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42 (film)

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42
Theatrical release poster
Directed byBrian Helgeland
Written byBrian Helgeland
Produced byThomas Tull
StarringChadwick Boseman
Harrison Ford
CinematographyDon Burgess
Edited byKevin Stitt
Peter McNulty
Music byMark Isham
Production
company
Distributed byWarner Bros. Pictures
Release date
  • April 12, 2013 (2013-04-12)
Running time
128 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$40,000,000 [1]
Box office$84,670,088

42 is a 2013 biographical sports film written and directed by Brian Helgeland about the life of baseball player Jackie Robinson, who wore jersey number 42. The film stars Chadwick Boseman as Robinson,[2] and Harrison Ford as Branch Rickey. Christopher Meloni, John C. McGinley, Lucas Black, and Nicole Beharie appear in supporting roles.[3][4] 42 was released in North America on April 12, 2013.[5]

Plot

The film tells the story of Jackie Robinson (Boseman) and, under the guidance of team executive Branch Rickey (Ford), Robinson's signing with the Brooklyn Dodgers to become the first African-American player to break the baseball color barrier. The story focuses mostly on the 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers season and somewhat on Robinson's 1946 season with the Montreal Royals.

In 1945, Jackie Robinson and his team, the Kansas City Monarchs, stop by a gas station. When the attendant refuses Robinson entry to the washroom, Robinson says they will find another station at which to fill up the team bus, and the attendant relents. As Robinson comes out, a scout for the Dodgers approaches him and sends him to Brooklyn. He is offered a $600/month contract and $3,500 signing bonus, which Robinson accepts after being warned he must control his temper if he wants to play. Robinson proposes to his girlfriend, Rachel (Beharie), by phone and she accepts.

During Dodgers spring training, Robinson makes it to the franchise farm team in Montreal. After a great season there and spring training in Panama, he advances to the Dodgers. Most of the team soon signs a petition stating they refuse to play with Robinson, but manager Leo Durocher (Meloni) insists Robinson will play. Durocher is then suspended, leaving the Dodgers without a manager.

In a game against the Philadelphia Phillies, manager Ben Chapman (Tudyk) taunts Robinson, causing him to go back to the dugout and smash his bat to vent his anger. With encouragement from Rickey, Robinson then returns to the field and hits a single, steals second and third base, and scores the winning run. When Chapman's behavior toward Robinson generates bad press for the team, the Phillies' owner requires him to pose with Robinson for newspapers and magazine photos. Later, Robinson's teammate, Pee Wee Reese (Black), comes to understand the pressure Robinson is facing, and makes a public show of solidarity, standing with his arm around Robinson's shoulders before a hostile crowd in Cincinnati.

Robinson's home run against Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Fritz Ostermueller (Hand), who had earlier hit him in the head, helps clinch the National League pennant for the Dodgers, sending them to the World Series. A concluding postscript describes how Rickey, Robinson, and many of his teammates went on to have distinguished careers, including inductions into the Baseball Hall of Fame. The notes also describe the entrance of other African Americans into the Major Leagues, beginning with the season after Robinson's debut.

Cast

Former minor league player Jasha Balcom served as a stuntman for Boseman in some of the film's scenes.[6]

Production

The film was filmed primarily in Macon, Georgia, Birmingham, Alabama, and Chattanooga, Tennessee. Some interior scenes were shot at Atlanta Film Studios Paulding County in Hiram, Georgia.[7]

Marketing

The theatrical trailer was shown with screenings of Trouble with the Curve, another baseball-themed film from Warner Bros., Broken City, Gangster Squad, Django Unchained, Olympus Has Fallen, and Zero Dark Thirty.

Reception

42 has received positive reviews from critics, as it currently holds a 76% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 115 reviews. The consensus states: "42 is an earnest, inspirational, and respectfully told biography of an influential American sports icon, though it might be a little too safe and old-fashioned for some." Richard Roeper stated "This is a competent but mostly unexceptional film about a most extraordinary man."[8] Lisa Kennedy, of the Denver Post, lauded the film, saying "This story inspires and entertains with a vital chapter in this nation's history."[9] Sean CW Korsgaard hailed the film as "the best baseball movie in decades, maybe since Eight Men Out, maybe since Pride of the Yankees – and in terms of being a Jackie Robinson movie, it's no small thing when I say that not only does 42 not miss the mark, not only did it score a base hit, but it struck a genuine home run."[10] Conversely, Peter Rainer, of The Christian Science Monitor, criticized the film as "TV-movie-of-the-week dull and Robinson's ordeal is hammered home to the exclusion of virtually everything else in his life."[11]

The movie achieved the rare "A+" CinemaScore rating and garnered a 63 on Metacritic, indicating "generally positive" reception.

