Jackie Robinson is the legend in Ken Burns’ two-night PBS documentary, but Rachel Robinson is the star.
With Burns returning to direct this four-hour doc, along with daughter Sarah Burns and David McMahon, certain pieces of the core story remain intact. You’ll still hear tales of four-sport UCLA star Robinson, pragmatic crusader and savvy businessman Branch Rickey and the myriad bigots and racists who tormented the athlete when he first arrived in the majors in 1947. In some cases, the tales are literally identical, because so many of the figures Burns spoke with for Baseball are no longer with us.
Limited repetition aside, though, Jackie Robinson has no trouble establishing its individual autonomy and proving that Robinson’s story is easily worthy of four hours and goes far behind just his contributions on the baseball diamond. Jackie Robinson is another nourishing and satisfying addition to the constantly growing Burns-PBS library, and the more fool anybody who had doubts.
If the first night is largely about reaffirming the Jackie Robinson myth, you sense the direction the documentary is taking when it tackles the famous image of Pee-Wee Reese with his arm around Robinson, a moment that existed, but probably not as it has been memorialized. The second night, then, is about the shift in Robinson’s persona, the clash between the icon and the man. It’s the story that hasn’t been repeated as endlessly: what happened to Robinson after Rickey gave him permission to be himself and he started talking and fighting back; what happened to Robinson after he retired and became an outspoken and controversial figure in the Civil Rights Movement; what happened to his family.
It’s perhaps that last side that makes Jackie Robinson such a beautiful record, because while Robinson isn’t around to tell his story anymore — Jamie Foxx reads from Robinson’s writings — his wife Rachel is a remarkable 93 and her memories are both the spine of the new documentary and its heart. Rachel, who was featured in a slightly less central role in Baseball, is the most gifted of storytellers. It’s one thing to recount famous moments, but her stories have an entrancing ebb-and-flow and flawless punctuation. I rewatched Rachel chronicling the challenging trip to that first spring training, a journey that doubled as their honeymoon, several times, laughing and finding emotion in the same beats.
“I think that’s a sign of his character that he chose a woman that was his equal. I don’t think you would have had Jackie Robinson without Rachel,” first lady Michelle Obama says, as her husband sits smiling and nodding by her side. It’s the sort of contention that sounds like a platitude, but Rachel and Jackie Robinson make it seem believable. There’s almost a temptation to wish this were a two-hour documentary titled Rachel Robinson or perhaps Rachel & Jackie Robinson, since this is a love story and a story of partnership at its best.
The second episode in particular also features strong contributions from Robinson’s children David and Sharon, as we get a better and better feeling for iconic figure as a person. Those insights make it possible to process discordant tidbits like Robinson’s support for Richard Nixon and Republican politicians, his public clashes with figures like Malcolm X and the estrangement from baseball that lasted decades. Freed from the need to repeat the known elements of Robinson’s legend, the filmmakers can position him within shifting ideas and ideals of African-American masculinity in a pivotal time in American history. As President Barack Obama puts it, Robinson “laid the foundation for America to see its black citizens as subjects and not just objects,” but with the times changing, he meant more than just one thing to America and was seen in more than one light.
So if you’re thinking that you’ve seen Baseball and you watched 42 and you aren’t sure there’s more you need to know about Jackie Robinson, the answer courtesy of Burns, Burns and McMahon is that there’s plenty more.
Airs: Monday, April 11, and Tuesday, April 12, at 9 p.m. ET/PT (PBS)
