Movie Review of 42 -- by JL Green of Watertown MA

I'm not much of a sports fan, much less baseball, but the
movie 42 held me to the edge of my seat -- Jackie Robinson is one of our
heroes, but for now in this time that we our questioning affirmative action,
trying to whittle away welfare, it is a shot in the arm of how bad times were
only 60 or 70 years ago -- a woman's or man's life.

What I saw in 42 were people struggling with definitions of
prejudice in the guise of an All American game, there was the wonderful
Chadwick Bozeman, a family man, faithful and loving to his wife, a World War II
vet -- told by Harrison Ford, playing the surly Branch Rickey, Team Executive,
that he is the first and therefore must constantly hold his temper as he is
jeered and booed by numerous audiences for his entrance in a "white
man's"game.  Even Harrison Ford who is struggling with his own inner demons of prejudice, and calling blacks "Negroes", emerges at the end of a movie with a real love of Jackie and the game.

The prejudice from 1945 to 1947 portrayed in the film is incessant,
especially the Phillys manager, who keeps catcalling Jackie, trying to get him
to miss the ball.  Bozeman is great as he breaks his bat in front of Harrison Ford in muted anger, not being able to retaliate the manager's virulence.

Sure we had later issues in Civil Rights, bussing,
affirmative action, welfare reform, but it is wonderful to see a giant
portrayed so lovingly by Hollywood.  My mother and father who got their Masters degrees in the 50s, referred to blacks as Negroes while trying to help a situation that was beginning to ferment, and in this time of political correctness, I am reminded by this movie, that, like Branch Rickey, maybe what we call a friend in our struggle to be good people isn't what really matters.