Box office

The film earned an estimated $27.3 million for its opening weekend, the best premiere for a baseball-themed film in Hollywood history.[12]

Historical inaccuracies

Robinson was 28 when he played his first Dodgers season, not 29 as the movie cast while filming scenes. [13]

The scene of Robinson breaking his bat in the dugout tunnel is not founded in fact. Both Rachel Robinson and Ralph Branca, film consultant and Dodger pitcher in the dugout that day, say it didn't happen. As does director Helgeland, whose justification for inclusion was that he felt "there was no way Robinson could have withstood all that abuse without cracking at least once, even if it was in private."[14]

Red Barber would not have broadcast Dodger away games from the opposing team's ballpark in Philadelphia and Cincinnati as shown in the film. Radio broadcasts of away games in this era were recreated back at the studio from a pitch by pitch summary transmitted over telegraph wire from the stadium where the game was being played.[15][16]

Wendell Smith is said to have been the first black member of the Baseball Writers Association of America; Sam Lacy was the first, having joined in 1948.[17]

Pirates pitcher Fritz Ostermueller threw left-handed, not right-handed as in the film. His first inning pitch hit Robinson on the left wrist, not his head, and was a routine brushback pitch without racist intent as Robinson was known to crowd the plate. There was no fight on the mound afterwards.[18] The climactic scene in which Robinson hit a home run to clinch the National League pennant for the Dodgers came in the top of the fourth inning of the game, did not clinch the victory (it made the score 1-0, and Dodgers eventually won 4-2), and did not clinch the pennant; the Dodgers clinched at least a tie for the pennant on that day before clinching the pennant the next day.[19]

The 1947 Dodgers never clinched the pennant in Pittsburgh, after winning the game 4-2 on Robinson's 4th inning home run that did not even clinch the game win (making it 1-0) the Dodgers went on to lose to the Pirates the next day (September 18, 1947) and then played two games against the Braves in Brooklyn on the 20th and 21st before a St. Louis loss clinched the Dodgers their pennant on a team off day, with scenes of the Brooklyn streetscape cheering a pennant crown and Branch Rickey in Ebbets Field savoring the title fictitious. If such a street scape and Ebbets Field scene did happen in 1947 it was as Brooklyn fans and Rickey were listening to a Cardinals game, a week after their Pittsburgh win, as the Dodgers had the day off.[20][21][22][23][24][25]

References

  1. ^ "42 (2013)". Box Office. April 3, 2013. Retrieved April 13, 2013.
  2. ^ Fordin, Spencer (December 9, 2011) Jackie Robinson movie to star Ford, Boseman. Mlb.mlb.com. Retrieved on April 23, 2013.
  3. ^ Chandler, Rick (December 21, 2011) Harrison Ford to play Branch Rickey in movie about Jackie Robinson. Offthebench.nbcsports.com. Retrieved on April 23, 2013.
  4. ^ Neuse, Corwin (May 22, 2012) Lucas Black Is Pee-Wee Reese In '42'. Social.entertainment.msn.com. Retrieved on April 23, 2013.
  5. ^ Calcaterra, Craig (June 4, 2012) The Jackie Robinson movie “42″ to open next April 15. Hardballtalk.nbcsports.com. Retrieved on April 23, 2013.
  6. ^ Kepner, Tyler. "Immersing Himself to Play a Pioneer". The New York Times Company. Retrieved April 16, 2013.
  7. ^ McAllister, Cameron (April 22, 2013). "Review: "42"". Reel Georgia.
  8. ^ Roeper, Richard (April 12, 2013). 42 Review. Richard Roeper & the Movies. Retrieved April 16, 2013.
  9. ^ Kennedy, Lisa (April 12, 2013). Movie review: "42" gives baseball great Jackie Robinson, but also heroism, its due. Denver Post. Retrieved April 16, 2013.
  10. ^ Korsgaard, Sean CW (April 12, 2013). 42. Korsgaard's Commentary. Retrieved April 16, 2013.
  11. ^ Rainer, Peter (April 12, 2013). '42' is a dull treatment of Jackie Robinson's story. Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved April 16, 2013.
  12. ^ Smith, Grady (April 14, 2013). "Box office report: '42' knocks it out of the park with $27.3 million; 'Oblivion' huge overseas". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved April 14, 2013.
  13. ^ {{ cite web |url=http://www.jackierobinson.com/
  14. ^ Koltnow, Barry (April 19, 2013). "Viewpoint: Why biopics swing hard and strike out". The Providence Journal. Providence, Rhode Island. p. C3.
  15. ^ "Transcripts » Show". PRX. Retrieved May 4, 2013.
  16. ^ Williams, Jim; Staff (August 5, 1921). "Baseball Games Re-created in Radio Studios". Modestoradiomuseum.org. Retrieved May 4, 2013.
  17. ^ Litsky, Frank (May 12, 2003). "Sam Lacy, 99; Fought Racism as Sportswriter". The New York Times. Retrieved January 14, 2011.
  18. ^ Kennedy, Wally (May 5, 2013). "'It didn't happen that way'; Daughter of pitcher in '42' says movie unfair to her father". The Joplin Globe. Joplin, MO: Community Newspaper Holdings. Retrieved May 6, 2013.
  19. ^ "MLB Stats, Standings, Scores, History". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved May 4, 2013.
  20. ^ http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=cgNZAAAAIBAJ&sjid=4E4DAAAAIBAJ&dq=dodgers%20pennant&pg=5655%2C4790755
  21. ^ http://www.baseball-almanac.com/teamstats/schedule.php?y=1947&t=BRO
  22. ^ http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=bmpIAAAAIBAJ&sjid=IlUDAAAAIBAJ&dq=dodgers&pg=5099%2C4566965
  23. ^ http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=eDAbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=GE0EAAAAIBAJ&pg=4957%2C1056546
  24. ^ http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/9207998/42-gets-some-jackie-robinson-history-wrong-starts-conversation
  25. ^ http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/05/hey-i-42-i-why-all-the-hate-for-the-pittsburgh-pirates/275821/

External links

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