Jackie Robinson Movie 42

The movie that we viewed in class is 42: The Jackie Robinson Story directed by Brian Helgeland. It was released in 2013 as a pg-13 movie and is 2 hours 8 minutes long. This movie is a historical non-fiction drama about the baseball player, Jackie Robinson, and the struggles he endured as being a black man playing in major league baseball in the 1940s. The theme of the movie highlights the importance of relationships between people, with Jackie Robinson as the ultimate applicant for desegregated baseball. This movie’s purpose is to not make us feel shameful from our national shortcomings but feel pride in the triumph of Jackie Robinson.

The Cardinal Virtues are the four principal moral virtues first laid down by Plato and adopted by the Catholic Church. The Cardinal Virtues can be practiced by anyone and they represent the foundation of natural morality. Jackie Robinson and the film 42 are great examples of moral strength and the Cardinal Virtues. The Cardinal Virtues are also ever present in the news of today, both positively and negatively.

The movie 42 is a story about Jackie Robinson’s life as a baseball player, and how he broke the baseball color barrier by becoming the first African American player in the league. The story begins with Wendell Smith giving the audience background information about the United States and their segregation laws, and he brings it in comparison with baseball. He discusses how baseball was made up of 16 professional teams of all white players, but then Robinson comes in the picture. The movie then goes on to talk about Robinson’s career on the Brooklyn Dodgers, but mentioning before his time on the Kansas City Monarchs and the Montreal Royals. When Robinson advances to play with the Dodgers some of his fellow players sign a petition saying they refuse to play with him, but as the season progresses they become close friends with Robinson. Some examples of their kindness to him include backing him up when the manager of the Phillies said some racial slurs to Robinson. Another is when a Pittsburgh player hit him in the head, and his teammates stood up for him. The movie ends with some facts about other African American players joining the league, and a summary of the rest of Robinson’s career.

George Herman Ruth, better known as Babe Ruth, is an American baseball hero due to his successes that have allowed him to become a household name even after his passing. His great legacy lives on, but for those not alive during his reign over baseball, it is sometimes hard to grasp the Babe’s true life story, which is where film comes into play. In the several films about Babe Ruth, many differentiating perspectives about his life are introduced. In The Babe Ruth Story (1948) and The Babe (1992), we are shown two very different versions of the ‘Great Bambino’. With the help of Ardolino’s analysis of the deification and deconstruction of Ruth in Reel Baseball, it is easy to see the similarities and differences between the two Hollywood Babes. Ardolino states that, “In fact, these movies are dialectically related: the first is an attempt to sacralize Ruth’s checkered life, and the latter is an attempt to replace the hagiography with a Dickensian psychodrama of a bumbling Bacchus who belches, farts, indulges his appetites, is haunted by his past, explodes irrationally when he is called ‘incorrigible’ and never gains any measure of self-control” (115-16). Ardolino’s chapter thoroughly discussed the portrayals of Babe Ruth as a character, which brings to light the similarities and differences portrayed in both Hollywood films. After screening the Hollywood films, we move to screen the documentary about Ruth, a blatant deification, which treats his life story much differently.

Jules Tygiel certainly spent a lot of time writing about the importance of Jackie Robinson and the influence he had on and off the baseball diamond in his novel, Baseball’s Great Experiment. Before reading this novel, I considered myself to be

Since the abolition of slavery in the USA in 1883 and through the first half of the 20th Century, African Americans had been in a constant struggle to try and gain an equal footing in society. Like many aspects of American life, black sportsmen were segregated, and no African American had played professional baseball since 1884. For this reason, the integration of Jackie Robinson to the Brooklyn Dodgers as the first African American to play Major League baseball in the modern era had a grand impact on the entire country. From the moment that Dodgers owner, Branch Rickey decided that Robinson would break the colour lone, the history of sport and the history of African Americans would not be the same again. The importance of his integration and the effect it had on civil rights can be looked at in many different ways. It had great effect on the African American community, instilling pride and belief once again in the American Dream for many who had once thought it impossible. It also had significant importance for civil rights groups, and brought about a figure who would fight his peoples quest for equal rights until the day he died. It was a significant risk taken by both Rickey and Robinson, professionally and personally. But it was a risk that both in the short term for African American sport, and in the long run for African American civil rights, was ultimately well worth taking.

In the biography Jackie Robinson and the American Dilemma by John R. M. Wilson, it tells the story of racial injustice done after world war II and explains how Jackie Robinson was pioneer of better race relations in the United States. The obstacles Jackie Robinson overcame were amazing, he had the responsibility to convert the institutions, customs, and attitudes that had defined race relations in the United States. Seldom has history ever placed so much of a strain on one person. I am addressing the importance of Jackie Robinson’s trials and triumphs to American racial dynamics in the post war period to show how Robinson was a prominent figure in the civil rights movement and brought baseball fans together regardless of race.

