The Jackie Robinson Story

1950
PG
1h 17m

IMDb RATING

6.4/10

1.5K

YOUR RATING

Biography of Jackie Robinson, the first black major league baseball player in the 20th century. Traces his career in the negro leagues and the major leagues. Restored in original Black and White.

Play trailer2:02

1 Video

26 Photos

Biography Drama Sport

Biography of Jackie Robinson, the first black major league baseball player in the 20th century. Traces his career in the negro leagues and the major leagues. Restored in original Black and W... Read allBiography of Jackie Robinson, the first black major league baseball player in the 20th century. Traces his career in the negro leagues and the major leagues. Restored in original Black and White.Biography of Jackie Robinson, the first black major league baseball player in the 20th century. Traces his career in the negro leagues and the major leagues. Restored in original Black and White.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.4/10

1.5K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 1 win total

Videos1

Trailer 2:02

Trailer

Photos26

+ 18

‘Snow White’ Stars Test Their Wits

Rachel Zegler, Gal Gadot, and director Marc Webb take our Ultimate Disney Quiz.

Watch now

9:57

More like this

7.1

The Stratton Story

6.7

Till the End of Time

5.9

The Greatest

6.9

The Court-Martial of Jackie Robinson

6.8

Homecoming

6.6

Cry Wolf

7.6

The Pride of the Yankees

7.5

5.4

The Jackie Robinson Story

6.6

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

6.9

Three Strangers

7.0

Come Live with Me

Storyline

Edit

Did you know

Edit

Trivia
When Jackie Robinson gets a draft notice in the mail, he doesn't explicitly say what it is. He only says it begins with the word "Greetings". In 1950 audiences would have remembered that World War II draft notices began that way. It was a popular source of dark humor at the time.

Goofs
Late-1940s cars can -be seen in the 1928 scenes.

Quotes
Branch Rickey: A box score - you know a box score is really democratic, Jackie. It doesn't say how big you are or how your father voted in the last election or what church you attend. It just tells you what kind of a ballplayer you were that day.
Jackie Robinson: Well, isn't that what counts?
Branch Rickey: It's all that ought to count, and maybe someday it's all that will count.

Alternate versions
Also available in a computer-colorized version.

Connections
Featured in Cavalcade of Stars: Jackie Robinson, Kyle MacDonnell, Johnny Johnston, Gali-Gali (1950)

User reviews34

Featured review

8/10

Biopic Deserves More Attention

THE JACKIE ROBINSON STORY is a slightly formulaic, but nonetheless solid, biopic that really deserves more attention that it receives. Robinson stars as himself, the first African American to break through pro baseball's color barrier. It's by no means an easy task as he confronts a society that is far from united in wanting to see this groundbreaking endeavor succeed.

The film is to be credited for not shying away from the racial tension of the time. Robinson endures racial slurs, unyielding boos, the indignity of sitting at the back of the bus, and so on. It's both shocking and infuriating to be reminded of how bigoted and unreasonable society was just a few decades ago. In many ways Robinson's is a heartbreaking story, even though we know it has a happy ending.

Robinson won't be mistaken for an Academy Award winner, but his performance is decent. He proves to be a highly likable screen presence, portraying the sort of gentleman that by many accounts he was in real life. Some of his supporting cast is stiff, but by and large the performances work.

Surely this important story will again one day be given the big screen treatment. And whoever gets behind the camera for that effort will have a solid foundation to which to refer in THE JACKIE ROBINSON STORY.