Movie review: We walked into Midcity Mall theaters for the season opener of 42. The movie’s focus is on Dodgers’ General Manager Branch Rickey’s who decides it is time to integrate major league baseball. Rickey batted around several Negro League stars before stealing Jackie Robinson from the Kansas City Monarchs.
Spring training in Florida brought out the Cracker Jack bigots who dugout their most foul insults to hurl at Robinson. Robinson refused to knuckle under.
That first year Robinson played for the Montreal Royals in the AAA International League. Canadians treated him much better than his fellow Americans. Spring training the next year was moved to racially integrated Panama after which Robinson won a starting position with Brooklyn Dodgers.
Robinson spent much of that year being spiked and dodging high fast ones while winning Rookie of the Year honors. The “nigger” taunts and “you don’t belong” are strikingly similar to what 44 faced in his first term. Both 42 and 44 were recipients of hundreds of death threats, far more than directed at anyone in their professions. Christians, they met these vicious attacks by “turning the other cheek.”
Both 42 and 44 were abandoned as children by their fathers. They married strong women and became devoted fathers.
The movie is a blast, we had a ball watching it. There are a couple of scene that get you to double over laughing and one where the Rodgers and Hammerstein song, “You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught” just slaps you in the face.
The largely white audience cheered when the bigots struck out and got their comeuppance. Don’t balk, drop the ball, or come up short at seeing this one. Grading on the curve for sport films, I rate it a stand up 3-bagger.
Here is the trailer.