     "Over the decades, African American teams played 445-recorded games against white teams, winning sixty-one percent of them." (Conrads, pg.8) The Negro Leagues were an alternative baseball group for African American baseball player that were denied the right to play with the white baseball payers in the Major League Baseball Association. In 1920, the first African American League was formed, and that paved the way for numerous African American innovation and movements. Fences, and Jackie Robinson: The Biography, raises consciousness about the baseball players that have been overlooked, and the struggle they had to endure simply because of their color.

Jackie Roosevelt Robinson was born on January 31st 1919. In 1947, at the age of 28, Jackie became the first African American to break the “color line” of Major League Baseball when he debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers. During his tenure with the Dodgers, Jackie was not simply an average player. Among various other accolades, Mr. Robinson was a starter on six World Series teams as well as being named the National League Rookie of The Year in 1947. His advantageous career was then capped in 1962 when he was inducted in the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame.1 Contrary to popular belief, Jackie's perseverance in implementing racial integration extended beyond his career in Major League Baseball. During the Sixties Jackie Robinson was a

Becoming the first African-American to break the racial barrier in a white supremacist sport like Major League Baseball during the 1940s when colored racism still occurred is an accomplishment like no other. Jackie Robinson faced numerous hardships and endured countless racial setbacks during his professional baseball career, but managed to set aside his frustrations and continue to emerge as a symbol of hope and unity for all. The makers of 42: The Jackie Robinson Story portray the story of his career as it demonstrates the struggle of race stereotyping during the 1940s and the interpersonal power struggles of being seen as an “equal”. “I'm not concerned with your liking or disliking me... All I ask is that you respect me as a human being” (Robinson) is a powerful message that I would like for you to keep in mind as you continue to read.

The movie 42 is all about Jackie Robinson and his experience playing in the major leagues. Robinson started on first base for the Dodgers, being the first team to play a black player in the since the 1880’s. Jackie Robinson and the Dodgers broke down a lot of barriers for African Americans in the MLB. In the movie it shows his struggles that he went through during the season. There were some changes in the film from what actually happened in real life, but its Hollywood what do you expect.

The story of Jackie Robinson has become one of America's most iconic and inspiring stories. Since 1947, American history has portrayed Jackie Robinson as a hero, and he has been idolized as a role model to the African American baseball community. It is an unarguable fact that he was the first to tear down the color barriers within professional baseball. The topic of Robinson’s role in integration has long been a point of discussion amongst baseball historians. Researchers have accumulated thousands of accredited documents and interviews with friends and team mates such as short stop, Pee Wee Reese, and team owner, Branch Rickey. However, few journalists have asked why Robinson was selected and what was Branch

Jackie Robinson, 42, first black man to play on a team of all whites and make it to the world championship. He rocks. His number is retired and people wear the number 42 on their jersey every year for one day because of him. All of this information I got from the movie 42. The movie was amazing and very good! In the beginning when it showed how he became selected was different than what I imagined it would’ve been done. During the movie there were threats from white people saying they’d come where Robinson lived and hurt him or something, so he left with the black reporter guy who later became a part of the American Baseball Press or whatever it was called. However, Robinson thought that he was

“I'm not concerned with your liking or disliking me... All I ask is that you respect me as a human being, “ quoted by Jackie Robinson. This quote explains how Jackie was trying to just play because it was his interest and wanted to make a change. The audience thought he was not supposed to be on the ground playing because of his color. He was overall the first African-American baseball player to play in the major leagues and represented the society as well. Many people honor Jackie Robinson and try to demonstrate how he lived as an African player in the baseball leagues. Every author has a purpose for writing a certain piece, In the movie 42 and the text in the newsela article, “Sports Stars: Jackie Robinson” have similarities and differences because of the author’s and director’s purpose.

Jackie was a phenomenal athlete for young kids to look up to. After the start of World War II he served in the military from 1942 to 1944. After the war he returned to his love for baseball, playing in the Black major leagues. He was chosen by Branch Rickey, vice president of the Brooklyn dodgers, to help integrate the Major Leagues. Rickey hated segregation just as much as Robinson and wanted to change things “Rickey had once seen a Black college player turned away from a hotel… Rickey never forgot seeing this player crying because he was denied a place to lay his weary head just because of the color of his skin” (Mackenzie). He was finally able to do something about segregation and help change baseball and the United States for the better. It wasn’t that all the teams were racist and didn’t want a black player but when the major league teams had an away game they would rent out the stadium to the black teams for them to play at. And the executives of teams didn’t want to loose the money that they were making off of the black teams. “League owners would lose significant rental revenue” (“Breaking”). He soon signed with the all-white Montreal Royals a farm team for the Dodgers. Robinson had an outstanding start with the Royals, “leading the International League with a .349 batting average and .985 fielding percentage” (Robinson). After Robinson’s outstanding year he was promoted to the Dodgers he played his first game on