{"id":10262,"date":"2013-04-17T13:52:39","date_gmt":"2013-04-17T19:52:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flovalleynews.com\/?p=10262"},"modified":"2013-04-17T13:52:39","modified_gmt":"2013-04-17T19:52:39","slug":"42-fields-of-green","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/?p=10262","title":{"rendered":"42: Fields of Green"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Sandra Olmsted<\/strong><\/p>\n

Director Brian Helgeland\u2019s bio-pic, 42<\/em>, chronicles Jack Robinson (Chadwick\u00a0Boseman) crossing the color line to play in the white Baseball\u00a0 (National) Leagues of\u00a0post-WWII America.<\/p>\n

Although Branch Rickey (Harrison Ford) first claims he wants\u00a0 to bring up some African-American players who can help bring home the pennant\u00a0 and draw the African-American fans and dollars, later he admits a more personal\u00a0 reason. However, the money theme rings truer throughout the film because money\u00a0 is used to encourage fairness and to smooth acceptance of social change.<\/p>\n

Even Robinson uses money to convince a service station attendant to let him use a\u00a0restroom in Missouri, when the American Negro League Kansas City Monarchs, for\u00a0which Robinson plays, travel to a game in Chicago.\u00a0 Rickey uses money as a\u00a0 carrot and a club to force the coaching stuff and players to treat Robinson\u00a0 decently and to accept that Robinson is present and other African-American\u00a0 players are coming. Players and coaches choose to be nice first because of\u00a0 economic necessity and later out of team loyalty and friendship.<\/p>\n

While the story of Robinson breaking the color barrier is one of the great\u00a0 stories of the twentieth century, in compressing the landmark events of\u00a0 just 1945-1947 into the film, writer-director Helgeland and producer Thomas Tull\u00a0 gloss over the details and some of the drama.<\/p>\n

The story holds few surprises, but then neither does an afternoon at the ballpark,\u00a0accept for who will win, and those who know baseball history know how this story ends; consequently,\u00a0 Helgeland should have created some suspense. When Robinson and his new wife,\u00a0 Rachel (Nicole Beharie) arrive at spring training the first year, they stay with\u00a0 families because of Jim Crow laws, and Rickey picks those families for their\u00a0\u201csignificance,\u201d which remains an undeveloped theme in the film.<\/p>\n

Rickey also sends Wendell Smith (Andre Holland), a black sports writer who wants\u00a0to sit in the press box but isn\u2019t allowed, to chaperone Jackie and Rachel, who were raised\u00a0 in California and are unfamiliar with the unspoken rules and consequences that\u00a0other African-Americans faced because of Jim Crow. There\u2019s a nearly obligatory\u00a0threat of Klan action and narrowish escape, and the n-word is used frequently\u00a0throughout the film.<\/p>\n

Robinson\u2019s short time playing for the Dodgers\u2019 farm team,\u00a0 Montreal Royals, doesn\u2019t get much screen time, which begs the question of whether Robinson was more accepted by\u00a0 more enlightened neighbors to the north\u00a0 than he was in his own country.\u00a0 Once moved\u00a0 up to Brooklyn, Robinson\u2019s most of\u00a0 soon-to-be teammates sign a petition against playing with him, but that\u2019s quelled by Rickey and Leo Durocher (Christopher Meloni) with the threat of\u00a0 trades or being sent down.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Rickey provides the fatherly advice and comfort that Robinson never knew because his father abandoned the family right\u00a0 after Jackie was born. Robinson promises\u00a0 his own newborn son that he will have a father who will stays. Soon, the whole team is experiencing discrimination\u00a0 because of Robinson, angering some players, but even that plot twist is\u00a0 unresolved. One of the few scenes showing nuanced writing style is Robinson\u00a0being convinced to shower with the team, but mostly the writing has a boiler\u00a0 plate feel because events aren\u2019t dramatized and too easily money talks and\u00a0 racism walks.<\/p>\n

Despite the \u201cshow-me-the-money\u201d theme of dollars motivating everyone, the film\u00a0has real heart because of the performances, Ford channels a larger-than-life\u00a0Rickey. Boseman, who appears to be a relative unknown but has a solid film\u00a0acting resume and a longer theater resume as a playwright, director and actor,\u00a0lets the anger and hurt that Robinson had to control and conceal play over his\u00a0face and inhabit his eyes. While all the actors in the film are batting 300, for\u00a0Ford and Boseman the smell of Oscar is as strong as that of ballpark franks.<\/p>\n

Long gone ballparks in Philadelphia and Cincinnati, the Polo Grounds in the\u00a0Bronx, and Brooklyn’s own Ebbets Field reappears by the magic of CGI.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for Cardinal fans, there\u2019s no nostalgic visits to Sportsman\u2019s Park, but the Dodgers do play the Cardinals, and a mention of the Cards\u2019 1946 World Series victory in this era garnered cheers from the film\u2019s St. Louis\u00a0 audience.<\/p>\n

The film\u2019s tone and pacing evokes an afternoon at the ballpark, and\u00a0 even less-than-avid fans of the National Pastime will long for the \u201cpeanuts,\u00a0 popcorn,and Cracker Jacks\u201d of an imagined past and an idealized summer afternoon\u00a0 at the old ball yard.<\/p>\n

A Warner Bros. release, 42:<\/em> The True Story of an American\u00a0 Legend is rated PG-13 for thematic elements including language 128 minutes. 42:<\/em>\u00a0 The True Story of an American Legend is in theaters now. (More of Olmsted\u2019s reviews are available at www.thecinematicskinny.com<\/a>.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Sandra Olmsted Director Brian Helgeland\u2019s bio-pic, 42, chronicles Jack Robinson (Chadwick\u00a0Boseman) crossing the color line to play in the white Baseball\u00a0 (National) Leagues of\u00a0post-WWII America. Although Branch Rickey (Harrison Ford) first claims he wants\u00a0 to bring up some African-American players who can help bring home the pennant\u00a0 and draw the African-American fans and dollars, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n42: Fields of Green - flovalleynews.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/?p=10262\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"42: Fields of Green - flovalleynews.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"by Sandra Olmsted Director Brian Helgeland\u2019s bio-pic, 42, chronicles Jack Robinson (Chadwick\u00a0Boseman) crossing the color line to play in the white Baseball\u00a0 (National) Leagues of\u00a0post-WWII America. 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