truly excellent

Rating: 8/10 (8 June 2014)

The story of Jackie Robinson stands as an inspiration to anyone who knows about him. In reading about this man, it was said that he wasn't the best African American player and there was another player, much better, who should have been the first to break the color barrier in baseball. But Robinson's story is about so much more than baseball. I don't know anything about the person mentioned, and I'm sure he was an excellent player. But someone has to go first, and in this case, it was a young man who was able to withstand everything that was thrown at him - literally.
There were some surprises for me in the movie, one of which was Harrison Ford. Ford is what I call an old-fashioned movie star. Unlike someone like Johnny Depp or Meryl Streep who change their looks and voices and immerse themselves in a character, Ford is more like Gable or one of the Golden Era stars: He's a solid leading man, he does drama and comedy, and projects a strong image. This was all blown out of the water. As Branch Rickey, the man who introduced Robinson to baseball, he moves into another league as an actor as he inhabits Rickey in stance and voice and attitude.
The other surprises were more shocks - it's hard to grasp that a soldier who refused to move to the back of the bus would have been court-martialed. It's truly disgusting. And how he could play ball with players who were trying to injure him, people screaming at him from the stands, I have no idea.
Chadwick Boseman was fantastic as Jackie - you could see Jackie's thought process on his face as he struggled with his emotions. He portrays a gentle demeanor, though Robinson had a spine of steel and wasn't afraid to speak up. Boseman had good chemistry with the lovely Nicole Beharie, who played Jackie's wife. Chris Meloni captured the spirit of Leo Durocher perfectly; Andre Holland, Lucas Black, Alan Tudyk, T.R. Knight were all terrific.
Robinson died from diabetes and heart complications at 53, shortly after the death of his oldest son, who died in a car accident at 25 and had a long struggle with drugs after serving in Vietnam.
In my opinion, Robinson was the right man for the job at hand. He is one of our great heroes. He might have not been able to withstand the pressure and dropped out, but he kept fighting and winning.