Astounding film!

Rating: 10/10 (6 October 2014)

42 is not just a film about the life of baseball player Jackie Robinson, it is a film about the era and culture of life in the mid 1940's. America had just emerged from WWII which had focused on the elimination of fascism in the world only to walk right into it's own war with racism. Nothing in American history can really show that better than the story about Jackie Robinson and his major league baseball journey.
The movie is not just a baseball movie - but it does have some spectacular baseball scenes. It is a movie about the times, how racism permeated the fabric of America at that time. The open racism portrayed in the movie is both overwhelming and uncomfortable - which is it's design. I turned to my husband during one particular scene and said "I wish I could just reach through the screen and slap him upside the head". It really made me appreciate the choice of Jackie Robinson as the first African American to be picked to play in the majors. The person could not just have been a good ball player, he had to also be an upstanding citizen, and a man who would be able to take everything that was going to come his way. And Chadwick Boseman is perfect as Jackie Robinson delivering a heartfelt, gutsy and emotional performance of the man. He shows the many sides of Robinson - the love he had for his wife, the courage to stand, the anger at the constant racism, and, most important, the boldness to not fight back, holding his head high. He is a true American hero.
The story isn't just about Robinson though - it is also about his teammates, all cast splendidly, and how they went from wanting to walk away, to supporting and then accepting him. Some poignant scenes are portrayed throughout the movie. It is about his relationship with his wife, played fantastically by Nicole Beharie, a strong woman in her own right, eventually crossing her own barrier lines. It's about the very courageous Branch Rickey played with perfection by Harrison Ford, who has the guts, and a wonderful reason reveled in the film, for bringing in an African American player to begin with. It's about the beginning of a civil rights movement here in America, which begins, rightfully so, with the most American of all pastimes - baseball.