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Movies like “42”— those that chronicle historical tales about people of color — are always tricky endeavors. One need look no further than “The Help” to see that there’s a fine line between accurately portraying the offensiveness of a racist-laden time, and offensively portraying that offensiveness via the white-dominated tropes of modern Hollywood.
Ostensibly, Brian Helgeland’s “42,” about the heroic rise of Jackie Robinson, has all the trappings of the latter, with an invaluable white mentor, baseball exec Branch Rickey (Harrison Ford), elevated to sainthood, and a protagonist (Chadwick Boseman), as the magical, crowd-pleasing negro that’s been a stereotype for decades.
The difference here is that Robinson genuinely seems to have been magical indeed, and although Helgeland syrups up his production to drive that notion home (no pun intended), the true story has an inherent power largely immune to filmic fluff, offensive or otherwise. Also written by the director, “42,” named for Robinson’s Brooklyn Dodgers number, charts the icon’s 1940s-era journey to become the first professional black baseball player, a climb that would require him to endure vicious intolerance from crowds, opponents, press and even his own teammates.
Poor beginnings make the film initially unpromising, as its dialogue is trite and tagline-packed (“Money isn’t black or white; it’s green,” Rickey quips), and Ford’s performance, though somewhat transformative, is still marked by the same bland growling he’s been peddling for years. Boseman, meanwhile, brings great dimension to Robinson, and lovely Nicole Beharie, as Robinson’s wife, refuses to fade into the background, fleetingly holding in her face all the pain of the period’s inequality.
As it progresses, “42” picks up a wealth of fervent momentum, boasting grippingly filmed game sequences, touching camaraderies that form among team members and rousing triumphs for the leading man. Of course, it’s all filtered through the Hollywood machine, with audience-friendly uplift and convenient villain comeuppances, but the fact-based material maintains an impermeable dignity, making the movie less a retrospective flick to make white folks feel better, and more a remarkable addition to the baseball-film canon, which has long been intertwined with Americana.
42
PG-13
Two-and-a-half reels out of four
Now playing in area theaters
Recommended Rental
The Central Park Five
NR
Available Tuesday
Directors Ken Burns, Sarah Burns and David McMahon team up to deliver this near-universally-lauded documentary, which recounts the 1989 case of five black and Latino teenagers, who were wrongfully convicted of raping a white woman in Central Park, and spent years behind bars despite their innocence. Based on Sarah Burns’ book, the doc is hugely compelling and eye-opening.
Contact the South Philly Review at editor@southphillyreview.com.
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