42

It is a great movie!

Please tell me rap music isn't playing throughout the movie as depicted on the trailer. 

Count me on the other side who did not think the movie was very good. Felt way too "safe" and commercialized for the type of story it could have been. I suppose the studio, writers, etc wanted to make more of a mainstream/family movie about JR (and it worked, #1 at box office and major promotion everywhere).  But, I did not like how they opted to shy away from the REAL racism and true threats he dealt with.  It was touched upon, but not to the extent that anybody who followed JR or studied him knows.  Plus the movie skipped his entire 8 years in Montreal! Too much focus on the Dodgers front office in my opinion as well.

What eight years in Montreal was that? He played the 1946 season in Montreal but I wasn't aware of any other time spent there, certainly not in baseball anyway.

Mis-type there, I meant 8 months, not years. 

Oh okay! Yeah it seems they would have included that since that was his entry into white professional baseball.

I haven't seen the movie yet, but (as usual) I found Joe Posnanski's take on the movie pretty interesting.  I think it could be kind of frustrating for serious baseball fans and historians who know the story intimately to see characters combined and complex things reduced to balance-and-white moralisms, but if the story is "true" at an emotional level, that's probably good enough for me.

It sounds to me they spun it as "it wasn't THAT bad for JR" with integration and what not. Revisionist history is something I'm not a fan of. I want the truth no matter how difficult.

Coach, Maybe you should see the movie before deciding if they made it sound like it "wasn't that bad."  Seemed to me the movie painted some pretty graphic pictures of racism in society and racism in MLB and captured the tenacity and will power needed by Jackie Robinson and eventually his teammates.  Whether it is the police officer in Fla. telling the "n#####" to get off the field or be arrested for being on the same baseball field with whites, the son who emulates his Dad by yelling racial epithets or the  grisly language used by the Phillies' manager during one lengthy scene, there might be differences on whether the movie captured  every detail of the issues Robinson confronted, but my sense is it captured the strength of 42 and portrayed it well against the  depth of the bigotry and hatred he encountered because of the color of his skin.

I can't wait, I'm going tomorrow... I'm going strictly on the reviews I have read. All I was saying is it sounds like the writer(s) were trying to soften the blow of the harsh reality JR faced. One or two scenes does not properly put into perspective what he went through, imo. But I digress. I will make a sound judgment tomorrow after I watch for myself.

^^ Agreed. I did not manage to make it to the theater this weekend, and the beginning of this week is crazy busy, but i plan on seeing it ASAP and formulating my own opinion

I agree 100%. And when the child began parroting his father, it sent chills down my spine. I saw it twice in two days. Once on my own since my wife is out of town and I took one of my sons the next day. Both viewings were riveting. I will see it again with my wife when she returns home.

I do not understand the comment " one or two scenes " portraying the racism Jackie experienced. As far as I could tell it was full of examples of the racial bigotry he endured. And I loved they way his relationship with his wife was portrayed.

I saw 42 over the weekend and while I admit to being a bit of a movie snob, I thought the movie was good...not great.  

My take on 42 would be that it was more of a "Clift Notes" version of the story instead of a fully developed storyline of Robinson breaking into mainstream professional baseball.  This is understandable, how do you pack all that happened to Robinson into a 2 hour film.  What you get is a little bit of everything painted in pretty broad strokes. While the makers of 42 hit the mark on making a movie that will be a commercial success, I would've loved to have seen them go a little deeper.  I rarely say this but I would have been fine if they would of taken the time to add an extra half hour to the film and gave us more detail.

Would I recommend seeing it...absolutely, just don't expect to learn anything new nor any academy award earning performances.

I hope I get a chance to see it this week and then be able to give an informed opinion. I am kind of tough on baseball movies from a historical or realistic perspective so I hope I'm not too disappointed.

I had an inkling going into to the movie that I would be seeing a highly dramatized array of special effects and tearjerking, climactic moments. My only wish was that the movie-makers remained historically accurate with regards to both the racial issues and the baseball factuality.

In short, I feel as though my initial thoughts were spot on. The effects were absolutely wonderful- from the stunning beauty of the ballparks to the accuracy of the team jerseys to the cigars Branch Rickey smoked throughout the film. The climactic moments were extremely fitting, providing the audience with a connection to the moment being seen on the screen. It was obvious that the people who made this movie were not amateur filmmakers. The cues and timing of the events could be used as a textbook for Audience Captivation 101.

The baseball elements of the movie were pretty much accurate as well, albeit lacking in depth.

Where the movie swung and missed in my mind was the lack of inclusion of the smaller details pertaining to Robinson's struggle. Sure, it had plenty of racially driven moments. Tons of emotional displays and angst towards many people acting out against him. But it was somewhat ironic to me...when someone said something racially charged to Robinson, he hit a home run. Or stole a base. Or stood in the batter's box for two minutes looking into his wife's eyes while music plays in the background and the crowd is split 50/50 booing/cheering. I would have liked to see more of the struggle within the locker room, at the home. I'd like to see how he responded on those days that he went 0-4 and made an error in the field. 

