Reverend Conehead
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I see a lot of movies in budget theaters. 42 was a really good one. *Some SPOILERS ahead, but not giving the ending away*
As most of you probably know, Jackie Robinson was the first black baseball player to join the major leagues (in many years -- previously there had been some). It was not specifically illegal to have black players, but the clubs had an unwritten "gentleman's agreement" not to do so. In 1947 when Robinson came up from the minors to the Brooklyn Dodgers, the country was steeped in racial segregation. As you can imagine, he faced a lot of hostility. This movie really drew me in and got me engaged in his plight. You could really feel for him when he's just trying to play a baseball game and the manager of another team is screaming every bigoted slur you can think of at him. He's made an agreement with his team's owner, Branch Rickey, not to fight back. That's what the haters want. They want him to fight back so that they can blame it on him and say, "See, we can't integrate because the black guys are too violent." Robinson holds his own and doesn't fight back and then when he leaves and goes into an empty part of the stadium, he explodes and smashes a bat against the wall, destroying the bat.
Besides the racial issues, you can feel for a guy who just wants to be a good ball player and for his team to win. At first most members of his own team are against him, but they slowly accept him as they realize they can win with him. Eventually they have his back and stand up to the bigots for him since he's not allowed to. For a modern audience like us it's such a no brainer that you put anyone on the team who you can win with and don't worry about race. That's what Branch Rickey was doing. He realized that if he went for integration before the other clubs did, he could pick the best players first. He wanted to field a winning team. It wasn't just about that for him, however. He had witnessed absurd injustice against black ball players throughout his life and had vowed to do something about it. This was his way of doing it. And it was a big win for his club. They got a lot better. The following season, he brought in more players from the African American leagues. Eventually, total integration of the league was inevitable as other owners realized they could not afford to be left out of the pool of new talent coming into the league.
Besides the inevitable issues of race that this film deals with, it also does a good job showing what a great player Robinson was. It's easy to overlook how good he was in the shadow of the precedent he set. It made me wish I could go back in time and see him play in a game. It made me appreciate what a great game baseball is, and that it's a game for all of us.
(Note: I cleared this post with the mods in advance.)
As most of you probably know, Jackie Robinson was the first black baseball player to join the major leagues (in many years -- previously there had been some). It was not specifically illegal to have black players, but the clubs had an unwritten "gentleman's agreement" not to do so. In 1947 when Robinson came up from the minors to the Brooklyn Dodgers, the country was steeped in racial segregation. As you can imagine, he faced a lot of hostility. This movie really drew me in and got me engaged in his plight. You could really feel for him when he's just trying to play a baseball game and the manager of another team is screaming every bigoted slur you can think of at him. He's made an agreement with his team's owner, Branch Rickey, not to fight back. That's what the haters want. They want him to fight back so that they can blame it on him and say, "See, we can't integrate because the black guys are too violent." Robinson holds his own and doesn't fight back and then when he leaves and goes into an empty part of the stadium, he explodes and smashes a bat against the wall, destroying the bat.
Besides the racial issues, you can feel for a guy who just wants to be a good ball player and for his team to win. At first most members of his own team are against him, but they slowly accept him as they realize they can win with him. Eventually they have his back and stand up to the bigots for him since he's not allowed to. For a modern audience like us it's such a no brainer that you put anyone on the team who you can win with and don't worry about race. That's what Branch Rickey was doing. He realized that if he went for integration before the other clubs did, he could pick the best players first. He wanted to field a winning team. It wasn't just about that for him, however. He had witnessed absurd injustice against black ball players throughout his life and had vowed to do something about it. This was his way of doing it. And it was a big win for his club. They got a lot better. The following season, he brought in more players from the African American leagues. Eventually, total integration of the league was inevitable as other owners realized they could not afford to be left out of the pool of new talent coming into the league.
Besides the inevitable issues of race that this film deals with, it also does a good job showing what a great player Robinson was. It's easy to overlook how good he was in the shadow of the precedent he set. It made me wish I could go back in time and see him play in a game. It made me appreciate what a great game baseball is, and that it's a game for all of us.
(Note: I cleared this post with the mods in advance.)
