Great To See A Strong Black Hero

Rating: 10/10 (6 May 2013)

I have to be frank. I've been so disappointed in the cinema, these days, I had to take a break from reviewing films. I'm seeing a host of films at my job as a projectionist, and man... it's been bleak recently. I kind of had to sit back and say, "let me wait to write a review until I see something I can stand up and celebrate." That film is "42."
Chadwick Boseman is very strong in the role of Jackie Robinson. He plays it with eloquence, sensitivity, and a very tactile smoldering rage at the injustice that plays out from the white people who didn't want to see baseball integrated. As in Django Unchained, writer/director Brian Helgeland is faced with the task of making a film with a strong Black lead where most of the white characters are despicable. He does it by putting the white point of entry character right up front in Harrison Ford's Branch Rickey, who loves the game, and knows that bringing Black athletes into baseball with invigorate the sport and sell more tickets. Ford and Boseman play well together, and Helgaland doesn't fall into the trappings of making Ford's character overly fatherly... it's business, and there's no disputing that fact.
Nicole Beharie is delightful as Rachel Robinson. She didn't have a whole lot to work with, just basically there to support her man. But hey, it's just nice to see a sister supporting her man... period!
Here's where the writer comes into it. I remember reading the tell tale sign that your film isn't pro woman is if the women in the film only speak lines related to the goings on of the male characters. Rachel Robinson has no life outside of her husband, doesn't even really get to be a mother to her son on camera... which was kind of strange. But, then, it's Jackies's story. So I guess where I felt like the film fell short was in establishing a certain intimacy with the characters. It's tough with a film that's supposed to be a sports/action biopic. The other thing that I wasn't crazy about was the use of Andre Holland as Wendell Smith, basically playing the non-threatening black man with glasses who types out news for black papers on his lap at baseball games and he and Robinson take way too long to have any kind of brotherhood?
So "42" is the kind of film you can take the kids to, and not feel like you're planting seeds of self hatred in their minds... which in this day and age, is a real relief and breath of fresh air. Could it have been better? Yes. Would Spike Lee have done a better job? Well, I don't think there's a director out there who is more of a sports fanatic. I just have been so disappointed by his films of late, I'm not sure I could say "yes." I've heard rumors that he has been trying to make the Joe Louis Jr. story, the Brown Bomber, for years, but with Vin Diesel in the lead as Joe Louis? We'll see. What if a Black writer/director would have done "42." Would it have been more intimate? I tend to think it may have.