One Sentence: The best performance by Harrison Ford in a long time.
Rated: PG-13
Release Date: 12-Apr-2013
Nudity: None
On April 15, 2013 and every other year, all the players of Major League Baseball will wear the number 42 instead of their own number. They wear it to remember Jackie Robinson the first African American Baseball player in the major leagues. It is the only number to be retired by all of Major League Baseball. Jackie Robinson also won Rookie Of The Year, the first year he played in the major leagues and MVP that year as well and had a .311 all time batting average.
Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier and he did it while stealing bases, getting hits, and helping the Brooklyn Dodgers get to the World Series. Just playing would have been enough.
42 and Chadwick Boseman portrays Jackie as a strong man, a smart man, and disciplined man. Dealing with the hate, violence, and ignorance of that time. The Jim Crow laws, and the things he had to endure to make it through that time. He wasn’t just a man playing baseball. The movie doesn’t seem to fall into the trap of most biopics. It doesn’t have that dark time that the character caused himself. The dark time is the world around him. Jackie stands tall and as strong as he can be.
The movie is powerful, and delivers on the pain and the confusion of that time. Those who wished to support Jackie were also attacked, and the battle was not just one man, but all of those around him who fought for what they thought was right. The story is smart, it is about baseball, but about the people and time as well, and does all of it very well. The audience responded very well, cheering in parts that were strong and struck a chord with everyone watching. 42 is a wonderful movie that I think is a great story that needed to be told.
