Amazing parallels to 1927 movie THE JAZZ SINGER . . .

Rating: 8/10 (30 April 2013)

. . . in which Al Jolson plays a sixth generation Jewish synagogue cantor IN BROOKLYN named Jakie Rabinowitz, who changes his name to JACK ROBIN and puts on a BLACK FACE to sing songs the public views as African American in a movie that BROKE THE SOUND BARRIER. 42 is about the similarly-named real life Negro Leaguer Jackie Robinson (sort of like Jakie Robin's son), who BROKE THE COLOR BARRIER, also in Brooklyn, not only for major league baseball, but in a greater sense for every aspect of American society (which, as depicted in the early part of this movie, was pretty apartheid at this time in the late 1940s, especially in the American South, as far North as Philadelphia, near where rebel general Robert E. Lee expected to find slavery sympathizers as he invaded Pennsylvania on behalf of the Confederacy in the summer of 1863). Many U.S. residents of today who have NOT viewed THE JAZZ SINGER think it's about some racist white guy rapping in eubonics. It is actually about a tortured soul trying to break free from the pigeon hole into which his upbringing has crammed him, not unlike Jackie Robinson's real life story.