Jackie Robinson is given the royal treatment in this nuanced, well-written, and thoughtfully delivered four-hour PBS documentary. His sports career and life story combine to give us a harrowing illustration of the deep-seated racial hatred at the core of American history. His standout role in baseball has long ago been solidified; anyone who loves the game is sure to relish the ways he excelled on the baseball diamond. Best of all was his ability to steal bases and then try for the feat of stealing home. Robinson was a master of this art which wed speed, timing, and the ability to confound infield members of the opposing team. Watching him stealing bases brings to mind the trickster figure in mythology.

This documentary takes us on a fascinating journey beginning in Georgia where he is born to a sharecropper and his family. Following the Great Migration of blacks from the South, he grew up in Pasadena, California, and then during college at UCLA demonstrated talent in four sports -- baseball, basketball, football, and boxing. The zeal and entrepreneurial spirit of businessman Branch Rickey led him to shake up the sport of baseball by taking on Jackie Robinson as a Brooklyn Dodger star in 1947.

Famed documentarian Ken Burns and company vividly convey the phenomenal sweep and impact of this event which brought on a burst of racial hatred from baseball wheelers and dealers, coaches, players, and fans who wanted to keep African-Americans off the field. Bolstered by his wife, Rachel, and a black reporter and friend, Wendell Smith, Robinson weathered the storm of bigots who were willing to do whatever it took to keep baseball segregated. But he dazzled the fans with his playing, helping the Dodgers win the National League pennant in his first season. Even so, one writer described him as "the loneliest man I've ever seen in sports." During the early years of his career, Robinson stifled his hurt, anger, and righteous indignation in the face of a seemingly unending campaign of verbal abuse and treatment lacking dignity.

Burns, working along with David McMahon and Sarah Burns, has incorporated into this sprawling documentary the much heralded incident of fellow-team member Pee-Wee Reese putting his arm around Jackie; the soulful connections between the superstar and his wife; up-close and personal interviews with two of his children; flashes of anger which often got him in trouble; his public disagreements with Malcolm X; his support for Richard Nixon and his alienation from baseball that lasted for decades. The film runs 240 minutes on two discs. Keith David provides the narration; the musical score is by Wynton Marsalis.

Special features on the DVD include a short on "The Anderson Monarchs," outtakes, and a conversation with the filmmakers.