Warner Bros., Legendary Pictures,
Harrison Ford, Alan Tudyk, Lucas Black, Christopher Meloni, Brett Cullen, John C. McGinley, T.R. Knight, Brad Beyer, Chadwick Boseman, Jud Tylor , Ryan Merriman
Branch Rickey (Harrison Ford), general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers saw an opportunity with the huge audience of baseball loving African American citizens who would flock to the Dodger games if there were an African American player in the game. At the time, African American players played in small cities in the Negro League. Branch brought Jackie Robinson (Chadwick Boseman) up to play for the Montreal farm team, and then to the Dodgers amidst a lot of resistance from the other players, the white fans, the other teams, and even the league and the umpires. Jackie was one of the greatest players of his time, but he faced a really hard time with all the racism and hatred thrown his way. This film exposes the trials and tribulations both the team and especially Jackie and his wife had to put up with with day after day, mixed with some really good baseball.
This film feels very much like a documentary and is unflinching in the racism that was so prevalent at the time. It was a shame in those days that in some cities it was so bad that the whole team could not stay in a hotel. The story is fairly well known, but there’s a lot of detail in this story that I wasn’t aware of, and though I realized that the first African American major league player would have to put up with a lot, I didn’t realize just how bad it really was. Chadwick Boesman did a great job as Jackie Robinson, although I really didn’t know what he looked or sounded like, so that was probably easier. Harrison Ford, on the other hand, tried really hard to become Branch Rickey, but throughout, I was painfully aware it was Harrison Ford, and the look and mannerisms just didn’t seem to fit. But I’m sure he did a good job. It was just a really hard job to do, and I’m sure he did a good performance.
I really did not expect to enjoy this film as much as I did. I thought it would come off really preachy and anti white people. But unfortunately I knew people like this. I wasn’t around in the 1940’s, but I remember some of the jerks that attended ball games when I was a little kid. I think they did a really fair job in presenting the story fairly, and I imagine it played out pretty much just like this. The baseball parts were really well done, and took me back to the old days when baseball was king! The rest of the story was very smooth flowing and went by really fast. It’s a very intriguing movie, very well done, and well worth watching to show what it was like in the early days. I enjoyed this movie very much.
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