Breaking The Colour Barrier

Rating: 7/10 (19 July 2013)

I've sometimes said that while baseball is not my favourite sport, it is the closest thing there is in sports to a spiritual experience. It's gentle and comfortable and then all of a sudden it briefly bursts forth with periods of excitement. For the most part you could say that about this movie. It's a good movie. It's not full of excitement. It is, for much of the time, a rather sensitive portrayal of racism, how to combat racism, and - of course - of Jackie Robinson's struggle against racism as he makes his way to the major leagues.
As a baseball movie, this is very well done. There's an authenticity to the on-field action. It's all quite believable; none of it looks staged or acted. But it isn't a baseball movie, of course. It's a movie about racism, with baseball in the background.
I never saw Jackie Robinson play. He retired from baseball seven years before I was born. But, of course, I know a lot about his story. The movie seems an accurate (if somewhat tame, to be honest) portrayal of Robinson's experiences. My own impression, from what I've read, is that Robinson was treated much worse than what we see here - where the worst example of racism directed at him is the disgraceful conduct of Philadelphia Phillies manager Ben Chapman, who ruthlessly taunted Robinson with racist comments the first time the Phillies played the Dodgers - although that incident helped cement Robinson's place as part of the team.
Chadwick Boseman was excellent as Robinson, effectively portraying Robinson's attitude - bristling at the racism he had to endure but controlling himself at the request of Dodgers owner Branch Rickey, who told him that he didn't want a man with the guts to fight back, but rather a man with the guts not to fight back. Boseman's portrayal was very good, as was Harrison Ford's as Rickey.
There were a couple of decisions I might quibble with. There was no portrayal of Robinson's appearance in the 1947 World Series after the Dodgers won the pennant, although I suppose that would have been anti- climactic, since the Dodgers lost to the Yankees and Robinson didn't have a great series. There was also no portrayal at all of his time in Montreal with the Dodgers minor league affiliate, the Montreal Royals - although, again, that would have been anti-climactic, since Jackie's wife Rachel (played in the movie by Nicole Beharie) said years later that she had only good memories of Montreal, and that she and Jackie never had a problem in the time they lived there. So, I understand both of those omissions, but it still seemed to me to leave a gap.
Overall, I'd say this is a good movie - much like a good baseball game. It doesn't go into a great deal of depth about the story - much like Rickey advised Robinson, it's almost as if those who wrote the script and Brian Helgeland who directed it were keeping everything in check. A lot of it is pretty slow moving and not especially exciting, but there's enough interesting things in it to make you appreciate having watched it. (7/10)