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42 (film)

2013 film directed by Brian Helgeland

42 is a 2013 American biographical sports film written and directed by Brian Helgeland about the life of baseball player Jackie Robinson, who wore jersey number 42. 42 was released in North America on April 12, 2013.

In a game divided by color, he made us see greatness. (taglines)

Dialogue

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Wendell Smith: Baseball was proof positive that democracy was real. A baseball box score after all, is a democratic thing. It doesn't say how big you are, or what religion you follow it does not know how you voted, or the color of your skin, it simply states what kind of ballplayer you were on any particular day.
Jackie Robinson: You want a player who doesn't have the guts to fight back?
Branch Rickey: No. No. I want a player who's got the guts not to fight back. People aren't gonna like this. They're gonna do anything to get you to react. Echo a curse with a curse and, uh, they'll hear only yours. Follow a blow with a blow and they'll say, "The Negro lost his temper." That "The Negro does not belong." Your enemy will be out in force... and you cannot meet him on his own low ground. We win with hitting, running, fielding. Only that. We win if the world is convinced of two things: That you are a fine gentleman and a great baseball player. Like our Savior... you gotta have the guts... to turn the other cheek. Can you do it?
Jackie Robinson: You give me a uniform, you give me a number on my back, I'll give you the guts.

[Wendell speeds away from a crowd of threatening white men]

Jackie Robinson: What the hell, Wendell?
Wendell Smith: A man came by while you was asleep. He said more men were coming. It might have been those fellas. Mr. Rickey said to get you to Daytona Beach ASAP.
Jackie Robinson: Why didn't you say so?
Wendell Smith: Well, Mr. Rickey was afraid you wouldn't want to leave. You'd want to stay there and fight.

[Jackie starts laughing]

Wendell Smith: Man, what in the hell are you laughing at?
Jackie Robinson: I thought you woke me because, because I was cut from the team.
Mr. Brock: Well, the wife's inside cookin'. You know what she asked me? She asked me this mornin', "What do you serve when a hero comes to dinner?"
 
Um, Mr. Brock, I'm just a ball player.
Jackie Robinson: Um, Mr. Brock, I'm just a ball player.
Mr. Brock: Oh no no, you tell that to the little colored boys playin' baseball in Florida today. To them, you a hero.
Leo Durocher: [Making noise with metal platter] Wake up, now ladies! Wake up! [To the Dodgers players] It has come to my attention that some of you fellas don't wanna play with Robinson. That you've even got a petition you've drawn up and you're all going to sign. Well boys you know what you can do with your petition you can wipe your asses with it.
Dixie Walker: Oh come on, Leo...
Leo Durocher: [To Walker] Come on what?
Dixie Walker: Ballplayers gotta live together, shower together. It ain't fair to force him on us like this. Besides I got a hardware store back home-
Leo Durocher: [To Walker] Screw your hardware store, Dix. And if you don't like it, screw you. Mr. Rickey would be happy to make other arrangements for you. [To the players] Now, I don't care if he is yellow or black or has stripes like a zebra. If Robinson can help us win, and everything I have seen says he can, then he is gonna play ON THIS BALL CLUB. LIKE IT, LUMP IT, MAKE YOUR MINDS UP TO IT, BECAUSE HE'S COMING! [softly] And think about this when your heads hit the pillows tonight: He's only the first, boys. Only the first. There are more coming right behind him every day and they have got talent, and they wanna play. Oh yeah, they are gonna come scratching and diving. So, I would forget your petition and worry about the field because unless you fellas pay a little more attention to your work, THEY'RE GONNA RUN YOU RIGHT OUT OF THE BALLPARK!
Branch Rickey: It's another opening day, Harold. All future, no past.
Harold Parrott: It's a blank page, sir.
Burt Shotton: [On being recruited by Rickey as the Dodgers' manager] When I took the Cleveland uniform off two years ago I promised the missus I'd never put on another uniform again. So the roses are beautiful and, uh, I sleep better too.
Branch Rickey: Roses and sleep are two wonderful things, Burt. But sleep you can get when you're in your casket, and flowers look great on top of it. But, uh, you don't look like a dead man to me, Burt.
Herb Pennock: [On the phone with Rickey] Branch, how long have we known each other?
Branch Rickey: Oh, 20 years, maybe more?
Herb Pennock: That's right, been over some solid road together. So, you can trust me when I tell you Brooklyn's due here tomorrow, but you cannot bring that nigger down here with the rest of your team.
Branch Rickey: Why's that, Herb? His name's Jackie Robinson, by the way.
Herb Pennock: Yeah, Branch, I understand he's got a name, but we're just not ready for that sort of thing here in Philadelphia. Now, I'm afraid that we're not going to be able to take the field against your team if that boy's in uniform.
Branch Rickey: Well, what you do with your team is your decision, Herb. But, my team's gonna be in Philadelphia tomorrow with Robinson, and if we have to claim the game as a forfeit, so be it. That's 9-0, in case you've forgotten.
Herb Pennock: You know what, Branch, you've had a hell of a hair across your ass over this for a long time, and I'd like to know what it is you're trying to prove.
Branch Rickey: You think God likes baseball, Herb?
Herb Pennock: What...what the hell is that supposed to mean?
Branch Rickey: It means someday you're gonna meet God, and when He inquires as why you didn't take the field against Robinson in Philadelphia, and you answer that it was because he was a Negro, IT MAY NOT BE A SUFFICIENT REPLY!
Ben Chapman: [To Robinson] Why don'tcha look in'a mirror? This'a white man's game, alright, get that THROUGH YOUR THICK MONKEY SKULL!

