baseman for the Brooklyn Dodgers, but his real strength is portraying the character of the man who sucked up his guts and persevered through the harassment, hate letters, and racial epithets that targeted him and aimed to break his spirit. We also get a view of his fellow team players who learnt to accept him and stand by him in his struggle. It was not unanimous. Some were reluctant; the great shortstop Pee Wee Reese, for example, who later became a great ally.
Owner Branch Rickey, a religious man and a man with a strong social conscience, made it clear that he wanted total cooperation or the players would be bounced from the team. Rickey is played by actor Harrison Ford, who was so well made up to look like Rickey that it never struck me who really was the man under the mop of hair, professorial spectacles, bow tie and three piece suit. Christopher Meloni plays coach Leo Durocher, a man of steel who was relieved when Rickey assured him, that Robinson was not a nice guy. "Nice guys finish last", he said, repeating his now famous line. I heard about the difficulties Robinson had to face in his mission to be "the first black man in baseball." However, I had no idea of the racism and resentment he had to endure. It was an outstanding story and is well presented in this fine piece of movie making.