The Jackie Robinson Story

The Jackie Robinson Story-480P

The Jackie Robinson Story-480P

It isn't very often that you get to see a hall of famer as a star in a movie about himself. Jackie Robinson actually acts in a leading role in this essentially B movie. This is vintage Truman era B&W which portrays an important slice of Americana. While we get a glimpse of Babe Ruth and Bill Dickey in Pride of the Yankees and a campy set of performances from Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle in Safe at Home, Jackie Robinson actually does his best to give a serious performance about one of the most important events in the history of American sports.

While Jackie Robinson was never in danger of Oscar consideration for this performance as himself, within the confines of a low-budget movie with a creaky script he does a creditable job. And perhaps more to the point, his charisma is palpable ... and almost makes it obvious why Rickey decided he was the man to run the gauntlet in 1947. He's just so damned likable! Also: I have to say that the heart of the movie -- and I don't think *any* actor could have done a better job here -- is the sequence where Robinson shows up for his first practice with the Montreal Royals. He tries to join a couple of pepper games without success and, on his third try, grows tired of being ignored and calls for a fellow player to throw him the ball. Cut to a medium close up of Robinson as he pounds his mitt and, with a poignant look of anxiety, expectation, and defiance, holds it up, asking for the throw. Nearly as good is the smile that crosses Robinson's face when the player with the ball (who gets his own reverse shot, looking at his white teammates skeptically as if to say, "Should I throw to this {your racial epithet here}?") finally tosses it to him. That smile and Robinson's gesture with his glove on catching the ball -- the kind major league infielders usually reserve for acknowledging someone's sparkling play --says more than any dialog could. And it feels unscripted in its natural tension and release. Brilliant! I doubt Robinson needed *any* coaching to do that scene. And I suspect nobody then or now could have done it better. Robinson is the movie. Most everything else, with the possible exception of the young Ruby Dee's serviceable (if undemanding) performance as Robinson's wife, is window dressing.

Made only a few years after Jackie Robinson joined the Major Leagues, this film is a truly inspirational story of the first man who broke baseball's color barrier, paving the way for future stars like Mays, Aaron, Clemente and the rest. Along the way, even Robinson had to be convinced that a black player would ever get the chance - "Baseball's one sport that'll never let me in". To his credit, executive Branch Rickey stayed true to his principles in signing Robinson, and a number of scenes in the picture spotlight Rickey (Minor Watson) waxing philosophically about fair play and sportsmanship, and a man's right to make a living no matter what his color. The best was the way he dressed down a handful of players who presented a petition against playing with Robinson, offering one of them an exit strategy in case he persisted. Though the film uses a fairly broad brush to illustrate the prejudice shown against Robinson, most of the examples seem fairly mild given the era. The terms 'shine' and 'nigger' are used, but sparingly, and one of the more graphic examples was the dimwit who compared Robinson to a black cat. The situations for the most part didn't appear life threatening, but I'm sure there must have been more serious incidents directed against the ball player during his early career. The movie is certainly no award winner, and Robinson exhibits a surprising lack of charisma portraying himself. No doubt he was self conscious about the task at hand. A number of scenes took on a stagy look, like the one where Jackie steals second base and gets into a tiff with the opposing team's player. We're reminded of the film's low budget restrictions when the same fans are shown in the stands for different games, sitting in the exact same seats. All in all though, the picture is a few notches better than "The Joe Louis Story" that came out three years later. One thing I'll note with some degree of interest, something I watch for in early pictures like this, are the nostalgic nuggets of a time gone by. Keep an eye on the advertising billboards in center field during one of the Montreal Royals games; you'll see ads for Admiral TV, White Rock beverages, Auto-Lite, and Wildroot Hair Cream Oil. A later view (presumably from the same stadium) adds a couple more for Rayve Home Permanent and Coca-Cola. What I'd really like to see is a modern day version of the Jackie Robinson story that does a more thorough job of his college and military years, with a lot better look at his International League and Dodgers career. This picture for example, didn't mention any of his teammates by name (except that short Branch Rickey scene in his office), nor any of the opposition that would have come up against him and his team. There was that one Montreal player Shorty (Ben Lessy), but it looked like he was thrown in for comic relief and didn't really seem necessary. Closing on a trivia note, does anyone recall the name of the second black Major League player? It was Larry Doby, signed by the Cleveland Indians only eleven weeks after Robinson, making him the first in the American League.

This has to be one of the most cheaply made movies I have ever seen. But it is a good movie anyway, well worth a few bucks to rent and an hour and fifteen minutes of couch time. Jackie Robinson does a decent job as an actor. Hollywood should remake this film because today it can be told with more truth than back in 1950. A remake would be able to graphically detail just what Robinson had to put up with to break the color barrier in baseball. The only thing that really bothered me about this film is that it made a hero out of Branch Rickey. Maybe Rickey deserves such status for seeing it through with Robinson, but I don't think his motives were as altruistic as portrayed in this movie.

