Given the recent, sad, disturbing events in Baltimore, Ferguson, Staten Island, and elsewhere across the country, the impact of Jackie Robinson becoming the first black man to play major league baseball in the 20th-century is well-worth recalling-- and discussing. This is a milestone that transcends sports. It is one of the bellwether occurrences of what at mid-century was the soon-to-burgeon civil rights movement. Cinematically-speaking, the travails of Jackie Robinson have been detailed in two films. One of them, titled 42, came to theaters in 2013. The other, titled THE JACKIE ROBINSON STORY, was released way back in 1950.
A number of former major leaguers were interviewed prior to playing in the recent Hall of Fame Classic exhibition game in Cooperstown. The question I put to them was: Has American society really changed all that much in the almost 70 years since Jackie Robinson broke the MLB color line with the Brooklyn Dodgers? “I don’t think it’s all that different,” declared Jacque Jones. “There’s still (racial) profiling. Think about it.” And here, I only could nod my head in agreement.
Regarding the issue of profiling, and the treatment of the black underclasses by those in authority, Kerry Robinson pointed out that “so much has not changed, but people are starting to realize that minorities were not making this stuff up.” The ill-treatment of minorities has “really been happening. To make things better, issues need to be brought up. Issues have to be faced.” And certainly, the technology that allows average citizens to instantly record events has resulted in the creation of images that serve as visual proof of the improper use of force.
In this regard, a picture is indeed worth a thousand words, a thousand allegations. Indeed, as succinctly noted by John Franco, “the world has changed-- and Jackie Robinson is a part of that change.” Franco, however, was quick to observe that “there are certain parts (of our country) that haven’t changed.”
Homer Bush added perspective to the discussion by explaining: “I would not like to take certain events and think that they sum up the face of America. Granted, there are problems, but I personally do not think they are in the same league as what the media is making them out to be.” But Bush stressed that, for him, “there indeed is a problem, and it is one that needs to be addressed. There has been great advancement, but we still have to keep moving forward.”
Not surprisingly, none of the interviewees had seen THE JACKIE ROBINSON STORY. This film, which was produced just three years after Robinson came to the Brooklyn Dodgers, is both a relic of its era and a valuable social history. But all were familiar with 42. Jacque Jones and John Franco both described the film as “great,” with Jones adding: “You get a better appreciation for the perseverance of (Jackie), of who he was and what he had to deal with.”
However, Kerry Robinson offered a more tempered view of 42. “I thought that, Hollywood-wise, it was a really good movie,” he noted. “So I enjoyed it. But it didn’t cover everything.” And Homer Bush reported that he “enjoyed it. But I caution myself regarding (the fact that) there may be some truth in movies, and there are things that are made up.”
Robinson’s and Bush’s observations are, to my way of thinking, spot-on. And this is true of any biopic. For after all, narrative films are not factual films, even when they purport to reveal the real-life stories of real people. And certainly, if they are Hollywood product, they exist as entertainments, not as historical records. This is the case for 42 and THE JACKIE ROBINSON STORY. It is true if the film’s subject is a sports figure, a show business personality, or a world leader.But such films, if well-intentioned, do serve a purpose. In this regard, John Franco described 42 as “a combination of education and entertainment. The kids could see it and get a sense of what our country once was like.”
Rob Edelman teaches film history at the University at Albany. He has written several books on film and television, and is an associate editor of Leonard Maltin’s Movie and Video Guide.
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