- March 6, 2025
It’s a color-by-numbers biography, but “42” scores points for looks, and as a reminder that Jackie Robinson’s emergence into baseball wasn’t a natural progression but one that was fought for, earned and rightfully taken.
BY MIKE CAVALIERE | ASSOCIATE EDITOR
In Jackie Robinson’s first at-bat in “white baseball,” he bends down near the plate to rub dirt on his hands, as fans cheer and heckle all around him. The camera cuts to one fan, an African American kid, who puts his hands together in prayer, closes his eyes and pleads, “Please, please, God. Let him show what we can do!”
Sitting in a packed theater, at 4:30 p.m. on a weekday, I could see an old black lady nearby tense up just then. She whispered, “Come on….” And when the ball cracks off Jackie’s bat, she cheers, as if the play had just happened right then, as if the color barrier — just that second — had been shattered and was disappearing like dust off Jackie’s cleats.
Moments like those epitomize the kind of movie “42” tries to be — sweet, earnest and optimistic, even if sometimes it does cross those lines to enter into sappy territory. You get the feeling that even if the film is perceived as one of those all-Hollywood stories about overcoming adversity, about triumph against all odds, writer-director Brian Helgeland seems OK with it.
He trusts his material, and that there will be plenty of fans, just like the lady at my showing, who will tense up when bully pitchers throw at Jackie’s head, and who might even whisper-sing along to the National Anthem at the start of Jackie’s first big league game, feeling in her bones just exactly what it stands for.
But movies like “42,” inspirational fare whose source material gives it a (possibly unearned) sense of “importance,” are better in packed theaters. Reactions make them work. They validate their effect on audiences — especially, in cases like this one, audiences that are old enough to remember Jackie’s first season, in 1947.
So, despite its problems, “42” does its job. Harrison Ford plays a borderline-campy, gruff-voiced Branch Rickey, the Dodgers owner who took what everyone thought was a crazy chance by bringing Jackie to the bigs. Chadwick Boseman plays a believable Robinson. And Helgeland (who also co-wrote “Mystic River” and “L.A. Confidential”) gives the story a glossy, romantic look that’s easy on the eyes.
For such a complicated time, though, Helgeland doesn’t leave a ton of room for gray area. It’s all optimism. All admiration. All respectful hat tips.
Still, try not to feel pins and needles when Pee Wee Reese puts his arm around Jackie between innings in his home state of Cleveland, while fans jeer and racist family members watch from the upper deck. Try to think of the movie’s shortcomings when an old black lady down the aisle cheers “Yesss!” when Jackie hits one over the wall and rounds third for “home, sweet home.”
“42” is not at all a masterpiece, but when the houselights came alive and the credits rolled, almost everybody at my showing clapped. It’s that kind of movie.
I even watched an older lady stop by the stairs, catch the eyes of the African American viewer who had been cheering, smile then flash her an OK sign with her index finger and thumb. “We’re on the same team now,” the gesture said.
She didn’t care so much about the movie’s simplicity. She didn’t notice all the times it played it safe.
She only knew that what she had just seen was real, and important. She was just happy that, after all these years, she’d finally been given a chance to share a piece of her history, and to relive it on the big screen.
CRITICAL MASS
“42” (PG-13, 2 hr 8 minutes)
Director: Brian Helgeland
Released: April 12, 2013
*** (of five)
There isn’t much deep or risky in the depiction of Jackie Robinson’s entry into Major League Baseball in “42,” but the movie does inspire — emotionally and visually. If you missed it opening weekend, consider this your second chance.
Rotten Tomatoes 75% fresh (of 117 critics)
IMDB 7.7 (out of 1,954 fans)
Richard Roeper, A.P. Fresh
A.O. Scott, N.Y. Time Fresh
*For more of Mike Cavaliere's movie reviews, and for Netflix Instant Watch suggestions, visit www.JustQueueIt.com, or search for Just Queue It on Facebook.
