42 (2013)

           This isn't a great movie, but it tells an incredible and important story. In 1945, Branch Rickey of the Brooklyn Dodgers major league baseball team decided to do the unthinkable and sign a "colored" player to his team. He seems to have had mixed motives. He thought he could sell more tickets. He regretted that in the past he had not done more. And, at least in this film version, he keeps mentioning his Methodist social activist convictions. He had identified his perfect candidate, Jackie Robinson, the first athlete ever to letter in four sports at UCLA, and a commissioned officer in the army. The movie covers Robinson's famous first season in 1947, when he not only broke the color barrier in baseball, but also won Rookie of the Year and led the Dodgers to the pennant. He wore #42, the only number ever retired across all of baseball.