42 – One of the Most Anticipated Movies of the Season

April 12 cannot come soon enough for the release of, 42, the movie we’ve all been waiting for. If you haven’t seen the trailer yet, it is sure to give you goose bumps. With the Jay –Z track “Brooklyn (Go Hard)” the trailer carries with it the adrenaline, the inspiration and the raw emotion that can be expected of a Jackie Robinson story. The movie stars Chadwick Boseman as Jackie Robinson, and is written and directed by Brian Helgeland, who won an Oscar for Best Screenplay for L.A. Confidential in 1998.

42 is a biographical film about the life of baseball player, Jackie Robinson, who was the first African American to play in Major League Baseball for the Brooklyn Dodgers. He started at first base on April 15th and became the first African American player since 1880, whereby ending racial segregation.

Robinson played second base for over ten seasons, and played in six World Series including the Dodgers’ 1955 World Championship. He was also the recipient of the MLB Rookie of the year award in 1947 and won the National League Most Valuable Player in 1949.

Robinson’s story is not just a story of personal accomplishment, but of social triumph that shook a nation.

“The story is relevant because we still stand on his shoulders. He started something – I would even say maybe he didn’t even start it, it started before him. But he carried the torch. And he carried it alone for a period of time before other people could help him,” Boseman said.

The film tells the life story of how Jackie Robinson, under the guidance of team executive Branch Rickey (portrayed by Harrison Ford) became the first African-American player to break segregation. Boseman depicts a Robinson who remains graceful and strong in the face of cruelty – a man who triumphs by having the guts not to fight back.