Jackie Robinson wore number 42 with the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Rating: Null/10 (9 September 2013)

I really like this movie. I was born in 1945, and became a baseball fan right about the time Jackie Robinson was retiring from baseball in 1957. I happened to be a Brooklyn Dodger fan, and I can't honestly remember why, maybe it was because my dad was a NY Yankees fan. Regardless I never had any consciousness of "race" in baseball. I knew the Dodgers had black players and as far as I was concerned it was always that way.
But of course it wasn't. Even 80 years after the Civil War ended and slaves had been freed, there was still deep racial bigotry in sports. The major leagues were essentially all white. The blacks played in "negro leagues". This movie tells the true story of the man, Jackie Robinson, who broke the "color barrier", it was never easy but Jackie was a superior athlete and a superior human being and made it work. His influence is so highly regarded that every year on "Jackie Robinson Day" every major league player wears the number 42 in tribute.
In an excellent role Chadwick Boseman is Jackie Robinson, and the story is squarely about him. But in a real sense it is also about Branch Rickey, President and General Manager for the Dodgers from 1942 to 1950. This role is played by Harrison Ford in what has to be one of his best performances. He doesn't just play Rickey, he virtually becomes Rickey.
When there is a time and need for great change most often there needs to be an energetic driver of that change, and that was Branch Rickey. Yes, in his job he was in the business of winning and making money for the franchise. But deep down he knew the bigotry against blacks in baseball was wrong, and he knew to make the change work he needed to find a first-rate player who would become a team leader. Robinson turned out to be that guy.
Excellent movie, one of the very best sports movies I have seen. And I am still a Dodgers fan after all these years!