Jackie Robinson

Ken Burns applied his documentary skill to the subject of baseball in his highly regarded 1994 miniseries Baseball (VL-7/94). Here, he focuses on one of the most significant events in the history of the game: the signing of Jackie Robinson by General Manager Branch Rickey of the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, which broke the racial barrier in the major leagues. Although the story was dramatized in the 2013 movie 42, this four-hour treatment offers considerably more detail, while also covering Robinson's post-baseball career as an activist. As usual, Burns's approach is both conventional and signature, combining a mass of archival film footage and stills, sober narration (read by Keith David, with Robinson's own words spoken by Jamie Foxx), and interviews offering context. But it's a technique that perceptively situates Robinson's accomplishments within the realities of his time, explaining his connections with important figures of the 1960s—including politicians like Richard Nixon and John Kennedy, and civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. Among the talking heads appearing here, the most important is certainly Robinson's widow Rachel, who shares candid, loving recollections of her husband. Extras include a behind-the-scenes featurette, outtakes, and a short showcasing a teen team, the Anderson Monarchs, inspired by Robinson. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)