'42' Safe at Home

Rating: 7/10 (30 March 2014)

Well done, thankfully underplayed story of Jackie Robinson and how he broke the Major League color barrier in the 1947 season with the Brooklyn Dodgers ("42" was his jersey number). Chadwick Helgeland plays Jackie with a spare naturalness and Harrison Ford is a serviceable Branch Rickey, the Dodgers executive who handpicked Robinson for the daunting task of playing good ball while facing unbelievable racism, especially from the likes of the Philadelphia Phillies' manager at the time, Ben Chapman, depicted here very accurately, according to The New York Times. Highly enjoyable.