You won't be disappointed!

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Fantastic!

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

42 is a movie about Jackie Robinson who was the first black MLB player for the Brooklyn Dodgers. It is a solid movie with good acting, direction and script, but not perfect.Some of the movie is fabricated for dramatic effect but the director was attempting to show the internal strife of the character. It also was attempting to show racism in the deep south at a time when lynching still did happen.I specifically liked Harrison Ford in this movie who should have gotten an Oscar. He does a fantastic job of Branch Ricky, the manager and owner of the Dodgers.There are a few scenes which might be traumatic for the little kids in your family. You might want to screen the movie first.

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.

Real event movies always work let's face it. Whether they are a TV movie or a big production, there's always something enjoyable about taking a peek at history. In this case, the dark years of American history are dismantled and we take a look at how much Black people suffered in the past, through the eyes of the very first colored man to play in the baseball league. A man whose unquestionable courage helped him reshape part of the history of this sport, while becoming an icon of the fight against race injustice. The movie itself is not the most entertaining, but I doubt that anyone will not be interested in seeing this through and knowing more about Jackie Robinson. I am not a baseball fan, I have never watched a game, and still I am happy I did watch the movie.

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.