Two truths and a lie. I’m really good at air hockey; I’ve never been to Italy; and I once knew all the words to this movie (42). Disregarding my odd talent in air hockey for just a second, yes I knew all the lines to 42, since it was probably my favorite movie of all time when I was eight or nine years old.
The film 42 is about the story of Jackie Robinson, the first ever African-American baseball player in Major League Baseball. The biographical sports film follows Jackie’s journey (Chadwick Boseman) and his resilience while trailblazing a path that paved the way for millions of Black athletes after him. Branch Rickey, part owner of the Dodgers and former baseball player responsible for the push of Jackie into the MLB, is played by Harrison Ford. Harrison and Boseman are a great duo working in tandem as their characters’ relationship in the history of this story is tight. Another notable actor in this 2013 sports drama is Alan Tudyk. His character is Ben Chapman, the manager of the Phillies. His performance is extremely uncomfortable to watch in a particular scene and it sounds weird for me to say this, but from a critiquing standpoint, he played it really well. What I’m referring to is the scene in 42 where Chapman is chirping at Jackie Robinson using every racial slur and insult against the African-American race ever created. Jackie keeps his cool through the blaring dialogue delivered by Chapman, (Tudyk) but one of his teammates, Eddie Stankey (Jesse Luken) sticks up for Jackie during the game. Alan Tudyk’s acting performance is basically the same thing as when someone says that they started to hate the villain with a passion in a movie because the actor playing the evil person did really well. That’s how I feel with Ben Chapman; Although his script is so hard to experience, the way he can portray the bigot Chapman and become the model of the “White man protecting baseball” shows it was truly a stellar showing.
One of the themes throughout the entire movie was about how Jackie would have to have “The guts not to fight back” as Rickey Branch once said. His past reputation for confrontation and his temperament issues were clearly a focal point for Brian Helgeland when designing this film. While on the topic of writing, Helgeland did a wonderful job on conveying the time period. His implementation of the sportscasting legend Red Barber (John C. McGinley) in 42 was used as a way to set the scene of the games and also help move the story forward through a character instead of just dates and screens. The lines written were perfect in emulating the similes and expressions of Barber in the actual time he would have been announcing the game in. Here is what John C. McGinley said about the importance of his portrayal, “The most important thing to me was to honor what all those Brooklyn fanatics remember of Barber, Nothing counted unless I could get somewhere in the neighborhood of what he sounded like.” The details of setting the time period were never left behind in the creation of 42.
The last focal point/theme I would like to leave you with before my critiques would be the camaraderie and the story of an underdog. Jackie’s teammates go from signing a petition boycotting playing alongside Jackie, to storming the field starting a brawl after Jackie’s hit in the head by a pitch thrown by Ostermueller. There’s good spacing in the development of teammate chemistry and showing that things weren’t all sunshine and rainbows within the team. There’s players used as good and bad in the theme of team strife and the flip side, team harmony. Pee Wee Reese (Lucas Black) and Ralph Branca (Hamish Linklater) are two very good friends of Jackie and are shown as stand up guys since the beginning of Jackie’s career on the Brooklyn Dodgers. Kirby Higbe (Brad Beyer), practically commands the hate train on Jackie Robinson by himself and also naturally influences neutral teammates to dislike Jackie.
The Pros
As with most of the audience I’m sure, I was a fan of Harrison Ford and Chadwick Boseman. As I mentioned earlier with Alan Tudyk’s job as Chapman, Boseman practically made me forget what Jackie Robinson actually looked like and when I was younger and instilled his own face as what Jackie Robinson actually looked like. That just speaks to really how well Chadwick Boseman did with Jackie and that 42 will always to me, be the movie that I will tie to Boseman’s amazing legacy and life. Harrison Ford also does well with the tough voice of Rickey Branch and his outbursts in his office at players, coaches, and the MLB commissioner. From a general standpoint, 42 is a great movie since it doesn’t take Jackie’s story on any tangents that don’t tie to the actual history. An underrated performance was definitely Christopher Meloni as Leo Durocher. His screaming midnight outrage on the pre Jackie Robinson Dodgers in the kitchen has always been my favorite scene in this movie. His lines and genuine distaste with his players’ rejection of Robinson just creates such an intriguing scene to watch.
The Cons
Throughout the entire movie I felt that too many scenes were trying to be motivating and special. Eventually it just became cringe that every Rickey Branch scene always had suspenseful music behind him while he spoke. Sure, Branch is an awesome character to have in those moments and it makes perfect sense when you assign Harrison Ford that role, but you can’t overdo it! This issue also correlates with the other bad taste of cliché I got watching some moments of the movie. There were scenes where the player actors delivered lines in a way that just came off funny and not entirely supportive of the mood of the moment. The fault isn’t put onto the writing but more so the attempts of the cast. Some of the less famous Dodgers on this cast had just cliché “Let’s go get ‘em” lines that they had to yell from the dugout. Just wipe those lines and this movie is a few scores higher. Sometime’s the little things are done right in 42 and then other times there are little things that are put in that just ruin the emotion and feel kind of Disney-esque.
A biographical sports drama that has proved worth a watch through great storytelling and historically accurate themes. Whether you like sports films, Chadwick Boseman or Harrison Ford, or the ever important trailblazing story of Jackie Robinson, there is something for you in 42. After my 15th or something watch, The Shobe Score is a 79.