The Babe (1992)

This may very well be the worst baseball movie ever made.

The "location" shots are often laughable -- the real world Chicago is palmed off as such wildly dissimilar places as Boston, New York and New Orleans, and the old ballpark mock-ups are comically unconvincing. John Goodman resembles Ruth only in bulk -- John Candy would have played this role with far greater joy and credibility.

Babe Ruth was not only the greatest ballplayer who ever lived, but his life story was richer and more interesting that the cliche-riddled and often inaccurate script suggests. This cheap, cheesy, and unimaginative piece of hack work is one big strikeout.

Fmovies: Ever seen a movie and just wanted to punch the screen?

The Babe, starring John Goodman, is a horrendously bad film. It's almost a total fabrication of the man's life. There's so much wrong, I don't know where to begin.

Perhaps we should look at the fact that John Goodman was way too heavy to play him. Babe Ruth was never 350 pounds. He was actually a good athlete in his prime. He started as a pitcher, yet they skipped over that despite his being one of the better pitchers in the American League for several years before moving fulltime to the outfield.

He wasn't mentally impaired, either, yet they make it seem like he had the know how of a 2 year old. They had him marrying his second wife before his first wife died, something that he wouldn't due to religious reasons. All they had him do was harp about managing, wanting to manage in the majors. He did want to, it's well documented, but it wasn't the only thing he thought of. And he didn't call Lou Gehrig Iron Man when he was 3 years into the league, heck, no one did!! you get that kind of nickname you play several years without missing games. Gehrig's character was also a complete waste. I'm surprised they didn't just cut him out of the movie like he didn't exist, they cut out so much that did anyway.

This movie has the feel of a bad made for TV film. The acting stinks, the shots stink, the crowd/atmosphere stinks, everything is very contrived, and they completely forgot it was a historical setting. It feels like the screen writer just decided to write up a completely different story and then added Babe Ruth to it.

Watch it if you want, but if you know anything about baseball history, you'll wish you hadn't. -100 on a 1-10 scale.

John Goodman steamrolls his way through this film, with just about everyone else pushed into the background.

Purists no doubt will cane this film for historical inaccuracies. Heck, I'm from another country and know jack about baseball, but 15 minutes on the Internet was enough to show me that the film took serious short-cuts with Babe's life and career, not to mention a number of errors and distortions of fact.

Does this matter? Well, yes, probably. But you have to feel for the filmmakers. How do you condense a 20-year sporting career, not to mention a study of a complex and flawed individual, into a couple of hours of cinema? It's not easy, and the film suffers from events that are merely touched on Example 1: Ruth is introduced to mobsters in a speakeasy, but this seems to lead nowhere. The obvious question is: what happened next?. Example 2: The conflict between Ruth and Lou Gehrig is not portrayed accurately, and its resolution is not shown at all.

An excess of sentiment also hurts the film. There are moments that look like cliched scenes from countless other sporting movies - especially the sick kiddie in hospital extracting a promise of 2 home runs from Ruth, who dutifully delivers, and the same kiddie, now fully recovered and grown up, showing up at Ruth's swansong. It's emotionally manipulative film-making and I regret to say it works, but it also pulls this film back from greatness.

All up, just above average, unlike its subject matter.

The Babe fmovies. 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.

"The Babe" was a wonderful film. If critics want to nitpick it by commenting on the "authenticity" of the film like saying that all the games were played on the same field just re-organized, and making negative comments about about the film portraying the "dark side" of Babe Ruth, etc, I guess that's fine, but give the film what it deserves. First of all, John Goodman did an amazing job.

The truth is that Babe was a very confused person. He is probably baseball's greatest legend, but he did have some serious problems with women and alcohol. His childhood was a mess in many ways. He didn't know how to be married or to be a Father to a child. Everyone has issues. Accept the documented facts that he was not an angel. He had a huge heart and loved to do things for people. He also had his own demons to overcome and most of us do. I know that the film added a few things that may or may not have happened and I know that many things were left out, but unfortunately this is the way it has to be in ALL films like this. There is NO way to capture every single thing that the Babe ever did in less than 2 hours. They just have to do the best job they can with the time they have to work with.

This film was genuinely uplifting and to all who only saw the negative side of this film, shame on you. John Goodman is a huge Babe fan and even he felt that this was an acurate portrayal of the Bambino. The film is inspiring, positive for the most part and it's made me feel good every time I've seen it.

Possibly the worst baseball bio-pic ever made. No relation to Ruth's actual career, you'd never guess he started out as a pitching star before graduating to the Sultan of Swat. Every home run Goodman hits goes out of the stadium. Not into the stands, but out of the stadium. When he's not hitting gigantic home runs, he flails around at the plate like a drunken klutz. It's complete nonsense. Ruth was a terrific athlete most of his career with a lifetime .342 batting average, only growing overweight toward the end. Goodman flaunts his bulk with no hint of athleticism and doesn't seem to play any actual baseball, he only shows up to hit the homers. He must be really good, too, because he barely has any teammates worth mentioning. Ruth dominated the Roaring 20s as a larger than life figure. Goodman's Ruth is merely large. If you wish to see Babe Ruth portrayed as a gross clownish moron, this is your chance.