The Babe (1992)

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Expected more

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

I watched this movie back when it first came out and I did not write anything then. I watched it again today and it was not a very good story. Although they put in a few facts, the story line was ridiculous. John Goodman is a fine actor but he was twice the weight of Ruth during his prime. The Babe during the first 10 years of his career was 6 feet 2 inches tall and weighed ONLY 215 pounds. He was big but still lean compared to what Goodman portrayed. Ruth never hit and infield pop fly that went for a home run. Ruth was a very good pitcher for the Red Sox from 1915-1919 he won 89 games pitching and 3 world series games. Although he was controversial in his manner, he still loved kids. After all, he was one himself. Ruth was a great athlete but not manager / leader material. In the movie, they made Ruth look very awkward when swinging the bat. He was a natural athlete yet they made him look funny. Maybe Goodman never played baseball or he was right handed. He looked uncoordinated when swinging the bat. Ruth was very well coordinated and smooth when hitting. I will leave it here. Thank you.

Seeing this for the first time in 2011 I find it has two strikes on it; 1) the story begins in 1902 and ends in the mid 1930s when Ruth's glory days - mostly the teens and twenties - are well behind him and 2) I am English and although I have read widely about baseball my eras of choice are the forties and fifties and I know -albeit at second hand - far more about Jackie Robinson, Ted Williams and even Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio than about Ruth so I have to more or less take it on trust and allow for the fact that it is Hollywood and by definition will move from the facts as and when it suits the producers. Having said that this is a very engaging film with a fine central performance and now that I own it on DVD I'll probably watch it again.

The best part of "The Babe" with John Goodman is his excellent imitation of Babe Ruth's mannerisms and speaking. Goodman particularly handled Ruth's verbal style. This film suffered quite a bit from its emphasis and interpretation of Babe Ruth's character and life. I know people that knew Babe Ruth, and while they said he went out and drank regularly, they said he was rarely out of control they way he was depicted by Goodman in the film. Nor was he sloppy and horribly overweight like John Goodman was in the film. The Babe didn't get particularly heavy till his last 2-3 years in the major leagues, and even after retiring continued to play in exhibitions around North America. Some others asked if he really hit 3 homeruns in his last game with the Boston Braves. That is also not correct and was incorrectly depicted in the film (Ruth dropping his hat in front of the Braves owner). He did hit three homeruns in one game in his final season in old Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, but it was not his final game. This film focused almost solely on Ruth's lack of personal discipline and immaturity, which was not a problem for him after 1925 when he was fined and admonished by his Manager Miller Huggins. From 1926 to 1932, Ruth had perhaps the finest run of offensive seasons of any Major League hitter - this was not even mentioned in the film, and his banner years of 1923 (when he hit .393) and 1927 (60 homeruns) were barely mentioned; I think the film spent less than one minute on his 60 homerun year. All in all, this film was very disappointing, particularly to Yankee fans and to those who were acquainted with Babe Ruth. The TV movie about Babe Ruth (which included Pete Rose as Ty Cobb) was a much better film.

While I enjoyed the movie and John Goodman's performance, The Babe's weight was never near that of John and made him look like a lumbering athlete, which in fact he was not. While the Babe was not a role model, he was truly a hero ............. then and now.He did not make the comments about Lou Gehrig shown in the movie. His problem with Lou Gehrig had to do with a party his wife went to ahead of the when Lou got to the party and Gehrig was upset his wife might have been intimate with The Babe, which is doubtful. Ruth and Gehrig had been close friends until Lou got jealous.The Babe was not a bumbler on the ball field, only in life, due to his lack of class, which was caused by the lack of a loving family. He did have a great care for children, due his lack of having that during his upbringing. It was a good movie in terms of many things, but left those who have read the read biographies of The Babe, disappointed with how the so called facts were presented. The Babe will live on long after this movie, which I avoided for many years, due to figuring it was tainted ............. and it was, very tainted. I do have to say I still enjoyed most of the movie. Like many biographies to much poetic license was taken.