Skip to main content

42 (2013)

By Nate Feldman 

In 1945, Branch Rickey (Harrison Ford), the General Manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers decided to allow an African American to join his ball club, something unheard of at that time as African Americans did not play in Major League Baseball and their own separate league.  

Rickey decided on Jackie Robinson (Chadwick Boseman) of the Kansas City Monarchs.  Jackie played the first couple of years with Montreal, the Dodger's minor league team, but by 1947 he was in the majors, the first time an African American played in the big leagues.  

While playing baseball with the Dodgers, Jackie Robinson encountered extreme levels of racism.  Fans booed him, mobs threatened him, hotels refused to let the Dodgers stay with them, and even players on his own team initially brought out a petition demanding that he not be permitted on the team.

However, through perseverance, excellence on the field, and an ability to withstand the most extreme levels of agitation, he gained the support of his teammates and went on to be Major League Baseball's rookie of the year in 1947.  

The movie "42" beautifully recounts Jackie Robinson's story and highlights the extremely difficult work it took to breakdown color barriers in professional sports, something most people nowadays don't think about.  I highly recommend this film for sports historians, history buffs, and people dreaming of a world where individuals are treated fairly and equally regardless of their backgrounds.  

One scene that really stands out in the film is where Pee Wee Reese (Lucas Black), the Dodgers' star shortstop, puts his arm around Robinson while they are playing a game at Cincinnati, right across the river from Reese' home state of Kentucky.  Reese did this to show solidarity with Robinson in spite of threats and harassment from the crowd.  This heartwarming display of unity highlighted Robinson's teammates gradual acceptance and embrace of him as a fellow player.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Friday the 13th (1980)

By Nate Feldman In 1958, two camp counselors at Camp Crystal Lake are brutally murdered by a mysterious killer.  Many years later, the camp is re-opening, but the local townspeople warn the new counselors that the place has a death curse.  The camp owner and workers do not pay attention to this, but little do they know they are being stalked by the same vicious and unseen killer from the past.  Eventually, the counselors, one by one, are slain, leading to the question of who, or what, is causing all of the carnage at Camp Crystal Lake? This movie was a surprise box-office smash in 1980 and spawned countless sequels, as well as a remake in 2009.  It remains iconic in the horror genre.  By modern horror standards, the film is actually quite tame, but it was exceptionally grisly and gory for its time.   The film seems to learn on extreme violence to catch the audience's attention, and while that may have worked for me when I was younger, I feel now that a...
Post a Comment
Read more

Superman (2025)

By Nate Feldman Superman stops a war between Boravia and Jarhanpur.  Lex Luther wants a war between them because he has a relationship with the Boravian leader, who will give some of Jarhanpur to Luther for him to rule.  So, Luther starts a misinformation campaign against Superman to get him out of the way.  He finds a video that Superman's parents sent to the young superhero as a boy, instructing him to take over the Earth, not help it which he always assumed was his purpose.  When this video is shown to the public, it turns people's opinions against the hero, and makes Superman question his own purpose.   However, with the help of one of Luther's assistants, a colleague at the Daily Planet, where Superman works as Clark Kent, reveals Luther's true intentions.  So, Superman and his friends with the Justice Gang work together to stop Luther and the war between Boravia and Jarhanpur. 
Post a Comment
Read more

Elio (2025)

By Nate Feldman Elio is a 2025 film by Disney Pixar.  Elio is a young boy who lives with his Aunt after his parents die.  His Aunt is a Major in the military and is overwhelmed with her new parenting roles.  Meanwhile, Elio longs to be abducted by aliens to escape his living situation. Eventually, Elio is taken aboard an alien spaceship where he encounters the Communiverse, a form of intergalactic government of various alien species.  While there, he witnesses them reject the membership of Grigon, an extremely aggressive cyborg alien called a Hylurgian who vows revenge on the other aliens for this.  The Communiverse asks Elio to try and convince him not to launch a war on them.  In return, they will give the boy membership to their group, and he'll never have to return to Earth.   When Elio goes to Grigon's spaceship, he learns a couple of things.  First of all, Hylurgians are very unintimidating sluglike creatures that only get into a roboti...
Post a Comment
Read more