MMMM Honorary # 42 -- Film: The jackie Robinson Story Take 2

 

      The Hitchhikers Guide to The Universe identified the "meaning of life" as the number 42.
       A movie by that numerical name opens on Friday, about baseball's Jackie Robinson, and the early reviews are varied.
     The N.Y. (paywall) Times writes Robinson was a much more complicated person than portrayed in the film.
     The White House held a 42-related gathering for school kids, with First Lady Michelle Obama. A White House blog offered this:

In fact, the First Lady told the students that they (sic) are a lot of lessons they can take away from this film (which, she noted, both she and President Obama found "very powerful" when they watched it over the weekend).

     We can presume the fact that Robinson was a Republican and supported Richard Nixon's campaign in 1960 was not a part of the seminar.

     NPR gives the movie a positive profile, and quotes Robinson actor Chadwick Boseman:

.....when we were filming in Macon [Ga.], theres (sic) a scene at a gas station. And when we got there, we saw there was a real 'Whites Only' and 'Colored' sign on this gas station. Like, they painted one for the movie, but there was already one there that was painted over. 

     Some of the movie was shot in Birmingham, Alabama...including scenes at the country's oldest ball field, Rickwood Field.
     Presumably there were no such old Whites/Colored signs in The Magic City.
    Almost a year ago I wrote a post about the movie, pointing out the producers were using the (not original) Tutweiler Hotel there to stand-in in for one in Philadelphia.
    I loved the movie Lincoln, but critics have complained it plays fast and loose with some of the facts. And they seem to be saying the same of 42, though that probably won't prevent moviegoers from enjoying the good story well told.
     42 may be burdened with the same kind of baggage as last year's Red Tails. We go to these movies believing "we've seen this movie". And the producers may have said the same.
     Of course I have not actually seen 42 yet, so watch this space.  (-:

[The Monday Morning (and sometimes Sunday Afternoon) Media Memo is a regular feature of TimLennox.com.]