"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.