42

When a movie has a title like 42, you’d think it would either be something incredibly vague and abstract, or something incredibly pretentious, but the actual reasoning is far more impactful than people would expect. It actually gets the title from being a baseball movie, with the title being in reference to the person of focus in this sports biography, as baseball teams retire legendary players numbers as a measure of recognition. The man who held this number was Jackie Robinson, the first black man to play in Major League Baseball and he left such an impact on the sport as a whole that the number in general has been retired from baseball, which says quite a lot. In 1945 Brooklyn , Jackie Robinson (played by the late Chadwick Boseman) is a ballplayer that is selected to be the first black person to play in the Brooklyn Dodgers by its owner, Branch Rickey (played by Harrison Ford), although he is warned by sportswriter Wendell Smith (played by André Holland) that he will need to stay in line and not become a burden, since this entire situation is breaking ”the color line”  . As expected, Robinson is faced with a lot of adversity and racism by the locals of every new location the Dodgers play at, as well as the players on his own team. Knowing that he would be thrown aside if he shows any weakness, and wanting to succeed for his wife, Rachel (played by Nicole Beharie), Jackie has to survive the dangers on and off the field in order to show the world that change is coming and that its something that is worth fighting through. Being a recount of one of the most impactful baseball players within Major Leagues history, the movie manages to effectively highlight this man’s struggles and journey in a respectable, honest, and emotionally engaging way. With good acting, solid pacing, and a story that is easy to connect with, 42 is more than just a solid baseball movie.

Some ideas for a Jackie Robinson movie had been thrown around previously with people like Spike Lee and Robert Redford trying to get movies off the ground in order to tell the story, but it wasn’t until Legendary Pictures announced they were developing a film in 2011 that it became a reality. The story of Jackie Robinson has a lot of material that can work as an engaging biopic, and it doesn’t need a lot of real-life altercations in order to work as a film. The film was credited for how authentic it was and how closely it stuck to the real events (made possible to due to collaborating with Robinson’s widow, Rachael Robinson, during the production process), with the only moments which feel more Hollywood in nature being parts that are clearly extenuated to push forward an emotion, whether in a good or a bad way. This is prominent in any biopic, but it doesn’t always have to be a bad or distracting thing as they can help intensify a moment or even fabricate one entirely, and as long as it isn’t harmful or takes away from the real person’s life experiences, it can add more than it takes anyway. Any story that makes racism a major component always has the chance of being preachy and distracting, but this movie uses this as an easy sympathizing tool for the main character, and therefore makes the audience more inclined to root for him against obviously stupid injustice. Jackie Robinson’s story is one of importance and one that shows incredible strength and mental control. Its doesn’t contain aspects that you wouldn’t expect from any other sports biopic even around this time period, but with how well its paced, how well its directed by writer/director Brian Helgeland, and how much of this individual’s life in brought into focus, it appeals more to the audience’s emotional want for him to succeed and therefore, they are more willing to wait through the story to see him win. It doesn’t feel like a complete deep dive into the real man’s life and it can feel a little watered down in moments (where maybe some of the events he endured were a bit more unique in comparison to this film where they all seem kind of the same), but it never feels too repetitive. With that said, while this movie does feel very genuine,a authentic and real, its almost impossible to escape the typical Hollywood feeling in a few moments throughout which can come across as a little hoaky and even squeak-clean in parts. The ending especially feels a bit rushed and sappy; stopping on n abrupt note that is more focused on being like a book end as opposed to feeling like a truly impactful moment in his career.

The acting in the movie is overall pretty good and does a good job creating a liveable atmosphere that feels accurate to the time period that the movie was set in. With how a lot of the obviously racist people act, it feels like it should be over-the-top and obviously evil, but it becomes even more tragic when its more realistic than many would want it to be. A movie like this with a set-up like this weirdly makes this over-the-top racist acting feel more believable than it would in other movies where it shouldn’t feature that kind of talk. The late Chadwick Boseman does a really good job playing someone who feels like an average likeable every-man. After his passing, he’s eared a lot more recognition for his acting talents, and he’s proven to be one that can take a seemingly straightforward role and make it engaging despite not having much to work with. Harrison Ford is also really good as the man who helped Robinson get his chance in the big leagues. Despite him being very mixed in quality later in his career, here he’s home to some of the best scenes in the movie where his age and gruff determination is very welcome in this film. A lot of the side characters are essentially playing cartoon characters, and this means that a lot of them aren’t that engaging to watch, outside of Nicole Beharie as Robinson’s wife since she shares a lot of nice moments with Boseman. None of the baseball players are bad actors and there’s even a few recognizable faces like Christopher Meloni, Alan Tudyk,  and Lucas Black (who does get a nice moment near the end as the first player who shows open support for Robinson), but it’s a shame that none of them really stand out as people and work more as individuals that represent Robinson’s progression from outsider to teammate, instead of showing them off as their own people who go through their own struggles. Its Jackie Robinson’s story, so he should be the one of focus, but the good guys are traditionally nice guys and the bad guys are just overtly mean, its clearly played in a straightforward enough manner to get the point across, but not much else. It never feels like they represent any other real-life people incorrectly, but it doesn’t portray them in an interesting way so that you’d believe they were real either.

Any movie about a sport needs to capture the atmosphere, energy, and overall presence of what the sport represents to the players and to the audience. Baseball is a sport that has a similar level of worldwide appeal to something like Soccer or Football, being very popular within the Western and Eastern parts of the world, but it feels less aggressive and forceful than those sports and is one that also relies on its team pride. With something like baseball, it feels like it needs a little something more to it for the audience to be fully engaged, as a majority of the matches could feel repetitive so an outside element or over-arching issue on the field is what should be the focus, and that’s what this movie does. This movie captures a lot of how people in this time held so much prestige for their team’s name that they wouldn’t be willing to allow a black men to play because it would make their team and their town look bad. It shows the hostility is more than just from outside of the sport as it comes through in not only the verbal insults from the other players, but also that they would rather forcefully ruin a game just to stick it to him for playing. It is a tragic insight into the mindset of sports hype and mania (which is an element that is also sadly still very frequent) and it does add a nice element to this film that gives each match something unique to latch onto. The music for the film composed by Mark Isham feels like the traditional inspirational tracks that would be heard on several Oscar-bait movies but since this movie isn’t filled with too many overly poetic moments, it doesn’t feel nearly as annoying.

42 brings to light a story that probably isn’t well known to the general public who aren’t connected to baseball, but it’s one that deserves some recognition and shines some attention on some very brave and impactful individuals who brought about change in the field of sporting that would be felt for years to come, so much so that the man in question earned himself the number 42 exclusively. The pace is good, the story does a great job at keeping people emotionally engaged, the acting is solid, and it’s a feel-good movie without being pandering and simplistic. While it isn’t the most fascinating story and it has its fair share of Hollywood moments shoved into real person’s life, 42 takes a standard sports movie and introduces a real life hero for many into its spotlight, making it a pretty wholesome movie to check out.