Breaking Baseball's Color Line On Celluloid

Rating: 10/10 (8 May 2014)

WHEN WE BECAME highly "Baseball Aware", it was 1956 and it was a great year for a 10 year old to be in such a state. It was a time of great symmetry and balance in the Major Leagues. There were no Divisions, no Playoffs, No "Wild Card" teams. The Pennant Races were confined to 2 eight team leagues; with a winner take all policy for the 1st Place team. Then it was on to the World Series.
SO THIS MADE it possible for us to have seen Jackie Robinson play; albeit only on televised games.* At a tender age, such as we were, there was no way for us to understand the significance of his place in the History of the Game, and for that matter, our History in general.
THE FILM'S PRODUCTION team had striven to weave as much true historical fact into a tightly knit storyline; that never seems to slow down or become excessively preachy or sentimental. To its credit, the screenplay reads like a slice of life.
WHEREAS IT WOULD be easy for this story to become too grim or too "Pollyanna", accurate replication of well known, real life incidents allow it to maintain an even keel throughout.
BY WAY OF example, we choose the following examples:
First of all, Brooklyn Dodger General Manager, Branch Rickey
(Harrison Ford)says that Jackie Robinson (Chadwick Boseman) is his
choice to break the color line because, like Rickey, Robinson is a
Methodist!
Rickey also admits to having ulterior motives; when he states that
he wasn't undertaking such a move just in the name of doing the
right thing. He states that there is a lot of talent in the
Negro Leagues that would hence become available.
Lastly, in an early scene, Robinson is being insulted in the
worst possible way. The racial slurs finally get on the nerves
of Dodger 2nd Baseman, Eddie Stanky, who intervenes on
Robinson's behalf. Stanky, who was "a Good Ol' Boy" from
Alabama, did not like the idea of Robinson's being on the
team; but he thought that it was cowardly that any opposition
player would behave so, knowing that Jackie had pledged to
remain silent and never retaliate.
GETTING BACK TO real life, Robinson played in that 1956 Season, including the loss to they Yankees in 7 games of the World Series. That was his last hurrah in the Big leagues.
IN VERY SHORT order, his hair turned from black to silver. Jackie Robinson died in 1972 at age 53. We can only surmise why he left Planet Earth with maybe 2 decades or more of a possibility. Our guess is all of that internalization of the great tension greatly shortened his life span.
Small Wonder!
NOTE: * In Chicago, we had the opportunity to see all Major League players; but being a devout White Sox fan, we wouldn't go to Wrigley Field and the Cubs!