Rickety Pic

If you loved Brian’s Song, a film about the first black/white pairing in pro football, you’ll enjoy and recognize the gist of 42, the story of the first black professional baseball player, Jackie Robinson. 42 is a much less passionate story (than Brian’s Song) as it concentrates on the difficult integration of a black player into white professional baseball, whereas Brian’s Song focused on the friendship between Brian Piccolo and Gale Sayers, a friendship that developed into an unbreakable bond between the two professional athletes that transcended Piccolo's death from cancer.

42 is very low-key throughout, almost more the story of the coach, Branch Rickey, as it is the story of Robinson, whose personal life is as prominent in the film as his professional trials to establish himself as a baseball player, rather than as a black baseball player. Rickey selected Jackie Robinson as the Negro player to break the color barrier because he was a hugely-talented baseball player, and also a man who could restrain himself from fighting back as the racial epithets were hurled at him by other athletes, as well as the general public. Robinson became an idol not just to young black men, but also to white youth who wanted to play ball just like Robinson.

I’m not sure why the movie is titled 42 as it’s never explained to the viewer why that number was given to Robinson. I know from press junkets promoting the film that each April, all baseball players wear the number 42 to honor Robinson’s courage in breaking the color barrier in professional baseball, as well as the other fact the number 42 is the only number in baseball ever to be retired. Beyond that, the mystery of the number is unanswered.

This is one of the "go see" movies, but doesn't rise to the level of "must see." I’ll give the film a B- for the message, but it basically is a formulaic “rags to riches” movie that is too predictable and which does nothing to generate excitement in the telling of the historic fete. The actors portray their characters well, but the starring character in the film becomes Rickey’s ever-present cigar, which catches the viewer’s eye more often than any of the human characters. It also would help if the end of the movie were shown before the story is told so viewers know the characters, not only who they are, but also how they are important to the story, all of which comes after the final scene of the movie.