The Babe is a 1992 American biographical sports drama film about the life of famed baseball player Babe Ruth, starring John Goodman, Kelly McGillis, Trini Alvarado, Bruce Boxleitner and Peter Donat and Directed By Arthur Hiller, with a screenplay by John Fusco.
This biographical baseball drama stars John Goodman as American baseball legend George Herman ‘‘Babe’’ Ruth and covers his personal life and rise as a ball player with the Red Sox, trade to New York, and decline in health and career that ends with his walking away after being a ‘‘name only’’ manager to boost ticket sales.
While the film does take liberties with Babe Ruth’s life and career, most notably his hitting of two home runs for a sick child and his ‘‘called shot’’ which is still debated to this day among baseball fans. It’s still an ambitious attempt to tell the story of one of the great American sporting legends on the big screen.
What I like about the film is John Goodman’s performance as Babe Ruth, he brings a joy of energy in his performance particularly during the baseball scenes, kudos as well to Haskell Wexler’s cinematography and Arthur Hiller’s direction which gives the film an authentic feel and representation of the early 1900s to the mid 1930s in America, as well as Elmer Bernstein’s musical score which accompanies the film.
While the film had a very lukewarm reception with critics and underperformed at the US box office and in later interviews John Goodman admitting he was disappointed in his performance. I still have an affection and enthusiasm for this often neglected and surprisingly long forgotten film despite the star power of John Goodman who was very popular around this time for his role as Dan Conner in the US sitcom Roseanne.
Despite its rarity, I still recommend the film for anyone who is/or isn’t a baseball fan.
Roger didn’t like The Natural. And I guess only Gene saw Major League.
I thought Roger liked The Natural? I will have to watch or read his review later.
Don’t know if you did that, but no, he didn’t like The Natural.
Ebert didn’t like The Natural unfortunately, he gave it two stars in his written review
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-natural-1984
No sound, currently.
Thank you for fixing the sound.
You are welcome, Clifford.
How interesting to see this movie I’ve never seen called Proof, so many years before Hugo Weaving and Russell Crowe became so well known.
I enjoyed (and still do) The Babe, no matter what Siskel & Ebert say about it, in fact I think it’s an underrated film, IMO.
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Here’s my review of this movie
The Babe is a 1992 American biographical sports drama film about the life of famed baseball player Babe Ruth, starring John Goodman, Kelly McGillis, Trini Alvarado, Bruce Boxleitner and Peter Donat and Directed By Arthur Hiller, with a screenplay by John Fusco.
This biographical baseball drama stars John Goodman as American baseball legend George Herman ‘‘Babe’’ Ruth and covers his personal life and rise as a ball player with the Red Sox, trade to New York, and decline in health and career that ends with his walking away after being a ‘‘name only’’ manager to boost ticket sales.
While the film does take liberties with Babe Ruth’s life and career, most notably his hitting of two home runs for a sick child and his ‘‘called shot’’ which is still debated to this day among baseball fans. It’s still an ambitious attempt to tell the story of one of the great American sporting legends on the big screen.
What I like about the film is John Goodman’s performance as Babe Ruth, he brings a joy of energy in his performance particularly during the baseball scenes, kudos as well to Haskell Wexler’s cinematography and Arthur Hiller’s direction which gives the film an authentic feel and representation of the early 1900s to the mid 1930s in America, as well as Elmer Bernstein’s musical score which accompanies the film.
While the film had a very lukewarm reception with critics and underperformed at the US box office and in later interviews John Goodman admitting he was disappointed in his performance. I still have an affection and enthusiasm for this often neglected and surprisingly long forgotten film despite the star power of John Goodman who was very popular around this time for his role as Dan Conner in the US sitcom Roseanne.
Despite its rarity, I still recommend the film for anyone who is/or isn’t a baseball fan.
Rating: 8/10