While having absolutely nothing to do with the original Prom Night, Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II is a weird - very weird - yet ultimately entertaining spook-fest, as mousey high school student Vicki Carpenter (Wendy Lyon) finds herself haunted - and ultimately possessed - by the spirit of former scorned prom queen Mary Lou Maloney (Lisa Schrage), who has been released from her prison in the school's basement and now seeks not only to reclaim her prom queen crown, but leave a trail of bodies in her wake. In fairness to Hello Mary Lou, it was never originally intended
Smith, a journalist with the African American-owned Pittsburgh Courier who was not allowed to enter the press box, remain undeterred from chronicling Jackie Robinson's career. In 42, Smith gets his due.
Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball/42 Movie Review
"We've got no army. There's virtually nobody on our side. No owners, no umpires, very few newspapermen. And I'm afraid that many fans will be hostile. We'll be in a tough position. We can win only if we can convince the world that I'm doing this because you're a great ballplayer, a fine gentleman."--Branch Rickey
When I saw the first previews for the movie 42, with the Jay-Z beat in the background, I cringed:
Aww, man, they're not going to hip-hop the Jackie Robinson story, are they? You don't have to do that for every black movie, especially one concerning the legendary Jackie Robinson. Jackie Robinson needs no rap marketing, no hype man, Jackie Robinson speaks for himself
Fortunately, the rap was only pre-game hype. Jackie Robinson comes through again and 42, the story of Jackie Robinson becoming the first black player in the modern Major Leagues (Moses Fleetwood Walker was the first black player to play professional baseball before the baseball "color line" was drawn in 1887) is a good movie with some great moments.
I should say that this is the story of Jackie Robinson (Chadwick Boseman) breaking the color barrier and Branch Rickey (Harrison Ford) the man who made it possible. Rickey doesn't decide to break the color barrier, there would be no Jackie Robinson story.
In Rickey's office is where the movie begins, with Mr. Rickey telling a couple of members of his staff that he wants to sign a Negro ballplayer to play for his Brooklyn Dodgers. After a brief "all due respect, sir, have you lost your mind" discussion, the search for the right player to "crossover" is on. Roy Campanella? Too Nice. Satchel Paige? Too old. Jackie Robinson? He's argumentative, he was court-martial-ed but he was a Army officer, graduated from UCLA, didn't run the streets, act a fool, had a steady girlfriend, etc. (Robinson fit the profile of a "ideal Negro" much in the same way that Rosa Parks did when she was selected to get arrested to start the Montgomery Bus Boycott almost 10 years after Jackie Robinson first played for the Dodgers.)
42 (based on true events as is stated before the first credits) about 80% facts/20% Hollywood covers the years in Robinson's life from 1945-47, when he was a Negro Leagues ballplayer with the Kansas City Monarchs, to being signed by Rickey to play with the Dodgers minor league team in Montreal,
getting married to Rachel Isum (Nicole Beharie) through his first season with the Dodgers, much of that time he spent with sports writer Wendell Smith (Andre Holland) who was also instrumental in Robinson becoming an Major Leaguer.
Don't expect any deep introspective into the life of Jackie Robinson, 42 doesn't do it, I doubt that 5 movies about Jackie Robinson could even scratch the surface of one of the most complex lives of the 20th Century. We are only treated to subtle snippets, like the National Anthem scene, where you see everyone singing it...except Robinson. You don't think much of it, unless you know of a Robinson quote:
"But as I write these words now I cannot stand and sing the National Anthem. I have learned that I remain a black in a white world."
More snippets of what 1947 at the old ballpark must have been like abound in 42, being a black kid watching Robinson with some asshole sitting a few seats down, screaming racial slurs, some good ol' boy showing up at the home where Robinson had to stay, because he couldn't stay at the hotels where his teammates were staying due to segregation, "warning" that some of his redneck buddies would be back to see if Robinson was still there and if he was...
It's when there is depth added to these racial moments, you get a feel for how fucked up Black Life was back then. From native Californian Rachel Robinson's introduction to Jim Crow, in the form of a "Whites Only" ladies restroom and the repercussions of ignoring them (getting bumped from a flight to Florida and having to take a bus) and, in the most powerful scene in the movie (for me anyway)
encountering the super racism of Philadelphia Phillies manager Ben Chapman (Alan Tudek) For a PG-13 movie, the amount of racial and sexual racial slurs that occurred in that scene was horrifying amazing. I wanted to whoop dude's ass. I was ready to throw blows over a few minutes in a movie, I can't begin to imagine what Jackie Robinson went through practically his entire major league career (and you can't tell me that all that racism wasn't killing him on the inside and that it was a factor in him dying at the early age of 53 in 1972.)
Any fears that 42 was going to put the Disney G-rated watered down racism spin, like the crap that occurred in Remember The Titans where you had a southern high school integration reduced to some white guys being jerks were put to bed by the Chapman scenes that ended in the infamous "truce" photo op later on that season (in the real life picture below, even after having to agree to the "truce" Chapman refused to shake Robinson's hand, so they held a baseball bat)
Also, there was none of the Black People Being Saved From Racism By White People ala Mississippi Burning or The Help
The moments between Rickey and Robinson are filled with questions and commentary that, just like the rest of this movie, only scratch at the depth and complexity of just how important both men were and how their lives changed forever due to their partnership and, eventually, their friendship/bond
"I realized how much our relationship had deepened after I left baseball. It was that later relationship that made me feel almost as if I had lost my own father. Branch Rickey, especially after I was no longer in the sports spotlight, treated me like a son." - Jackie Robinson
Going back to the PG-13 aspect of 42, writer/director Brian Helgeland's movie has the mainstream Hollywood gloss all over it but because of the rating, there was no way to avoid the kid gloves feel that permeates the film. Also apparent is the Hollywood spin factor; for example, Ed Charles, the young boy who had an brief but life altering encounter with Robinson, did see him play in Charles hometown of Daytona Beach, Florida, but didn't meet Robinson until he was 39 years old and also mentions that had something happened to Robinson while he was in Florida that first year, there would have been a race riot, something that would have been interesting to see, black folks just daring somebody to do something, waiting for some shit to jump off. That brings me to wonder how different this movie would have been had lifelong Dodgers and Robinson fan, Spike Lee
been able to make his version of the Jackie Robinson story. Okay, I wouldn't have to wonder how different it would have been, IT WOULD HAVE BEEN A TOTALLY DIFFERENT MOVIE, no PG-13 allowed up in a Spike Lee Joint.
In closing, 42 is a good film, that didn't insult your intelligence and didn't totally sugar coat the majority of the facts, with a good cast, led by Harrison Ford, who delivers as Branch Rickey and Chadwick Boseman in the demanding role as Robinson.
However, through no fault of its own, 42 is a movie that couldn't begin to touch on the deep, rich, complex Jackie Robinson Story or the historical aspect/ramifications of what Branch Rickey said, "Jackie Robinson, a black man in white baseball",
and now for a song that was acutally in the movie and made sense in it
