The Movie 42 Movie Analysis

Superior Essays
The movie 42 is a biographical sports film about the rise of Jackie Robinson into Major League Baseball in 1947. The movie focuses in on Jackie’s journey in baseball by describing his experiences through playing in the Kansas City Monarchs, then the Montreal Royals, and ultimately the Brooklyn Dodgers. The movie thoroughly shows Jackie’s battle with racism throughout his baseball career, as he was the first African-American player to break the baseball color barrier. Per the movie, Jackie Robinson went through a lot of hate and agony from baseball players and fans, specifically white people. 42 did a great job of describing one, Jackie’s journey in baseball, and two, the racial segregation in America at that time. 42 the movie shows the story …show more content…
During that time in the late 1940s, World War II had just ended and the soldiers, all from different ethnic groups, got to come home. Although black men had fought for their country and awarded for their valor in the war, when they returned to the USA, they came home to racism and Jim Crow Laws still restricting the African-American population. Jackie Robinson himself was an army officer in the war who had been arrested and court-martialed during boot camp for refusing to go to the back of a segregated bus. In the movie, it shows segregation between black and white people through sports, mainly baseball. Through Jackie’s journey in baseball in the film, viewers can see the struggle in Jackie being a black man playing baseball which was, at that time, considered a “white sport.” The abuse and racist threats Jackie Robinson had to go undergo was sincerely unfortunate, as he was a great man and a great baseball player and the only reason people rejected him was because of the color of his skin. Even though Jackie was treated unfairly by most people he met, in time people came to see what a good man he was after all including most of his teammates, his new fans, and baseball lovers across the country. Through this entire struggle, the producer shows Branch Rickey comforting and encouraging Jackie showing that even …show more content…
Throughout the movie, Rickey relates most of Jackie’s situations to Christ in explaining how he should act more like Him or how he is living the hard life as told in sermons. For example, when Jackie and Branch first met to discuss about joining the Dodgers, Branch told Jackie that he doesn’t need the guts to fight back, he needs the guts to not fight back just like Jesus when He was being tortured and criticized. Another instance where Rickey used a cultural reference is right after Jackie had smashed his bat in the tunnel behind the dugout. He explained to Jackie that he did not understand what he was going through and that he was living the struggle explained in the sermon and he felt bad for him, but even though it looked bad now, he just had to keep fighting through it and try to find the light at the end of tunnel and trust in God that everything will turn out okay. Other than the Christian references made by Rickey in the movie, there was no real culturally bias made by the producers, and along with that there was no real political bias

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