This does its best for the time it was made in, and while it wasn't a top Hollywood studio, it was given a lot of attention. Baseball players are the heroes of young boys, and like my growing up era as a young baseball fan, I didn't see color. I saw balls, bats, bases and bunts. Home runs, strike outs, double plays, pitchers hitting grand slams and winning the game. The years have gone by, but the memory has remained, as well as the names, like Robinson, long retired. Some white, some black, but like my father, a fan during Robinson's era, said, they are all our heroes.
Perhaps too nice and missing much of the racial tension concerning his being named as the first black pro ball player, it lightly deals with serious issues and eliminates much of the controversy. The recent movie about Robinson's life was freer to show all the issues and present all the people involved as real human brings.
Robinson as himself is obviously going to be a fantasy view of what he really went through, and a young Ruby Dee is sincere but not really given much of a challenge considering her own considerable talents. Gentle Louise Beavers adds her own grace to the role of Jackie's mother, while Minor Watson is commanding as the white mentor who looks after him.
The white characters are painted without grays, either too accepting or totally racist, but it is obvious to me that the writers feared offending baseball fans and professionals who went to see the movie. This is a movie that I wanted to praise because of my own high hopes that it would be fearless in revealing the ugly truths of racism that has greatly changed, if not all disappeared.
Perhaps too nice and missing much of the racial tension concerning his being named as the first black pro ball player, it lightly deals with serious issues and eliminates much of the controversy. The recent movie about Robinson's life was freer to show all the issues and present all the people involved as real human brings.
Robinson as himself is obviously going to be a fantasy view of what he really went through, and a young Ruby Dee is sincere but not really given much of a challenge considering her own considerable talents. Gentle Louise Beavers adds her own grace to the role of Jackie's mother, while Minor Watson is commanding as the white mentor who looks after him.
The white characters are painted without grays, either too accepting or totally racist, but it is obvious to me that the writers feared offending baseball fans and professionals who went to see the movie. This is a movie that I wanted to praise because of my own high hopes that it would be fearless in revealing the ugly truths of racism that has greatly changed, if not all disappeared.