42

Sports movies are one of those genres that many people believe are bulletproof. Like the romantic comedy, they are built on a well worn piece of human drama and can frequently rely on stock characters. Also like the romantic comedy, their detractors like to point out that seemingly no amount of derivative storytelling and uninspired filmmaking will stop these movies from making money and, generally speaking, being successful. I don’t agree. It is perfectly easy to screw up either a romantic comedy or a sports movie, despite the best of intentions, an appropriately sized budget, and a good cast. Sadly, 42 proves this point.

Jackie Robinson is perhaps the most deeply ingrained sports figure in the public consciousness of the USA. Not only is he one of the most famous players in the history of America’s pastime for his skill at the game in his era, but also as a vanguard figure in the desegregation of sports. His jersey number is not just retired within the Dodgers organization, but throughout all of Major League Baseball. I am honestly shocked that this is only the second theatrically released biopic about his life and career (and the first since he died). To be clear, the movie doesn’t do a disservice to Robinson’s legacy or make a mockery of him or his role in baseball. That’s not the way that it fails. Rather, it fails by being dull and uninteresting.

In a word, I would describe 42 as tepid. In the filmmakers’ total aversion to risk, possibly out of a fear of not doing Robinson’s story justice, they made something that just isn’t very interesting to watch. Unlike other movies about race and sports, there is less of a focus on broad community racism towards the athlete(s) but rather on a smaller section of racist antagonist characters… only they are so over-the-top in their behaviors that they end up one-dimensional. Complex villains make for more interesting movies and there are ways to do it that don’t risk legitimizing the awful things that they frequently believe and do. Jackie also isn’t portrayed in a very interesting way, always just taking the threats and verbal abuse on the chin and going on with life. The one moment we see him ever buckle under the pressure was apparently made up by the director for dramatic effect. However, conflict is key to making a movie more interesting and if Jackie can’t be the center of conflict he can’t be the center of the film. You would think given how landmark this period was in sports history that there would be plenty to enliven the story of 42, but unfortunately none of that seems to have translated well to the screen.

Some of his teammates refuse to play with him, but he just soldiers on. The coach and players of the opponent team hurl racist slurs at him, but he just tunes them out and hits a home run. At least with the other Stoics of cinema, like John Wayne in The Searchers or Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino, there is a thematic undercurrent of the world leaving them behind. In 42, there is nothing to get me invested in the drama of the story outside of whatever preexisting knowledge of Jackie Robinson I might have had coming into the movie.

They might have been better served in trying to remake the 1950s’ The Jackie Robinson Story, in which the man played himself. While that movie has largely been forgotten, and suffers from some of the same cheesiness that plagues 42, it has ideas that would translate well to a Robinson biopic made with more modern technique and sensibilities. The Jackie Robinson Story follows more of his life, even before professional baseball, and sets up his limited career opportunities, family pressures, and other motivators that add additional dramatic weight to his choice, or even need, to stay calm and take the abuse. This, even if it’s a dramatization, at least creates a useful tension between Jackie’s dreams and the events that try to break him and take those dreams away. 42 starts just before he gets called up and provides none of that context. Given that 42 is almost an hour longer in runtime than The Jackie Robinson Story, there ought to be plenty of time to add this context had the makers of the newer film wished to do so.

As for the acting, Harrison Ford’s turn as Branch Rickey is the stand out performance of the film. He is quirky, he is interesting, and he steals every scene he is in. I found myself far more invested in his maneuvering to make a winning baseball team despite threatened player strikes and resigning coaches, than I ever was in Jackie’s times at bat. Chadwick Boseman, who plays Jackie, seems to be stuck playing second fiddle in another movie where he is ostensibly the star. He is out done in Black Panther by Michael B Jordan, and even Letitia Wright to an extent, and here he is eclipsed by Ford. It is somewhat sad that the best role in a movie about a famous black sports figure is the white team owner, but Rickey has more complexity, more nuance, and a better articulated struggle (within the narrative of the film), and that ultimately helps him just be more interesting than Robinson.

In its desire not to offend and to do the story of Jackie Robinson right, 42 does very little at all. It is a boring, tepid movie without compelling drama outside of an extremely cartoonish conflict between those racists jerks from Philadelphia and Jackie’s endlessly calm demeanor. It neither tells an interesting story about race nor offers the thrills and triumphs of a sports movie. This isn’t Remember the Titans or Invictus. It’s really barely a step above a made for TV movie, with the benefit of a more star studded cast and a wide theatrical release.

Would Recommend: If cheesy sports films do it for you no matter what.

Would Not Recommend: If you are expecting a rich, compelling sports drama about an important historical athlete.