42

Writer-director Brian Helgeland has created a respectful, old-fashioned biography of a noble, courageous hero: Jackie Robinson, who signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947 and became the first player to break major league baseball's color barrier. The numerical title is Robinson's uniform number (retired in 1997 in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of his first game). Jack Roosevelt Robinson (Chadwick Boseman) was a four-sport athlete at U.C.L.A. who wanted to play professionally at a time when baseball was considered a white man's game. Gruff general manager Branch Rickey (Harrison Ford) needed the Brooklyn Dodgers to win games, noting that “dollars aren't black and white”—and if green power enabled black power, so be it. 42 pulls no punches regarding the blatant racial bigotry that Robinson encountered during his rookie season, which he faced with grace, determination, and strength—buoyed by the support of his wife (Nicole Beharie), along with Rickey, teammates PeeWee Reese (Lucas Black) and Ralph Branca (Hamish Linklater), and manager Leo Durocher (Christopher Meloni). A nice update to 1950's The Jackie Robinson Story, in which Robinson played himself with Ruby Dee as his wife, this is highly recommended. [Note: Blu-ray/DVD extras include the behind-the-scenes featurette “Stepping Into History” (9 min.). Exclusive to the Blu-ray release are the behind-the-scenes featurette “Full-Contact Baseball” (10 min.), “The Legacy of the Number 42” short (9 min.), and bonus DVD and UltraViolet copies of the film. Bottom line: a decent extras package for a fine bio-pic.] (S. Granger)