Tyler’s Take: 42 Film Review

By Tyler Perez

Brian Helgeland`s 42 is the film about famed baseball player Jackie Robinson’s life story and his historical contribution to both African American and baseball history. Robinson made history when he signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers under the guidance of team executive Branch Rickey. In watching this film, you cannot deny that the baseball action in this film looks amazing. Additionally, there are a handful of great performances by young actors, including star Chadwick Boseman. Yet, the performance that sticks out the most is Harrison Ford’s’ performance as Branch Rickey. Chadwick Boseman, who plays Jackie Robinson, was quite unknown before this film. After his stellar performance, I think he will be offered many more roles. Christopher Meloni as the coach of the Dodgers before he had a scandalous scandal, was phenomenal as Leo Durocher. Andre Holland as Wendell Smith was truly another breakthrough performance.

One issue I had with this film is that I felt it wasn’t really about Robinson’s entire life story. The film took place around the time leading up to Robinson signing with the Dodgers. I felt like if it was a true biopic, it should talk about his life not just a specific time period. Additionally, there was a little “cheese” in a scene when a little kid prays in the crowd. If this movie had come out in November, Harrison Ford might have been considered for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar award. This film will be compared to other baseball-centered films of the past couple years, such as Moneyball, which is another great film. 42 ranks amongst these films, but not the highest in my opinion. Even though it was not the greatest, 42 was still quite great.

My Rating: 4/5