Lefisc
New member
I finally saw the Blu ray of 42
First: I do not consider great sport figures to be heroes. They do what they do for a great deal of money. I admire many, respect a lot, and are disappointed more often than I want to be.
But Jackie Robinson is one of my heroes. What he went through, along with his wife Rachael, was not just unbelievable, but something I could never have done.
Believe it or not, that is why I had low expectations for this movie. As a history lesson, something I want to show to school children it was great, as a movie. I give it 3 out of 4 stars and I did enjoy it.
You see when controversial figures, such as Patton have movies made about them, they can be three dimensional characters, with all sides of their personalities shown. They can be shown not to be perfect people and that makes them more interesting. Shindler, in Shindler’s list was fascinating because he was complex, not perfect, and could be shown turning a corner.
The first time I notice this was in PT 109, a movie about President Kennedy, produced when he was alive. It was a good film, but with no great depth of character. Kennedy a sailor, was a perfect person. Even as a sailor he didn’t curse, dressed perfectly, and always did the right things. Cliff Robertson was really good, but there are limits you can do with living people and so the movie was a bit bland. If you watch the movie The Right Stuff, notice that Astronaut Gus Grissom was the only character shown to do wrong things. Also note that Gus Grissom was the only astronaut dead at the time the film was made. *
That’s what I found here. This movie was more of a documentary (and a good one) than a great drama. Many of the principals, Mrs. Robertson and many of the Dodgers are still alive. The script, mostly, showed events, but did not show the inner Jackie Robinson. There is very little depth here. Chadwick Boseman played him stiff and too internal for a movie. He was not the dominate actor needed for this role, in my opinion.
The second male lead, Harrison Food, who played Branch Rickey seemed, too often, to be a characterization, sometimes an inappropriate funny one, of the person. He didn’t seem real to me at all.
These two performances in particular made me feel that I was watching a Biography Channel reenactment sometimes, rather than a real movie.
*The movie made it look like Grissom botched up and lost his capsule. When the capsule was recovered, ten years later, the evidence showed that Grissom was 100% right. And did you know Gus Grissom was the ONLY Astronaut selected for all three manned programs? Mercury, Gemini and Apollo? He died in the tremendous accident of what we now call Apollo 1.
First: I do not consider great sport figures to be heroes. They do what they do for a great deal of money. I admire many, respect a lot, and are disappointed more often than I want to be.
But Jackie Robinson is one of my heroes. What he went through, along with his wife Rachael, was not just unbelievable, but something I could never have done.
Believe it or not, that is why I had low expectations for this movie. As a history lesson, something I want to show to school children it was great, as a movie. I give it 3 out of 4 stars and I did enjoy it.
You see when controversial figures, such as Patton have movies made about them, they can be three dimensional characters, with all sides of their personalities shown. They can be shown not to be perfect people and that makes them more interesting. Shindler, in Shindler’s list was fascinating because he was complex, not perfect, and could be shown turning a corner.
The first time I notice this was in PT 109, a movie about President Kennedy, produced when he was alive. It was a good film, but with no great depth of character. Kennedy a sailor, was a perfect person. Even as a sailor he didn’t curse, dressed perfectly, and always did the right things. Cliff Robertson was really good, but there are limits you can do with living people and so the movie was a bit bland. If you watch the movie The Right Stuff, notice that Astronaut Gus Grissom was the only character shown to do wrong things. Also note that Gus Grissom was the only astronaut dead at the time the film was made. *
That’s what I found here. This movie was more of a documentary (and a good one) than a great drama. Many of the principals, Mrs. Robertson and many of the Dodgers are still alive. The script, mostly, showed events, but did not show the inner Jackie Robinson. There is very little depth here. Chadwick Boseman played him stiff and too internal for a movie. He was not the dominate actor needed for this role, in my opinion.
The second male lead, Harrison Food, who played Branch Rickey seemed, too often, to be a characterization, sometimes an inappropriate funny one, of the person. He didn’t seem real to me at all.
These two performances in particular made me feel that I was watching a Biography Channel reenactment sometimes, rather than a real movie.
*The movie made it look like Grissom botched up and lost his capsule. When the capsule was recovered, ten years later, the evidence showed that Grissom was 100% right. And did you know Gus Grissom was the ONLY Astronaut selected for all three manned programs? Mercury, Gemini and Apollo? He died in the tremendous accident of what we now call Apollo 1.