I thought the acting was good. Nothing special, nothing awful. I thought Andre Holland did a good job as Wendell Smith, although I think that the importance of his character in the movie didn't properly match the importance of the man in real life. A lot of the movie focused on Smith and didn't really provide background. Either feature less of him, or showcase why he is such an important figure to the Jackie Robinson story (because he is). I would've liked to see less Branch Rickey, although when you have a man with such star power as Harrison Ford, I guess that's somewhat impossible. John C. McGinley was absolutely outstanding as Red Barder, as was Alan Tudyk as Ben Chapman. Christopher Meloni was very good as Leo Durocher, although I would've liked to see more Durocher in the movie. Lucas Black was serviceable as Pee Wee Reese, who served to fulfill the dramatic emotional side of the film. 

The one character that I truly hoped to see more about- and was disappointed with- with Rachel Robinson. I think the choice of Nicole Beharie as the actress to portray her was wonderful, but the character served as nothing more than a superficial leaning post for Robinson. The couple lived through this together. The movie should've showed that.

Chadwick Boseman was very good as Robinson considering the magnitude of the role. He didn't overdo it, but he didn't undersell it.

Overall, a good movie. I think the best part of the film was the fact that the baseball accuracy and the emotional attachment enabled the filmmakers to attract fans of the game, historians of civil rights and general movie-goers all together. It was informative, enjoyable and good-feeling. It won't win an Oscar and it won't steal the hearts of baseball fans. But, in my opinion, worth the few hours and price of admission.

I saw it over the weekend. For me the best part was a whole bunch of ten and unders in the theater hearing the bad words about African Americans (lot's of N words).

Proud of all the parents who brought their young children to see this ugly period of American history ensuring we humans advance and this crap never happens again.

Hopefully they went home and talked to their kids about why this happened and why it should never happen again.

At the show my 11-year-old son and I went to, we brought down the average age of the attendees significantly. Not many young kids, but it was 5:00 p.m. on a nice Saturday afternoon so maybe they were out playing ball (my son's game was already over).

I can't say it was bad, there were some truly great moments (as there must be when doing a movie on Jackie Robinson), but all in all I would have hoped for more.

You basically have two infallible characters -- Rickey and Jackie.  Their faults and errors are made so trivial that we miss out on whichever human flaws they must hold.  I don't necessarily have evidence at hand that says they had any great problems, but one must believe as human beings they took serious missteps along the way, disappointed someone or each other, etc.  It is hard to bring that human complexity to this story, but I wish they had done it better than "Jackie lost his temper a few times, but to no real harm" and "Rickey swears at people."  

The depictions of racism don't seem inaccurate, but the balance of racist acts to sympathetic acts seems way off.  It seems, from the movie, that every act of hatred was matched with acts of genuine kindness.  I highly doubt it played out that way.  No doubt Jackie had an amazing core group of supporters, but there were many times in the film when it seemed like Jackie and those who were sympathetic to him were not outnumbered.  

A small complaint -- wardrobe.  Someone else noted this in a review and I can't argue with it.  Why does every character, black and white, look like they just walked out of a J. Crew catalogue? I love the effect of the lighting and the wardrobe has on the general look of the film, but to think that black folks looked this nice in the Jim Crow world is a disservice to the era in my opinion.  I find it highly unlikely that everyone, and especially black people, had the ability to buy such nice looking clothes in 1947.  

On the whole, it's a movie about Jackie Robinson.  I was very glad to see it, not mad that I paid to see it. There was this terrible truth about the game and the country that claimed to be free and democratic and was clearly not -- we see in 42 the time when it takes a huge step in the direction of becoming what it had promised to be for almost 200 years.  It makes me so proud that the game I love could play such a pivotal role in our cultural and political history.

One thing t feel, that my wife brought to my attention, was why was baseball portrayed as a holdout on dealing with racism in this movie? This was 1947. To integrate the game of baseball was bold! The Army was not integrated, schools were not integrated. I saw yesterday marked the anniversary of the first collegiate basketball game ever played that was integrated... In 1962!

The civil rights movement of the 60's was an entire generation after the integration of baseball.

I think that the bold move that baseball took back in the 40's should have been held up as a fine example of the game at large. 

Even then, it was all about money. Winning brought money. Having better players not playing MLB was bad business.

If not for Branch Rickey, somebody else would've done it a year, two years or a few years after.

I have a fairly unique perspective on this movie.  Its because I have a unique family.  My son is a 7th grade LHP.  I have been educating my self about pitching over the past few months and asked a lot of questions here on these forums.  

I have always really respected sports because of the racial barriers that it has helped it to overcome. I love movies like this - and this one is well done.

We have four kids.  My oldest daughter is African American (adopted)  My second oldest is our surprise biological son (we didn't think we could have biological kids) - who is the LHP.  He is actually half Filipino (I am white my & wife is Filipino).  My third oldest daughter is African American (adopted) and my youngest son is Haitian American (adopted from haiti).

Race is an everyday part of our lives obviously.  We joke about it, laugh about it and discuss it in ways that most people never would.  I look back at the courage of the men and women - black and white - who helped to overcome so many barriers to allow my family to even be possible today - and frankly pretty comfortably possible - is such a blessing.  When I see a movie like this or even movies like Remember the Titans or Glory Road (two great movies) I just about cry thinking about what it would be like to see one of my kids go through those tough times.  

So just a big big heart felt thank you to men like Jackie Robinson who took on a challenge with courage and dignity.  Many are benefiting from your legacy.

It was a risk - rejection is a risk - safety is well safe... 1947 was VERY early in the whole civil rights movement - yes eventually it would have happened, but for the 40s - that was a pretty bold and risky move - one to be applauded.  And one I doubt in those times would have been done if someone like Branch Rickey didn't think it was right...