Jackie Robinson portrayed himself in his 1950 biopic. Despite a low budget and tight shooting schedule, The Jackie Robinson Story still managed to be affective in its depiction of the African-American’s breaking of baseball’s colour line. 42 covers much the same timeframe, albeit with a much larger budget and shooting schedule. A handsome production featuring many fine performances, 42 nevertheless remains a clinical retelling of history that, bar one scene, fails to stir the emotions.

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As World War II comes to an end, Brooklyn Dodgers President Branch Rickey recognises that baseball’s segregation can no longer prevail. Identifying Jackie Robinson as an ideal torchbearer, Rickey signs him up after the ballplayer promises not to react to the racism that will surely follow. Despite Rickey shielding him from a racist coach and a potential boycott from his teammates, Robinson is exposed to jeers by fans, taunts by fellow players and a torrent of abuse from an opposing team’s manager.

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42 was written and directed by Brian Helgeland, who won an Oscar for adapting the labyrinthian plot of L.A. Confidential and even made jousting looking hip in A Knight’s Tale. Here his evocative staging of the baseball scenes effectively captures the significance of Robinson competing in Major League Baseball, not only in highlighting the racism he faced, but also the “tricky” element he brought from the Negro Leagues and the impact he had on the next generation. In Chadwick Boseman, for whom this was his breakout role, Helgeland found an ideal lead who could honour the lore of the Robinson having the guts not to fight back while maintaining the rage against the injustices he endured. His performance epitomises why Robinson was once described as the loneliest man in sports.

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In his most atypical role Harrison Ford portrays Branch Rickey, marking his first appearance in a biopic. Sporting a putty nose, bushy eyebrows, glasses and a fat suit to approximate the appearance of the Dodgers’ manager, it is Ford’s understated performance that best serves his character, and the film.​