An Engaging and Inspiring Bio-Drama

Rating: 8/10 (14 August 2013)

Though I'm not even a baseball person, I found "42" an utterly compelling and vividly realistic film. The level of empathy the audience attains with Robinson in all the adversity he faces is quite acute. Really fine acting by virtually all of the cast, but most particularly Chadwick Boseman as Robinson, Harrison Ford as the team owner with a most revolutionary idea, and Alan Tudyk as racist Phillies manager Ben Chapman. A fine and convincing script also helps to make this film the success that it is.
Still, the scope of the film has its limitations. "42" would have been enhanced by a more all-inclusive biography of Robinson in regard to his earlier life and service in WWII. While in high school and junior college, Robinson excelled at four different sports: Baseball, basketball, football, and track. Some revelation of why he sought to play in the then highly racist--even for that time--Major Leagues would have been a plus. Instead of simply having one of the characters tell us that, while serving as an army officer, he had been court-martialed for refusing to move to the back of a military bus, it would have been nice to actually SEE that happen via flashback. The directors let it be known that Robinson had a fiery temper. More illustration of this quality--and how/why he was forced to restrain it under circumstances that would have tried the most saintly patience--would have made "42" even better.