Sure, many can criticize this film for what it didn't show, but it's a movie, not a mini-series. So, they had to gloss over the fact that his brother Mack (Joel Fluellen), with a college education and an Olympic medal was a milkman; didn't touch on the Army at all; and left out Satchel Paige. What was worth watching was Robinson'e play for UCLA and branch Rickey's (Minor Watson) valiant efforts to get him into major league baseball. It is no secret that I love watching baseball movies From Fever Pitch to The Natural to "A League of their own;" I'll watch baseball movies over baseball games. This was a good one. Robinson did a very good acting job playing himself. Of course, as Ringo Starr said, "All I have to do is smile and act naturally." Well, he did much more that that. So, head on over to the Internet Archive and check it our: http://www.archive.org/details/Jackie_Robinson_Story_The

I give this movie a 10 not because it is an "excellent" movie, which it is not, but because of what there is to be gotten out of it. What there is not to be gotten out of it, from what I have read, is an accurate depiction of what Robinson went through once he joined the Dodgers organization. In 1950, when this movie was made, Robinson was still very much an active player in the league, and the people who made life miserable for him, including players on the Montreal and Brooklyn teams, were very much alive, some still Robinson's colleagues. Just as the name of the league is changed to the International League, so other details are altered or ignored, probably to avoid lawsuits. In that sense, "42" can name names and give facts that this movie could not. On the other hand, what this movie offers is the chance to watch the real Jackie Robinson relive some of the difficult, terrible moments he had to go through to stay in major-league baseball - and pave the way for other Blacks to do the same. Even though this time it is only actors hurling the (I suspect very toned down) insults at him, denying him access to a restaurant, etc., you get to watch his face as he no doubt had to relive what it had felt like to experience those in real life just a few years before. It is a deeply difficult and very moving experience for the viewer as well, different from what I felt watching an actor - and a very fine actor - go through the same episodes in "42". Robinson reacts to everything very quietly. He didn't have a deep, booming voice like James Earl Jones, for example. But if you look at his face, you see that there is real power there, fighting any man's urge to strike back. The best parts of this movie are not easy viewing, but they allow us to experience, to some extent, the injustices against which Robinson had to fight with him. Not 30 years after the fact, but just three or four years later. We see the same Robinson who had just gone through all that, a Robinson who would therefore have remembered how it made him feel only too clearly. This movie doesn't have much to do with baseball. It has a very great deal to do with courage and moral strength. And also: I preferred the performance of Minor Watson here, as Branch Rickey, to Harrison Ford's portrayal in "42". Ford made Rickey a comical curmudgeon. Watson makes him much more human. ----------------------- If you want to see a documentary on Robinson, try this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8xS8lZl2RI It shows that some of the most painful lines in this movie were actually said to or about Robinson.

Yes, Jackie Robinson portrayed himself in this 1950 B-movie "docudrama." Perhaps that was a mistake. Robinson was a great baseball player, a pioneer, and a true hero of the civil rights movement. What he was not was an actor. And while this is an important film because of Robinson's presence, it is not a good film. His historically important stint in the U.S. Army was glossed over. There was no mention of his court martial for refusing to sit at the back of the bus on an Army transport in Texas (he won--see movie "The Court Martial of Jackie Robinson"). There was nothing about the Kansas City Monarchs and his playing on the same team as legendary hurler/baseball showman Satchel Paige (see movie "Soul of the Game.") While there was an attempt made to show the racial injustices Robinson faced, first as a member of the Triple-A Montreal Royals of the International League, then with the Dodgers, this movie was more of a feel-good, 1950s, African-American Horatio Alger piece of public relations. For all the bite the screenplay had, it could have been written by the Dodgers P.R. office. It also made a running joke of brother Mack's "steady job." Mack Robinson was a janitor/street sweeper who could not find a better job despite a college diploma and a silver medal as a sprinter in the 1936 Olympics. The only reason he wasn't hired somewhere as a coach was racism. The movie tried unsuccessfully to make that point, but racism was not a popular subject in 1950 America, especially when the filmmaker's agenda was selling movie tickets, so the reason for Mack's lowly employment status was hinted at, not confronted. There are two redeeming qualities in the movie: Ruby Dee as Robinson's wife, Rachel, and the appearance of Robinson himself, actor or not. Dee, who was one of Hollywood's most beautiful women at that time, was an excellent physical match for the lovely and intelligent Rachel Robinson. Her acting performance transcended an otherwise bad film. Ironically, forty years later, she would play Robinson's mother in "The Court Martial of Jackie Robinson." As for Robinson himself, those who only know him from Black History month can see firsthand that he was an intelligent, articulate human being, despite being ill at ease on the movie set. What also comes through about Robinson is his broad shouldered physical prowess. He was not as tall as Andre Braugher, who played him in "Court Martial...," nor did he have Braugher's vocal presence. While handsome, he was not drop dead movie star gorgeous as Blair Underwood, who played him in "Soul of the Game." But he was a real athlete, who had been a four-letter man at UCLA (baseball, football, basketball and track), and who had also been the best black amateur golfer in California. The real Robinson, unlike the fine actors who played him later, comes across as the real athlete he was.

Jackie Robinson Story, The (1950) *** (out of 4) Surprisenly very entertaining bio of Jackie Robinson (who plays himself) and his struggle to become the first black baseball player in the majors. I was really caught off guard by Robinson who gives a very good, low key performance. Ruby Dee as his wife is also very good as are the supporting players. The film only runs 75-minutes, which means it's not as thick with information as I would have liked but the movie runs at a great speed and shows the importance of Robinson very well. Hopefully Spike Lee will get his Robinson story off the ground someday.