Personally, I'm not much of a baseball fan and know very little about the sport, but the summer premiere 42, directed by Brian Helgeland and starring Chadwick Boseman as Jackie Robinson, is about much more than running the bases. The film's emotional journey builds up to the penultimate game of the season, where Robinson stands at bat, focused and determined. The pitch comes fast and he nails it-the ball flying as he casually jogs the bases in victory.

The movie tells a gripping story about love, sacrifice and bravery in post-World War II America. Based on the story of Jackie Robinson's life, the movie explores his 1946 initiation into the Montreal Royals and subsequent move to the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. Robinson is confronted with bitter racism, but also showered with support by both black and white fans as he pioneers the desegregation of baseball in the United States.

The film begins in 1946 when Branch Rickey, the Dodger Baseball Club president, decides that the best chance the Dodgers have of winning the year's World Series is to recruit an African-American player. In doing so, Rickey mindfully breaks the unspoken rule of segregating baseball teams, and Jackie Robinson joins the team.
The film eloquently gives the audience a glimpse into Robinson's spirit from the moment he is introduced: Robinson and his all-black baseball team, the Kansas City Monarchs, are filling up their vehicle's gasoline tank on their way to a game in Chicago.

When Robinson heads to the restroom, the owner of the gas station stops him. Apparently the restroom is for whites only. Robinson casually replies that his team will take their business elsewhere. The owner finally relents and reluctantly points him toward the restroom. Robinson is innately outspoken and not afraid to stand up for what is right, both traits that help him along his journey to the major leagues as a racial minority.

Immediately after this scene, Helgeland integrates a historically well-known episode into the script-a conversation between Robinson and Rickey. Rickey warns his new recruit of the criticism and hatred that he will be forced to deal with as the first African-American to play on a traditionally white team, and implores him not to fight back. Robinson defensively asks: "You are looking for a Negro who is afraid to fight back?" to which Ricky replies that he is looking for a player with the "guts not to fight back."

Fighting back in 1946, roughly a decade before the civil rights movement even began, could mean not only the end of Robinson's career, but possibly even the end of his life. This scene allows the audience to realize the severity of the danger in which Robinson experiences.

Throughout the film, Robinson struggles to resist the urge to fight back in the face of hatred, resentment and prejudice. In every game crowds boo Robinson as he comes to plate. In a Dodgers game against Pittsburgh, even the Pittsburgh coach taunts Robinson from the dugout, as Robinson is about to hit. The coach's slew of racial slurs was, for me as an audience member, extremely uncomfortable to listen to.

As history shows, however, by the end of the film, even the players most opposed to playing alongside Robinson come around, putting their teams before their prejudices.

One of the most touching moments in the film is during a game against the Cincinnati Reds when Pee-Wee Herman, a player who, just days before, was worried about criticism from his family and friends at home for playing with a black man, stands on the field and puts his arm around Robinson, looking the crowd-and his family-right in the eyes.
Jackie Robinson is a heroic legend in this day and age, known for breaking a precedent by initiating the desegregation of baseball-long before the civil rights movement even started.

The film, however, considers more than his historic legacy, and attempts to make Robinson a more relatable character; the glorification of Robinson's career was not the focus of the film. Instead, Boseman's portrayal of Robinson expresses the very human emotions of fear, anger and resentment, making both his character more relatable and the film all the more moving.

For someone who is not interested in baseball whatsoever, this film was unexpectedly enthralling. 42 tells a story not just about a man's journey through the minor and major leagues of American baseball in the 1940s, but of drastic societal change and the strength of one man to pioneer that change.