Never in baseball has a number been more cherished and respected than the number 42. Today it has become a national icon – a symbol of the past and a treasured reminder for the future. Jackie Robinson changed the game of baseball forever, becoming the first African-American to enter the major leagues with the help of Branch Rickey, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers. The movie 42: The Jackie Robinson Story richly displays the career, involving the highs and lows, of Jackie Robinson, and his emergence as one of the influential and trailblazing baseball players of all time. The movie opens with Wendell Smith, an African-American writer for the Pittsburgh Courier, narrating a brief history of what has happened just before the events in the movie.
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Many times this is done in scenes that do not even pertain to baseball, what he is known best for. An early scene in the movie shows Jackie’s Negro league team, the Kansas City Monarchs, stopping at a gas station to fill up their bus. Jackie begins to saunter over to the bathroom when the fuel attendant stops him, telling him he is not allowed to use it. This is reflective of the Jim Crow laws that were prominent in the south, denying blacks to have the same amenities and liberties as whites. Jackie replies with, “Take that hose out of the tank. We’ll get our ninety-nine gallons of gas somewhere else.” The fuel attendant quickly changes his mind. This scene greatly captures Jackie’s mentality of not being a victim based on his circumstances. In a society where blacks were looked upon as creatures rather than humans, Jackie refused to bend to fit that mold. This scene was highly effective in showing the bolder, courageous side of Jackie …show more content…
Jackie, now officially a member of the Brooklyn Dodgers, is at the plate while opposing manager Ben Chapman screams insults and taunts. “Why don’tcha look in a mirror? This is a white man’s game!” “Hey nigger! Why don’t you go back to the cotton fields where you came from?” Slurs like these were common during the Jim Crow era. Even children would call out jeers such as this, as seen later in the movie when the Dodgers played Cincinnati. With nuances like this, the film conveys to the audience the characteristics of that time period. After two at-bats with no success and a storm of insults hurled at him by Chapman, Jackie picks up a bat, walks to the tunnel, and lets all of his anger and aggression out by screaming and bashing the bat against the wall. The music cuts out, and a distressed and exasperated yell comes out of Jackie Robinson. This powerful climax of the film makes it appear as if he has given up and let society win. But out of the tunnel comes Branch Rickey, who refuses to allow Jackie to quit on his dream of playing in the majors. Rickey then asks a defining question in Robinson’s career – “Who’s playing first?” Robinson exits the tunnel and runs on the field, showing the dream is not dead and the black culture will not submit to the oppression the whites have put on
Many times this is done in scenes that do not even pertain to baseball, what he is known best for. An early scene in the movie shows Jackie’s Negro league team, the Kansas City Monarchs, stopping at a gas station to fill up their bus. Jackie begins to saunter over to the bathroom when the fuel attendant stops him, telling him he is not allowed to use it. This is reflective of the Jim Crow laws that were prominent in the south, denying blacks to have the same amenities and liberties as whites. Jackie replies with, “Take that hose out of the tank. We’ll get our ninety-nine gallons of gas somewhere else.” The fuel attendant quickly changes his mind. This scene greatly captures Jackie’s mentality of not being a victim based on his circumstances. In a society where blacks were looked upon as creatures rather than humans, Jackie refused to bend to fit that mold. This scene was highly effective in showing the bolder, courageous side of Jackie …show more content…
Jackie, now officially a member of the Brooklyn Dodgers, is at the plate while opposing manager Ben Chapman screams insults and taunts. “Why don’tcha look in a mirror? This is a white man’s game!” “Hey nigger! Why don’t you go back to the cotton fields where you came from?” Slurs like these were common during the Jim Crow era. Even children would call out jeers such as this, as seen later in the movie when the Dodgers played Cincinnati. With nuances like this, the film conveys to the audience the characteristics of that time period. After two at-bats with no success and a storm of insults hurled at him by Chapman, Jackie picks up a bat, walks to the tunnel, and lets all of his anger and aggression out by screaming and bashing the bat against the wall. The music cuts out, and a distressed and exasperated yell comes out of Jackie Robinson. This powerful climax of the film makes it appear as if he has given up and let society win. But out of the tunnel comes Branch Rickey, who refuses to allow Jackie to quit on his dream of playing in the majors. Rickey then asks a defining question in Robinson’s career – “Who’s playing first?” Robinson exits the tunnel and runs on the field, showing the dream is not dead and the black culture will not submit to the oppression the whites have put on