"Break an unwritten law and you will be an out cast."Facing an uphill battle Branch Ricky (Harrison Ford) finds the right African-American ballplayer to break the color barrier in baseball. Rickey's reasons are diverse being both altruistic, having a sense of justice, old guilty feelings, and the desire to win and make money. Chadwick Boseman portrays the Jackie Robinson of legend, an overly talented, silent, and classy individual. While the film is about him, it shows things that go on behind the scenes.The film starts with a quick background and goes into Jackie's minor league trials and tribulations on and off the field. Ricky supported Robinson off the field anyway he could, but on the field Jackie was alone. It shows the break through of his teammates to overcome the prejudicial urges they grew up with. Minds winning over emotions to do what was right.Don't get me wrong, it shows whites behaving badly and makes Philadelphia look bad. It gives us a glimpse of the ugly side of baseball, one we really don't want to see. In spite of the heavy and historical use of the N-word, it is a film that makes audiences stand up and applaud.What the film doesn't tell you about is all the children that were named Jack or Jackie because of this man.Parental Guide: No f-bombs, sex, or nudity. Frequent racial slurs.

42 42 | Directed by Brian Hegleland | Chadwick Boseman, Harrison Ford42 is a movie that takes us back into a time when you both feel shame and encouraged. "I want a player who's got the guts not to fight back." This is a line in the movie 42, which is said by Branch Rickey, who is played by Harrison Ford, which sets the whole mood of this motion picture, which takes a look at the first season Jackie Robison played in the Major Leagues. Jackie Robinson, played by Chadwick Boseman, was an African American who was the first player to cross the color line of a white only baseball. The movie uses many unique techniques to take a monumental moment and cram it into a 2 hour motion picture. The camera angles used so you could see every emotion of Jackie's face throughout his struggles really tells the story of how challenging it really was to take on the task of "having guts not fight back." The editor did an excellent job of cutting us from point A to point B, and focusing in on the highlights that really let you feel the emotions of Jackie Robinson. When you see the battle of what he endured you find it hard to not really invest in what he went through and almost find yourself pulling for that next big hit or stolen base. Branch Rickey's (Ford) character I think added a value to the film that was indispensable. His gusto and sometimes light heartedness helped pull Jackie through allot of the tough times. While the movie I felt could have touched on allot more topics and struggles of his life, I felt it did a good job of showing what the beginning was like. The quickest baseball season ever from the movies standpoint, but it leaves you wondering if 2 hours only captured a few games, then what was the whole season like. So while I felt shame watching this movie, seeing the level of hate that existed, I also feel encouragement that there are people out there like Jackie Robinson who can help us push through issues and change with any situation.

Even blacks being very important in World War II, many of them recruited as civilians to help the US military in war, to return home - those who returned - had to continue living with all the segregation and discrimination that persisted in the United States that the '40s. "42" tries and manages to show very well that, being a biographic, it shows the life of Jack Robinson in his early years as a player of Baseball, shows all its vigor to continue in their struggle to be the first black to join the MLB, suffering that means a lot of discrimination from other players and from mostly white audience.Directed by Brian Helgeland, who had previously been writer of very intelligent films, such as LA Confidential and Mystic River, the film has a fluid appearance in his dialogs, which are strong and well defined, especially in the presence of Harrison Ford, playing Branch Rickley, the main acceptor ingression of Jack in MLB.It also shows numerous events related to segregation and discrimination that colors people suffered, trying hard to sensitize the viewer - not that it takes some merit of the film, it does not take away, just try to mark it well - so many that happened directly with Jack, as to what happened with the other black, as the separation of places for whites and colors, seen in part that separated the audience that would watch the baseball games, something that was only abolished in 1964, with the Civil Rights Act. In addition to other events, such as not leaving the team staying at the hotel because of Jack being black; the insults suffered by Jack from Philadelphia coach, Ben Chapman; discrimination also suffered by his teammates and team of rivals, and later their acceptance; a boy to hear his relative and hundreds of fans scold Jack, swears it Jack too, giving, then, the beginning to a prejudice that can chase the kid for the rest of his life, among other strong events in the film.The movie, above all, still shows all Jack wins, as was a skilled player and he deserved get where he is. The film ends when the Dodgers advance to the World Series - that they would lose to the Yankees, the team that dominated the Baseball scene in those years -, counting also in the credits the way that some of the characters have taken in their lives.

42 is not just a film about the life of baseball player Jackie Robinson, it is a film about the era and culture of life in the mid 1940's. America had just emerged from WWII which had focused on the elimination of fascism in the world only to walk right into it's own war with racism. Nothing in American history can really show that better than the story about Jackie Robinson and his major league baseball journey. The movie is not just a baseball movie - but it does have some spectacular baseball scenes. It is a movie about the times, how racism permeated the fabric of America at that time. The open racism portrayed in the movie is both overwhelming and uncomfortable - which is it's design. I turned to my husband during one particular scene and said "I wish I could just reach through the screen and slap him upside the head". It really made me appreciate the choice of Jackie Robinson as the first African American to be picked to play in the majors. The person could not just have been a good ball player, he had to also be an upstanding citizen, and a man who would be able to take everything that was going to come his way. And Chadwick Boseman is perfect as Jackie Robinson delivering a heartfelt, gutsy and emotional performance of the man. He shows the many sides of Robinson - the love he had for his wife, the courage to stand, the anger at the constant racism, and, most important, the boldness to not fight back, holding his head high. He is a true American hero.The story isn't just about Robinson though - it is also about his teammates, all cast splendidly, and how they went from wanting to walk away, to supporting and then accepting him. Some poignant scenes are portrayed throughout the movie. It is about his relationship with his wife, played fantastically by Nicole Beharie, a strong woman in her own right, eventually crossing her own barrier lines. It's about the very courageous Branch Rickey played with perfection by Harrison Ford, who has the guts, and a wonderful reason reveled in the film, for bringing in an African American player to begin with. It's about the beginning of a civil rights movement here in America, which begins, rightfully so, with the most American of all pastimes - baseball.