A new film on the sports career of major league baseball color-barrier- breaker Jackie Robinson is a must-see! The film is simply called “42,” for Robinson’s Brooklyn Dodgers’ number. Forty-two is the only number in baseball that has been retired by all teams. In 2004, Major League Baseball instituted Jackie Robinson Day where all players in the league wear number 42. This film should be seen on the big screen. It is a lush, grand period piece with an Aaron Copland-style Americana soundtrack. But this is not a trite, simplistic “let’s project 2013 on 1948” film with feel-good, righteous messages about equality. The concepts and dialogue are fresh and original. It’s the story of a reluctant hero (Robinson is played by look-alike Chadwick Boseman) who just wanted to play baseball, and a major league baseball executive who just wanted to win (Branch Rickey is played by Harrison Ford). The well-cast ensemble of characters is interesting, and the whole story is consistent and cohesive. A gracefully aged Harrison Ford carries a big part of the drama as the risk-taking Rickey who hires Robinson. The dialogue is rich and ordinary, surprising and funny, utterly quotable while avoiding clichés. The dialogue feels like, well, literature. Nothing drags in “42.” Just when things seem most peaceful, discord erupts. Just when things are most heated, they are resolved, or simmer down. There are so many organic moments of tension, and the myriad forms of prejudice, bigotry and downright cruelty show exactly what Robinson was up against from the get-go. And yet, the overriding tone of the film is one of joy and success peeking and peering through the lives of determined people who stuck their necks out and went against the grain. As Rickey muses: Laws can be broken and people may even think you’re clever if you get away with it, but break a code, an unwritten law and you’ll never be forgiven. We need to keep reminding ourselves that the civil rights movement of the 1960s was still a long way off when Robinson entered baseball. Ingrained racist customs (especially, but not exclusively, in the South), segregation and other discriminatory laws were firmly in place and enforced. One of the film’s many sources of humor is the fact that Rickey is a devout Methodist (like Robinson) and has no problem beating people up with religion. Everything about this deeply entertaining film feels like it’s coming from a truly noble and good place.