Thursday, May 2, 2013

42

I am a sucker for films about what's right.  I get totally absorbed in the story, cry, laugh, and cheer when the bad folks get put down in any way possible (including murder.) Yesterday's film found me and two other women sitting alone in the huge Westgate 11 Regal cinema to watch this powerful film about the journey Jackie Robinson took as the first black baseball player in the Major Leagues.  I'm not a baseball person but I am a lover of desegregation history.  Nothing gets me more passionate than watching our history unfold and Jim Crow rednecks losing. Only 50 years ago students were hosed down and set upon with dogs when they walked out of classes in the south protesting segregated schools.  So watching this amazing story about a great couple, Jackie and Rachel Robinson, looking hatred straight in the face and stepping around it is a great reminder of our painful past.  Harrison Ford as Branch Rickey the Brooklyn Dodgers owner sees a market for including black players on his team because there are so many black fans in Brooklyn.  But his character develops and when asked again by Jackie "why are you doing this Mr. Rickey?" a more honest answer develops.  Chadwick Boseman and Nicole Beharie had me believing they were the real thing.  I LOVED this film and so did the three women in the theater who represented  black, white, the north and south.  When the credits came on we all applauded!!! 

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