The main virtue of the movie is that Jackie Robinson plays himself. Yes, the movie “whitewashes” Robinson’s difficult encounters with racists in his military career and elsewhere and portrays him as innately passive--which thereby diminishes the amount of self-control it took Robinson to follow Jesus’ injunction to “turn the other cheek.” But, all in all, considering the film was done in the early stages of Robinson's MLB career and before desegregation in many areas of American life, it is a credible portrayal. “Jackie Robinson was a credit to his race--the human race.”

If you can abide the hollywoodization of the script, this is a great film and not just for the historical importance of the man and the events, but because Jackie Robinson starred as himself. You can only learn so much from the sports reels and the history books. To see the actual person interacting with others, to see his body language and the expression in his eyes - this really brings things into a very human perspective. I am very glad that this film survives. I was disappointed, however, to see the deterioration of this particular print of the film. It suffers from blow-outs and gamma issues and, with all the hairs and artifacts, it was obviously produced by using a video camera to capture a film from a filthy and poorly maintained projector, and not with a digital video camera but one using analog tape. The last time I saw this movie was about ten years ago and it was in much, much better condition. I hope that a healthy copy can be found and properly digitized.