Judas Priest! The kid can play

42 (2013)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Jackie Robinson's story was once told with the real Jackie himself in a rousing 1950 picture called The Jackie Robinson Story. 63 years later, Hollywood tries to do it again and with improved results. "42" is an equally rousing and often powerful film dealing with the first black baseball player to play in an all-white baseball team.

Chadwick Boseman is the enigmatic Jackie, playing for the Negro Leagues before being inducted into the Brooklyn Dodgers in the late 1940's. Cigar-chomping Branch Rickey (Harrison Ford, in his most colorful, dazzling performance to date), the Dodgers' general manager, takes a chance on a rookie whom Rickey knows will make history. Rickey has a talk with Jackie, telling him that racist language is likely to be thrown at him from every white player. Rickey has a simple stipulation: Jackie has to restrain from fighting back and take the verbal abuse.

Verbal and physical abuse is in store for Jackie Robinson. I am not talking "Passion of the Jackie" here but an opposing team player does stab Jackie in the foot at one point. Mostly, when Jackie steps to the plate, a lot of hollering and boos from the stands takes center stage. The difference is that Jackie is a hell of a baseball player - he can hit home runs and he runs like a jackrabbit, stealing bases with ease. He taunts the pitchers, egging them with his "superhuman" athletic abilities. The audience of jeering patrons is stunned (also stunning is seeing how blacks sat at one end of the stadium, while the whites sat on the other though that does change in different states where Jackie's wife can sit comfortably among whites).

As written and directed by Brian Helgeland ("L.A. Confidential"), I do wish the film focused on other aspects of Jackie Robinson. In this film, he is presented as a hotheaded rebel, a far cry from the 1950 version of yesteryear, but there is not much else beyond being a good baseball player and a good husband to his wife Rachel (Nicole Beharie). Only one scene shows Rachel's own recognition of racism and how it divided everyone - the ladies' bathroom for whites only. At the beginning of the film, Jackie also expresses disgust when a gas station owner doesn't let him use the bathroom at all. Mostly, Helgeland is more focused on Jackie's complex relationship with Rickey, and the dynamics of playing off and on the field. Most brutal scene is when the Philadelphia Phillies’ racist manager Ben Chapman (Alan Tudyk), shouts an endless barrage of racist insults. It is so bad that Jackie has to run off the field and smash his bat to smithereens. Even more telling is seeing how Jackie's teammates are alarmed as well.

These aspects of Jackie Robinson are shown to great and powerful effect - it moves you and you can't help but sympathize. Another less obvious angle is the portrayal of Wendell Smith (Andre Holland), a black sports writer/Jackie's driver who had to type his sports column in the stands with the audience - no black sports writers were allowed in the booths. It is essential that Jackie break down all barriers to allow Wendell a chance as well as other black baseball players to integrate with the whites.

"42" is largely an entertaining, old-fashioned sports picture painting an ugly portrait of racism - it is as if Jackie's abilities on the field were the precursor to the Civil Rights era. As I had mentioned, these elements are handled as well as expected, particularly a scene where a young kid mimics his father's racist tirade only to then realize that something is aflutter. But the movie doesn't see Jackie as anything other than an icon - the screenplay displays the character's justifiable anger when necessary but otherwise he keeps his cool. Chadwick Boseman does keep the character lively enough with a sense of humor - he is forthright and knows when to display mischief and smiles and angry looks to keep us wondering if he, just once, might lose his cool. The tension is blatant and keep us on edge and Boseman is too good an actor to make us think we are looking at a statue. I just wish there was more insight into the man himself.