If you are not a baseball fanatic (and I am not) then you may not realize that 42 is about Jackie Robinson, the first African American baseball player to be signed to a major league team. The title of the movie was Robinson’s jersey number and is the only number to have ever been retired from the entirety of Major League Baseball to this day.
The movie takes us back in time to 1946 when Branch Rickey, portrayed wonderfully by Harrison Ford, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, decides to break the color barrier in Major League Baseball and sign Jackie Robinson. The part of Jackie Robinson is played nicely by Chadwick Boseman in his first major movie starring role. 42 focuses on the beginning of Jackie Robinson’s career as a Brooklyn Dodger and the many trials and taunts he endured. It also gives the viewer a good idea of how the other players/teams/owners in Major League Baseball reacted to his signing by Branch Rickey. As I watched the movie, I found myself amazed at how much our nation has changed its attitude towards race in the last 67 years. While racism still exists this movie illustrates just how far we have come in trying to eradicate it (case in point...the 1st African American President of the U.S. is currently in office). I thoroughly enjoyed the movie and recommend it to fans and non-fans of baseball alike for its historical value alone.