[Robinson eyes Chapman, Rickey and Harold Parott see Robinson, Chapman glares at Robinson]

Rachel Robinson: [From the stands, whispering] Look at me baby. Look at me baby look at me.

[Robinson enters the dugout tunnel, striking and breaking a bat against the wall. He breaks down into tears]

Robinson: [Sees Rickey approaching, points his bat to Rickey] No! [Panting] No. Next white son of a bitch that opens his mouth I'll smash his goddamn teeth in.
Branch Rickey: You can't do that Jack.
Jackie Robinson: So I'm supposed to just let this go on?
Branch Rickey: These men have to live with themselves.
 
I have to live with myself, too! And right now I'm living a sermon out there.
Jackie Robinson: I have to live with myself, too! And right now I'm living a sermon out there.
Branch Rickey: You don't matter now Jack. You're in this thing. You don't have a right to pull out from the backing of people that believe in you, that respect you, that need you. If you fight, they won't say that Chapman forced you to, they'll say that you're... in over your head, that you don't belong here.
Jackie Robinson: You don't know what it's like having somebody do this to you.
Branch Rickey: No. No. You do. You're the one living the sermon. In the wilderness. Forty days. All of it. Only you.
Jackie Robinson: Not a goddam thing I can do about it...
Branch Rickey: Of course there is, you can get on there... and hit... you can get on base and- and score, you can win this game for us. Everybody needs you, you're a medicine, Jack. [Rickey comforts Robinson]
Jackie Robinson: I'm takin the field.
Branch Rickey: You playin first?
Jackie Robinson: I'm gonna need a new bat.

[Robinson enters the playing field, the crowd in Cincinnati boos him, fellow teammate Pee Wee Reese approaches him]

Pee Wee Reese: They can say all they want. We're just here to play ball.
Jackie Robinson: It's just a bunch of crackpots still fighting the Civil War.
Pee Wee Reese: Well hell, we'd have won that son of a gun if the cornstalks would have held out. We just ran out of ammunition.
Jackie Robinson: Better luck next time, Pee Wee.
Pee Wee Reese: [Wraps his arm around Robinson, provoking though later silencing the crowd] Ain't gonna be a next time, Jackie. [Looks toward the crowd] All we got's right here. Right now. You know what I mean? Thank you, Jackie.
Jackie Robinson: What are you thanking me for?
Pee Wee Reese: [Signals toward the stands] I got family up there from Louisville. I need them to know. I need them to know who I am.
Umpire: [Distantly] Hey, number 1! You playing ball or socializing?
 
Maybe tomorrow we'll all wear 42. That way they don't tell us apart.
Pee Wee Reese: [scoffs, smiles] Playing ball, ump! [To Robinson] Playing ball. Maybe tomorrow we'll all wear 42. That way they don't tell us apart.
 
There was something unfair at the heart of the game I loved and I ignored it. But a time came when I could no longer do that. You...you let me love baseball again.
Jackie Robinson: Why'd you do this Mr. Rickey?
Branch Rickey: We had a victory over fascism in Germany. It's time we had a victory over racism here.
Jackie Robinson: No. Why? Why'd YOU do it? Come on.
Branch Rickey: I love this game. I love baseball. Given my whole life to it. 40 odd years ago I was a player-coach at Ohio-Wesleyan University. We had a Negro catcher. Best hitter on the team. Charlie Thomas. Fine young man. I saw him laid low, broken because of the color of his skin and I didn't do enough to help. Told myself I did but I didn't. There was something unfair at the heart of the game I loved and I ignored it. But a time came when I could no longer do that. You...you let me love baseball again.

[last lines]

Wendell Smith: [Typing his news story] Robinson rounds third, headed for home sweet home.

Tagline

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  • In a game divided by color, he made us see greatness.

Cast

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