"I don't know who he is or where he is, but he's comin'". - Branch Rickey speculating on the first black Major League ballplayer.

Rating: 8/10 (14 April 2013)

When I reviewed the 1950 film "The Jackie Robinson Story", I made the following comment - "What I'd really like to see is a modern day version of the Jackie Robinson story that does a more thorough job of his college and military years, with a lot better look at his International League and Dodgers career". "42" comes close, as it hones in nicely on Jackie's days in the Negro Leagues and his start in the Majors with the International League Montreal Royals, a Brooklyn Dodgers farm team. The actor who portrays Robinson, Chadwick Boseman, bears an uncanny resemblance to the color barrier breaking athlete, and truth be told, actually does a better job than Robinson himself in the 1950 biopic, who displayed a surprising lack of charisma considering his accomplishments both on and off the field.
Be advised however that this is not so much a sports movie as it is about the state of the country and race relations in the latter half of the 1940's. As such, some of the scenes are painful in their depictions of racial intolerance. Yet at the same time, one gets a first hand view of how Jackie's teammates came to embrace him first as an accomplished ball player and then as a teammate and friend. The Pee Wee Reese (Lucas Black) scene in the latter part of the movie becomes an emotional moment when the Dodgers shortstop steps forward to challenge a stadium full of baseball fans to accept a new era in race relations. That was one of the pivotal scenes in the film for me.
Now had I not known in advance that Harrison Ford was portraying Dodgers owner Branch Rickey, I might not have figured it out on my own. Ford was totally submerged into his character, both physically and emotionally. He offered a nice balance between the often laid back approach he took to his position against the firebrand posture required when it came time to lay down the law on anti-discrimination. It was surprising to hear that his first encounter with a black ball player was forty years PRIOR to events in the film, a stunning acknowledgment that took four decades to come full circle regarding his own personal mission to combat racism.
All in all, I don't think you have to be a baseball fan to enjoy this film. The period details are attentively done, and the competent casting of the support players is a big plus. Especially effective is Nicole Beharie in the role of Robinson's wife Rachel, and Andre Holland as the chronicler of Robinson's career while reporting for the Pittsburgh Courier. Elements of comic relief are layered into the story to mitigate the harsh examples of racism, and you'll get a kick out of the locker room scene when Ralph Branca (Hamish Linklater) encourages Jackie to take a shower with him. There's just no way to make that come out right, but they took a pretty good swing at it.