42 is an American biographical sports film, directed and written by Brian Helgeland, based on the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball player Jackie Robinson. If you don’t recognize the name Jackie Robinson, then you’re missing out on a revolutionary chunk of history.

Jackie Robinson, played by Chadwick Boseman in the 2013 film, was an American professional baseball player. In fact, he was the first African American to ever play in the major leagues. He started at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. Below is a picture of the scene where Robinson signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers.

42 gives us a dramatized glimpse of Robinson’s journey rising to the MLB, being given a chance to play in the historically all-white league by Brooklyn Dodger owner Branch Rickey, played by Harrison Ford. The film gives us a tear-jerking view of how segregated America was in terms of race in 1947. You see Robinson in constant tension and frustration in regards to brutal racism with the fans he plays in front of, the opponents he plays against, and even some of his own teammates. You see at the end of the film he is able to assimilate in this new world more as his teammates begin to accept him as apart of the team.

The film is a good representation of Hegel’s concept on the One and the Other, but at the same times it’s a good depiction of Bhabha’s idea of hybridity and the Third Space. You can see with each opposition Robinson encounters, they are trying to dominate themselves and have Robinson acknowledge the power they have over him.

Though other characters are a great example of Bhabha’s preferred concept of hybridity, such as Harold Peter Henry “Pee Wee” Reese, played by Lucas Black, who stands up for Robinson as he comes to realize the struggle he faces everyday, and Branch Rickey, who gives Robinson the time of day after he chose against the opportunity to do the same for a black player while he was in college. These two characters are some of the only people different from Robinson who put aside their rigid traditions of being segregated from black people and allowed themselves to accept their cultural differences.

The picture below is from the scene in the film where Pee Wee stands up for Robinson on the field.

Kristen Brammer

In order to fully grasp the context in which Marji Satrapi experienced the Iranian Revolution, and even her life well beyond the revolution, it is important to understand the positions in politics and different ideologies that played important parts in the revolution.

A combination of multiple combating groups, all with the shared goal of overthrowing the Shah, were the key forces in what is now known as the Islamic Republic. While not all of these subgroups particularly desired a theocracy, which is a theocratic democracy with theological jurists to ensure the following of Islamic law, that is what ended up prevailing in the end. Whoever wrote This Article said, “Today it is often forgotten that the revolution was not originally aimed at producing an Islamic theocracy. What became the Islamic Revolution in Iran was initiated not solely by an Islamic movement but by a coalition of interest groups united against the shah…which included secular liberals, nationalists, communists, and Islamist-Marxists” (pg 9). Some of the major influences were the National Front of Iran, the Tudeh Part of Iran, the Freedom Movement of Iran, and the People’s Mujahedin of Iran.

The National Front of Iran was founded by Mohammad Mosaddegh. This political group is pro-democracy and during the Iranian Revolution was in support of replacing the monarchy with an Islamic Republic. This group was the main symbol of the nationalists within the coalition.

The Tudeh Party of Iran is a communist party with Soleiman Mirza Eskandari as its head. The group advocated for oil nationalization when many insisted against it, and also recruited many youth during the Iranian Revolution in guerilla activities in support of the Islamic Revolution.

The Freedom Movement of Iran, aka the Liberation Movement of Iran, is a pro-democracy organization who describe themselves as Muslims, Iranians, and Constitutionalists. This group primarily dominated the movement due to its extensive network of mosques, mullahs, and millions of followers in Iran.

The People’s Mujahedin of Iran were a political-militant group advocation for installing its own government in place of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The group refused to support the ratification of the constitution and was denied the opportunity to run in the 1980 Iranian presidential election.

References

Ali Ansari Kasra Aarabi, et al. “Ideology and Iran’s Revolution: How 1979 Changed the World.” Institute for Global Change, 11 Feb. 2019, institute.global/policy/ideology-and-irans-revolution-how-1979-changed-world.

“Freedom Movement of Iran.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 30 Apr. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_Movement_of_Iran.

“Tudeh Party of Iran.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 30 Sept. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tudeh_Party_of_Iran.

“National Front (Iran).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 30 July 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Front_(Iran).