More than just a movie

Rating: 8/10 (29 November 2015)

Even blacks being very important in World War II, many of them recruited as civilians to help the US military in war, to return home - those who returned - had to continue living with all the segregation and discrimination that persisted in the United States that the '40s. "42" tries and manages to show very well that, being a biographic, it shows the life of Jack Robinson in his early years as a player of Baseball, shows all its vigor to continue in their struggle to be the first black to join the MLB, suffering that means a lot of discrimination from other players and from mostly white audience.
Directed by Brian Helgeland, who had previously been writer of very intelligent films, such as LA Confidential and Mystic River, the film has a fluid appearance in his dialogs, which are strong and well defined, especially in the presence of Harrison Ford, playing Branch Rickley, the main acceptor ingression of Jack in MLB.
It also shows numerous events related to segregation and discrimination that colors people suffered, trying hard to sensitize the viewer - not that it takes some merit of the film, it does not take away, just try to mark it well - so many that happened directly with Jack, as to what happened with the other black, as the separation of places for whites and colors, seen in part that separated the audience that would watch the baseball games, something that was only abolished in 1964, with the Civil Rights Act. In addition to other events, such as not leaving the team staying at the hotel because of Jack being black; the insults suffered by Jack from Philadelphia coach, Ben Chapman; discrimination also suffered by his teammates and team of rivals, and later their acceptance; a boy to hear his relative and hundreds of fans scold Jack, swears it Jack too, giving, then, the beginning to a prejudice that can chase the kid for the rest of his life, among other strong events in the film.
The movie, above all, still shows all Jack wins, as was a skilled player and he deserved get where he is. The film ends when the Dodgers advance to the World Series - that they would lose to the Yankees, the team that dominated the Baseball scene in those years -, counting also in the credits the way that some of the characters have taken in their lives.