"42"

Being a big baseball fan, I'm a sucker for baseball movies.  So I couldn't wait to see this movie, celebrating the years when Jackie Robinson integrated Triple-A and later Major League Baseball.  And being a fan of the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers, I particularly am proud of my club, and their role in making it happen and changing history. 

Starring Harrison Ford as Dodgers General Manager Branch Rickey, and newcomer Chadwick Boseman as Jackie Robinson, the movie tells the story of Rickey's motives (both moral and financial) in signing an African-American with the organization, and what he and Jackie and the rest of the team went through during those years. Starting with his season in Triple-A with the Montreal Royals, and on into his rookie season with the parent club we see Jackie submitted to various episodes of bigotry and discrimination, and how, as part of his agreement with Rickey to not fight back, he rises above them.  Harrison Ford is incredible as Branch Rickey, and I hope he gets an Oscar nomination out of it.  And Chadwick Boseman is terrific - earnest, fiery, and dignified.  It's an outstanding movie, and I loved it. I would even consider it required viewing. 

Word to the wise: While I would call this a family film, there are several scenes of racial prejudice, and one particularly hate-filled scene where Phillies Manager Ben Chapman, played by Allan Tudyk (one of my favorite actors), goes on an epithet-laced rant that is extremely difficult to listen to, and may be offensive to young, and even grown-up, ears.

So Proudly We Hail

I love movies from the World War II era.  Truth be told, I love movies from just about any era.  But I have a particular fondness for movies made during and shortly after the War.  For one thing, many of them revolve around the experiences of women during the war.  And for another, they're sentimental and tug at your heart strings. Sure, it's all propaganda, but it's also highly effective.  And in today's day and age, with living in our own era of war and uncertainty, it's also highly relatable.

Case in point - "So Proudly We Hail", from 1943.  Here we have the story of a unit of army nurses, sent to the Philippines shortly after Pearl Harbor.  Starring Claudette Colbert, Paulette Goddard and Veronica Lake, it shows the hazards the nurses face as they try to assist in treating the wounded, and boosting morale, all in a heroic, but ultimately doomed effort (as is well-known historically, the Philippines fell to the enemy, and many soldiers and nurses were either killed, or left to languish in horrific prison camps until the war ended in 1945).

For it's time, this picture was pretty realistic - it shows the frequent enemy bombing campaigns, the battle injuries, the lack of food and hygiene, and the emotional and psychological toll of war.  Apparently it was so realistic that at least one of the actresses involved needed to go through trauma counseling after completing the film.  Some scenes are difficult to watch, even today.

The film was a major success- receiving several Oscar nominations, and a big chunk of the box office. And it's a definite weeper.  It's a perfect example of why I love pictures from the War era. Four hankies out of four.