Soul of the Game

Kevin Rodney Sullivan uses this masterpiece of a cable movie to build his resume for his entre into feature film directing ("How Stella Got Her Groove Back"). HBO Pictures' faith in the young actor/director, who to date has very few credits as either, is justified.

The year is 1945. Everyone knows that soon, the Major Leagues will be integrated. Most think the player who breaks the "color line" will be an established Negro Leagues star, such as legendary hurler Leroy "Satchel" Paige of the Kansas City Monarchs or Homestead Grays' catcher Josh Gibson, who was called "the black Babe Ruth." But Dodgers General Manager Branch Rickey confounds the experts and chooses the confrontational but cerebral Jackie Robinson first.

Delroy Lindo, an unheralded but talented character actor ("Broken Arrow," "Get Shorty," "Malcolm X," "Crooklyn") shows true leading man potential as Satchel Paige in this engaging story about the struggle for Negro League stars to make it to the "big leagues" in the mid 1940s. Mykelti Williamson ("Forrest Gump," "The New WKRP in Cincinnati," "Midnight Caller") is excellent as Josh Gibson. Blair Underwood ("L.A. Law"), a fine actor, seems physically miscast as Jackie Robinson, but turns in a credible performance as the future Brooklyn Dodger second baseman and Hall of Famer. Edward Herrmann ("Richie Rich" and Dodge automobile pitchman) is properly pontifical as Rickey, and an excellent facial match, although he is much taller and more nattily attired than "The Mahatma" was in real life. Venerable character actor R. Lee Ermey ("Full Metal Jacket") steals a couple of scenes in his role as J. L. "Wilkie" Wilkinson, the visionary Kansas City Monarchs owner who, among other innovations, invented night baseball.

The story is mostly entertainment, a docudrama. It is a sumptuously photographed period piece with clothes, cars, ballparks, and hotel lobbies perfectly festooned in the style of the day. As a character study, it is flawed. Paige, while portrayed as the consummate showman he was, is also shown as a devoted husband whose wife Lahoma (Salli Richardson) travels everywhere with him. The real life Paige was a notorious womanizer. And although there are many scenes with Gibson and Robinson together, including a near-fight that probably never happened, in reality, there is no evidence to suggest that Gibson and Robinson ever met each other. The screenplay also glosses over Gibson's well-documented alcoholism and heroin addiction, suggesting that the brain tumor which eventually killed him at the tender age of 36 was the sole cause of the bizarre behavior that kept him from being the first African-American selected to play in the majors.

The movie also has fictional scenes at the beginning and end where a newspaper reporter talks to Willie Mays during the 1954 World Series before the young Giants outfielder goes out and makes "the catch" of Vic Wertz's blast in Cleveland's Municipal Stadium. It is also convenient how many times the juvenile Mays seems to pop up in opportune moments as a spectator or autograph seeker during the film. One such scene was used to make the point that his father, Cat Mays, had been a standout in the Negro Leagues long before baseball integration was a remote possibility, and also to get Robinson--and the audience--to question how old Paige really was at that point.

On the other hand, the film does a creditable job of showing how tough times were for Negro League ballplayers and how eager most were to be accepted into so-called "organized baseball," despite the Jim Crow laws and attitudes of the day. There is a shocking and touching scene where a clueless young fruit vendor repays the kindness of Mr. and Mrs. Paige by calling them the ugliest racial epithet used against African-Americans.

As entertainment, "Soul of the Game" deserves an "A." As a historical document, it is about a "C." That's "C" as in "see it."

The soul of the game is a movie that follows around 3 prominent negro league baseball players with Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson and Jackie Robinson. Branch Rickey is looking to integrate the Dodgers but is looking for just the right guy to do it, he chooses Robinson who at the time didn't have as much notoriety as the other two. But he didn't have as much baggage as Gibson and a lot younger then Paige and Rickey felt that Robinson had the background to handle all of the heckling far better then either of the other two.

Excellent performances by everyone involved and the movie tells a good story about how the game of baseball and conversely all sports and if you think about it the whole world was changed in the process. If you it wasn't for the success of the movie you wouldn't have had Jim Brown in the NFL or Bill Russell in the NBA.

Very good Baseball movie that wasnt advertised much at all. If Any. I just happened to come across it on HBO and was caught. Everyone knows Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball, but not many know the events that led up to it. This movie actually brought a tear to my eye for Josh Gibson and Sachel Paige, I really felt sorry for those two. Also it was a very nice touch how Willie Mays was wrote into the movie as a whole, if you see it you will understand. Again this is a very good baseball history movie. If you are a fan of the National Pastime, then watch this film.

As a short text at the end of this movie explains, this is not a documentary but rather a movie based on historical events that takes certain liberties with them.

That probably should have appeared at the beginning, rather than being buried in the long credits at that end.

Be that as it may, this is really a very good movie with some first-rate performances.

The outstanding performance, to me, was Delroy Lindo as Satchel Paige. Lindo makes him a very 3-dimensional character. I found the scene between Paige and Rickey, where Paige so desperately wants Rickey to ask him to play for the Dodgers but will not beg for it, deeply moving. Lindo knows how to act with his face as well as his voice, as only the best actors do.

Mykelti Williamson was good as Josh Gibson, a tragic figure.

I don'.t think it's Blair Underwood's fault that he was not convincing as Jackie Robinson. To begin with, he was a strange choice, since he does not at all have Robinson's very impressive/intimidating physique. Part of the problem was that Robinson was given some weak lines, and made to come off as totally detached from the world of the rest of the players, to the point that he gets into a lockerroom fight over that with one of the other players for the Monarchs. I've read enough books on Robinson to know that, while he was well educated and a fine speaker, he did not try to distance himself from the less educated. I don't understand why that was included in the script.

I also thought that this movie's version of the first meeting between Rickie and Robinson paled next to its equivalent in both *The Jackie Robinson Story* and *42*.

Especially in the earlier part of the movie, there were moments when it seemed as if the script writers had simply copied passages from books into the dialogue. That seemed rather stilted.

All that said, however, I think this is a fine movie, and one that will interest not just those with an interest in baseball history, but more generally those who enjoy a good film with at least some well-developed and portrayed characters.

...Yet no one seems to really know about it, which actually fits with the subjects of the film. Most mainstream Jackie Robinson movies are about the effect his life and career had on the world (aka the white community), but this one zeros in on the black community, specifically the Negro League athletes who set a path racial integration and had to watch someone else get the glory. A strong story well-told, with a wonderful lack of sensationalism and tons of heart.