The Jackie Robinson Story

Rating:
Summary: "Mr. Rickey, I've got two cheeks"
Review: A riveting, inspiring piece of American history, seeing the legendary Jackie Robinson play himself is a rare experience; a man who did so much to change the face of segregation, with enormous courage and extraordinary talent.
This is a film everyone, young and old, black and white, should see. Buy it, keep it, give it as a gift. This film is a treasure, even for those of us who are not baseball fans, and like me, don't really understand the game...this film is about so much more...it is the portrait of an era, and the man who was able to make a difference.

Jackie Robinson has a beauty in his face, and is a charismatic screen presence. He is backed by some excellent actors, like Ruby Dee, who plays Rae, his wife, and Minor Watson, terrific as Branch Rickey, who was president of The Brooklyn Dodgers, and also an interesting character. Rickey made a judgement call to hire Jackie, and was proved right, despite much opposition. Humor is provided by the very funny Ben Lessy as Shorty.

The film starts with Robinson as a young boy, through his college years at UCLA, and his time with the Panthers, an all-black team, then a stint in the military during WWII, and later trying to get a job as a coach, with no results.
Robinson of course suffered endless slurs and hatred in the early years with the Dodgers. Mr. Rickey made Robinson promise that he would never fight back when insulted, and even hit, and Robinson replied, "Mr. Rickey, I have two cheeks".

The first game he played with "organized baseball" was in 1946, and changed sports history, and a hero was born. God bless Jackie Robinson, for all he did for sports, and all he achieved for humanity.
With well paced direction by Alfred E. Green, a nice somewhat corny but appropriate score by Herschel Burke Gilbert, and the great Ernest Laszlo did the cinematography, which captures the enthusiasm of the game.
Total running time is 77 minutes.


Rating:
Summary: Good for the times
Review: Although several of the famous incidents Robinson encountered are left out of the movie, this film was still very daring for the time, openly dealing with the racial problems of the day in a way few films of the time did.

While Robinson was not the greatest actor in the world, he did an adequate job in the film.

Probably a better film to see on the time period would be Soul of the Game

Rating:
Summary: Not just a film, this is living history
Review: How do you rate Americana on a scale of 1 to 5 stars? It ain't easy, especially when the subject is one of the most special films in history, with Jackie Robinson starring as himself, the first African-American to have a successful major league baseball career since the major leagues themselves were in their early days. Complicating that is the fact that the film itself would be really quite poor if not for this subject matter, as several athletes and sports people are seen playing characters in the film. With more professional actors the story would have been portrayed more vividly.

Regardless, this is a gripping history piece that records several very important things for posterity. The horrifying level of racism undergone by the gallant Robinson and other black ballplayers in the 1940s was the same racism undergone by other African-Americans across the US, but when Branch Rickey, owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, decided it was time to give a black man a shot in the majors, it seemed that all of the baseball fans, management, and players were against the two of them. This the story of what Robinson went through, and how Rickey championed his cause, giving him the correct advice of "Don't fight back." This MLK/Gandhi approach worked because Robinson had the character to make it work, was a likeable man, a great ballplayer, and, as one of the characters in the film points out, "He's a gentleman too."

This story screams for a modern remake, one that would be done with a passion for historical accuracy and first-rate motion picture style. As it is, this now ancient "B" movie is in the public domain, with several different companies offering the title in DVD or VHS. The quality of the picture is therefore grainy and choppy, being cheaply copied from old celluloid. Actually the public domain status has probably saved this precious history from a horrible fate, as the quality of the production is quite low and demand for the film apparently not high, so that anyone who owned a copyright on it might not find it financially feasible to put out on DVD. In the public domain nobody has to paid for the rights to issue a video or DVD, so it's more readily available.

Minor Watson steals the show as Rickey, showing fire and passion in regard to giving Robinson a fair chance when the rest of the baseball world wanted to shut out a black man. As for Robinson himself, well, as an actor he's a great athlete, but it's pure joy to watch him show what a fine talent he was, and Ruby Dee is more than adequate as his wife. Some of the supporting cast, especially ballplayers who are supposed to be furious and threatened at Robinson's presence, have no more acting ability than a third-grader in a Christmas pageant.

The story is watered down for a 1950 audience, but much of what Robinson went through was surely R-rated. A modern retelling would be wonderful to see, but will never replace this important piece of sports history, African-American history, and World War II era history. Must see.