{"id":7246,"date":"2013-07-24T16:17:25","date_gmt":"2013-07-24T20:17:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com.\/?p=7246"},"modified":"2013-07-24T16:17:25","modified_gmt":"2013-07-24T20:17:25","slug":"movie-review-42","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=7246","title":{"rendered":"Movie Review: 42"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Robinson's<\/a>

Robinson’s most iconic moment; stealing home in the 1955 World Series.<\/p><\/div>\n

So, one thing we’ve noticed about having a kid is how our television and movie watching habits have changed. \u00a0Here’s a summary:<\/p>\n

1. We never go out to movies anymore.<\/p>\n

2. We watch about 30 minutes of something between the time we get him down at night and the time we have to go to bed and collapse from exhaustion.<\/p>\n

3. If we do rent a movie … \u00a0it is something that came out months ago and is either on HBO or on-demand for $5 bucks. \u00a0We watch it in 30 minute increments around his sleep schedule.<\/p>\n

So, given the above parameters, we just finished watching the movie\u00a042<\/em>, which chronicles Jackie Robinson<\/b>‘s breaking of the color barrier in Baseball in the mid 1940s. \u00a0 Some Links about the topic: IMDB’s movie page<\/a>, Jackie Robinson’s Wikipedia page<\/a> and Robinson’s Baseball-Reference page<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here’s what I thought.<\/p>\n

Story and Acting<\/span><\/strong>: My wife enjoyed the movie moreso than I did; perhaps it is because of the “love interest” storyline between Jackie and his wife, or perhaps it is because she doesn’t know the whole story of Robinson. \u00a0I knew, for example, that Robinson won the Rookie of the Year award in his debut season and a subsequent MVP award, so someone who doesn’t know Robinson’s history would watch the latter half of the movie regarding his MLB debut and maintain some suspense as to how he performed. \u00a0The various players just sort of allude to Robinson’s talent level here or there; never letting on just how good of a player he is.<\/p>\n

Robinson’s relationship with his wife is a large feature on the movie. \u00a0I have no idea how pertinent this is to the man and this story, having not yet read one of the many Jackie Robinson books out there (the most frequently mentioned being Baseball’s Greatest Experiment<\/i> by\u00a0Jules Tygiel<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Opening Day<\/em> by\u00a0Jonathan Eig<\/strong>, not to mention the fact that Robinson seems to have penned at least 4 autobiographies). \u00a0But enough emphasis is given that at one point my wife asked, “He doesn’t frigging cheat on her, does he?” \u00a0Perhaps a statement on our low expectations of professional athletes in the modern world, thanks to the travails of stars like\u00a0Tiger Woods<\/strong> and\u00a0Michael Jordan<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Harrison Ford<\/strong> as\u00a0Branch Rickey<\/strong> might be the best acting job I’ve ever seen him perform outside of\u00a0Witness<\/em> or\u00a0The Fugitive<\/em>. \u00a0I thought Ford was washed up as an actor, but he played a compelling, complex Rickey character who at times was using Robinson’s debut both as a money-grabbing ploy and a morality play. \u00a0The two relatively unknown actors playing Jackie and\u00a0Rachel Robinson<\/strong>\u00a0were fantastic, all things considered. \u00a0Chadwick Boseman<\/strong> and\u00a0Nicole Beharie<\/strong>\u00a0both gave excellent performances.<\/p>\n

The story itself, as tends to happen, left out some details. \u00a0It had to, in order to fit into a 2 hour time period. \u00a0I wish they would have spent more time discussing Robinson’s college and military background; he was an absolutely fantastic all-around athlete, winning varsity letters at UCLA in FOUR different sports. \u00a0Instead the movie seemed to imply that Robinson had been kicked out of the military (which did not occur) and barely mentioned his background prior to his being plucked out of the Negro Leagues in Birmingham. \u00a0Fair enough; Robinson’s legacy had to do with baseball, not his collegiate football accomplishments.<\/p>\n

Baseball Sequences<\/span><\/strong>: Unlike some baseball movies we’ve seen, at least the pitchers looked like they could pitch in this movie. \u00a0Boseman’s ability to look natural at the plate was nearly convincing; per his biography he’s an athlete who still plays basketball. \u00a0As it turned out though, they didn’t really have to show a ton of baseball footage despite this film’s title subject; most of this story was to bring to the screen the oppressive and unbelievable racism prevalent in the mid 1940s and to subsequently show how the Robinsons faced it. \u00a0Nowhere was this more prevalent or obvious than in the first Brooklyn-Philadelphia game, where the opposing manager (Ben Chapman<\/strong>) stood on the field and hurled insult after insult at Robinson in what seemed like pure racism, but was later explained away as “gamesmanship” by the coach.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the best baseball sequences didn’t appear until the credits started to roll, where what looked like B-film capturing the players making diving stops in the field appear in slow motion. \u00a0Perhaps it is fitting that the baseball action is limited; this isn’t really a “baseball story” like\u00a0The Natural<\/em> or\u00a0Major League<\/em> is; it does not depend on believable baseball action to make its point. \u00a0Robinson could walk and triumphantly trot to first base and it can appear as a monumental moral statement.<\/p>\n

Some clarifications on the legacy of early black players: the movie implies that the Dodgers were considering Robinson,\u00a0Roy Campanella<\/b>\u00a0and\u00a0Satchel Paige<\/strong>\u00a0to be the first player to integrate. \u00a0What’s left unsaid is that the real “star” of the Negro Leagues at the time was\u00a0Josh Gibson<\/strong>. \u00a0Also interesting to me was the fact that a second black player named\u00a0Johnny Wright<\/strong>\u00a0was signed in early 1946 and played in the minors the same season that Robinson debued. \u00a0I didn’t necessarily know this, but\u00a0Larry Doby<\/strong>\u00a0broke the color barrier in the American League just a couple months after Robinson did, to very little fan fare (see this\u00a0list on Wikipedia<\/a>\u00a0of the earliest black players by date and team). \u00a0I only mention this because the film post-credits say that (paraphrased) Robinson paved the way for black athletes like Campanella and\u00a0Don Newcombe.<\/strong>\u00a0 That’s true: Campanella and Newcombe were the next two black players to play for Brooklyn, but not in the major leagues.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/span>: Decent movie. \u00a0 Probably will never watch it again. \u00a0I may be in the minority though; the film grossed nearly $100M and now stands as the 2nd highest grossing<\/a> baseball film ever made. \u00a0 I’m not sure i’ve got it in my top 10 baseball movies of all time, but it may slide into contention for best baseball-related drama. \u00a0I’ll keep it in mind the next time I update my Baseball Movie post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What did you guys think?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So, one thing we’ve noticed about having a kid is how our television and movie watching habits have changed. \u00a0Here’s a summary: 1. We never go out to movies anymore. 2. We watch about 30 minutes of something between the time we get him down at night and the time we have to go to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1900,1896,1898,1905,1895,157,1903,1894,1902,1893,1904,292,1899,1897,1901,1128,634],"class_list":["post-7246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nonnatsbaseball","tag-ben-chapman","tag-branch-rickey","tag-chadwick-boseman","tag-don-newcombe","tag-harrison-ford","tag-jackie-robinson","tag-johnny-wright","tag-jonathan-eig","tag-josh-gibson","tag-jules-tygiel","tag-larry-doby","tag-michael-jordan","tag-nicole-beharie","tag-rachel-robinson","tag-roy-campanella","tag-satchel-paige","tag-tiger-woods"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7246"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7276,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7246\/revisions\/7276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}