❮ Jackie Robinson
Season 1
Season Premiere:
Apr 11, 2016
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
83
User score
Mixed or Average
5.3
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Season Episodes
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
90% Positive
9 Reviews
9 Reviews
10% Mixed
1 Review
1 Review
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Apr 11, 2016
100
From the first frame, it's clear that Jackie Robinson is a genuine labor of love. The warmly crafted two-part, four-hour PBS documentary from filmmaker Ken Burns positively glows with its admiration for the man and his accomplishments. ... Another mighty home run for PBS.
Apr 7, 2016
90
With Keith David again serving as narrator, and Jamie Foxx providing Robinson’s voice reading correspondence and from his autobiography, Jackie Robinson exudes class--unhurried, stately, yet never dull. And while Burns’ formula hasn’t really changed over the past quarter-century, it can and should be savored even more compared with the tactics broadly employed in so much similar fare these days.
Apr 11, 2016
88
Like all of Burns' work, Jackie is beautifully done and blessedly free of the shoddy re-creations that slip into so many documentaries these days.
Apr 11, 2016
80
As in his 1994 "nine-inning" film "Baseball," the subject suits the director's deliberate, even poky pace, and the air of what might be called critical nostalgia that colors all his films. Jackie Robinson brings the old world to vivid life, but its messages are for today and any day.
Apr 7, 2016
80
Though there are moments where the film feels a bit too diffuse, what makes Robinson's life so remarkable is how many aspects of American life he touched.
Apr 8, 2016
75
The film has all the hallmarks of a Ken Burns production, including period music (arranged by Wynton Marsalis), a utilitarian narration (by Keith David this time) and a lot of vintage still photos and film footage, some of which aren’t specific to the story of Jackie Robinson but set the scene, perhaps so much so that at times the film feels padded.
Apr 1, 2016
60
Jackie Robinson could have used more fire in its storytelling, but like its subject, there's nobility in its restraint. [4-17 Apr 2016, p.21]
User score
Mixed or Average
50% Positive
8 Ratings
8 Ratings
6% Mixed
1 Rating
1 Rating
44% Negative
7 Ratings
7 Ratings
Apr 26, 2016
9
A very telling story about America's racial history, but more importantly an in depth look at a complicated hero. Just as we must never forget the Holocaust, or Slavery, or Jim Crow, we must never forget the dismal history of America's favorite sport. While Jesse Owens and Joe Louis could compete with and best Caucasians it was deemed improper for Blacks to do so in Sports' biggest venue. They could, and were expected to, fight for their country, and then sit in the back of the bus again. Most appallingly in order for Robinson to break the color barrier he had to accept the racial slurs hurled at him. In other words: appease the apes. Sadly the later younger generation Afro Americans viewed him as an Uncle Tom. Non violence was no longer a badge of honor but a badge of shame. Interviews with his still living widow draw up a fuller picture of a man whose legacy is all too ignored.
