1. 42

42 film poster.jpg

🚨All of the 'You Changed My Life, Coach!' posts contain major spoilers🚨

42 is a film released in 2013 about Jackie Robinson, the first black athlete to play in Major League Baseball. Here's the Wikipedia page.

It stars Chadwick Boseman as Jackie Robinson. I find any film with Chadwick Boseman a bit sad at the moment. He was such a good actor, a really magnetic star.

The film also has Harrison Ford in it and it's a Harrison Ford performance where he isn't just being Harrison Ford which is rare.

The film shows how overtly racist society was and the struggles for black Americans plus there are hints that violence is around too. But as is often the case with this kind of film racism has a tendency to magically go away thanks to sport and I'm never really sure about that.

Jackie Robinson's decency, stoicism and non-violent approach come across and I think that's something the film did well, because it's tense and uncomfortable at times. Alan Tudyk's character's racist taunts in the middle of one of the games, for example.

In genre terms, the story moves along at a good pace and it includes the bits where the protagonist has to prove themselves before getting called up to the big leagues.

I'm slowly getting to understand baseball through film. Something this film did well that I haven't seen much of was getting in close to the action - the tension in close quarters as the game progresses, not just smashing the ball out of the park and so on. 

Did the coach change lives?

Not really. There were 4 coach characters in the film and there wasn't much focus on them. 

Was there triumph against the odds?

There was definitely triumph against the odds.

Did people grow together through sport?

People definitely grew together through sport. And the racist pitcher got his comeuppance which was satisfying.

Did you cry?

I cried a bit. For example I did a sob when a man comes up to Jackie and his wife Rachel and you think he's going to abuse them but instead he says he's rooting for Jackie to do well.

Score

8 out of 10

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