Earnest, righteous, historically accurate and often entertaining, writer-director Brian Helgeland’s “42” is pretty much all you could hope for in a Jackie Robinson film biography.Minus the excitement, which given how well-known Robinson’s story is to baseball fans, is no cardinal sin. And the cast is more adequate than thrilling, so forget about Denzel Washington and Spike Lee’s hopes to do such a movie, for years.
It’s the sort of story where you find yourself hoping that that don’t screw it up, that the baseball will be convincing, that the racism isn’t watered down, that the actor playing Jackie (Chadwick Boseman) comes off as a human being, not an icon. And in those regards, “42” scores.
A brief history lesson — the narrated-over-newsreel footage context of the end of World War II — is followed by a much longer one, as we see Robinson selected to integrate baseball by the cagey old Brooklyn Dodgers general manager and president, Branch Rickey.
It’s shocking to see Harrison Ford take on a performance this complex — a voice, a pose and and a whole demeanor, doing justice to a religious man whose spoken reasons for integrating America’s Pastime — “Dollars aren’t black or white. They’re GREEN.” — isn’t the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
Rickey hunts high and low for a black ballplayer of talent, modesty, and forbearance. He needs a star who can take a lot of racist abuse from fans, players, umpires and others. Robinson, a four sport athlete at UCLA and star of the Kansas City Monarchs, fit the bill.
“Robinson’s a Methodist. I’m a Methodist. God’s a Methodist. Bring him here.”
Helgeland, an Oscar-winning screenwriter (“L.A. Confidential”) and skilled storyteller (“Mystic River”) provides his cleverest touches in the ways he makes Robinson’s story resonate today. Signed to a minor league contract, the California native had bristled at Southern segregation while in the Army. In spring training, Helgeland plays up the racial threats Robinson received in Sanford, Florida, where teen Trayvon Martin recently met his death.
He shows us a grand arc among the players, many of whom signed a petition to keep Robinson off the Dodgers. They witness the racism of opponents, fans and others and blush in shame.
The writer-director gives his star a lot of quiet moments, but Boseman, the center of it all, makes for a rather stoic and bland Robinson, which was what Rickey was shooting for but which doesn’t do the movie any favors in the spark department
The rest of the cast of “42” is no slam dunk of A-listers. Hamish Linklater (TV’s “The New Adventures of Old Christine”) isn’t built like an athlete of this or any other era. John C.McGinley may attempt the accent and homey slang of sportscaster Red Barber, but seems totally wrong. Christopher Meloni suggests little of what earned manager Leo Durocher the nickname “Leo the Lip.” And Ford seems nothing like the real Rickey, even if he wins us over with gruff charm.
But Alan Tudyck gives a spittle-spewing racist vent to Phillies manager Ben Chapman, and Lucas Black is absolutely perfect as the drawling star Dodger shortstop Pee Wee Reese, whose role in that season that changed America — 1947 — could easily have been forgotten, but which Helgeland movingly remembers.
It’s the setting, the tone and the sentiment that “42” masters, the comically primitive attitudes of some of the white majority, the black fans and children inspired by Robinson’s odyssey, the barriers that today’s youth might be shocked ever existed.
And it’s that affection for the game and the history that make “42” a number not just worthy of retiring from every major league roster, but worth experiencing as a movie.
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for thematic elements including language
Cast: Chadwick Boseman, Harrison Ford, Lucas Black, Nicole Beharie, Christopher Meloni
Credits: Written and directed by Brian Helgeland. A Warner Bros. release.
Running time: 2:08
Movie Nation 
“Comically primitive” is a perfect description of the racism of the day. In retrospect it looks so stupid. As a white kid in Jacksonville in the ’50s I once gave my mom apoplexy by drinking from the “colored” water fountain at the downtown Penney’s. I was thirsty and someone was ahead of me at the “white” fountain. Mom grabbed me by the arm, furious, and yanked me away from the fountain, her embarrassment and disgust assaulting my ears. But why, I protested? You just don’t, she replied: Next time, wait for the white fountain. It made no sense to me at 8, and it doesn’t make sense now.
Overly long?? It’s 88 minutes!! This movie is an essentialized and simplified portrayal of a very complicated Jackie Robinson. It’s a missed opportunity. Btw, the incident in the film in which Pee Wee Reese draped his arm over JR’s shoulders did NOT take place in 1947.
Doug, dear, check your watch battery. It started at 740 PM and ended at 948. 2:08.
A couple of people who have not seen it (or it is you, repeating the same mistake?) and make this incorrect assertion. Don’t believe me? (I time films to check) –http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0453562/?ref_=hm_inth_t1
My husband and I go to a movie almost every Friday and have been doing this for over 50 years. These days, we check the O.C. Register reviews to see if a movie is worthy (C or better) or wait for video since the movies have not been very good lately. I enjoy your reviews and find they are closest to our taste. Lately, The Register does not carry your reviews. Is this website, Movie Nation, your site for reviews? If not, I would appreciate help on where to read your weekly reviews.
The Register has carried my reviews, from time to time. Other papers throughout California do.
But Movie Nation is where they’re all collected, searchable, unabridged and without news website expiration dates.