No, The Babe is not about Angelina Jolie. It's about George Herman "Babe" Ruth, the greatest baseball player of all time. Based on my physique, it is not surprising that I am not a sports fan, but the American myth of The Bambino got to even me. I remember as a kid seeing photographs of Ruth in some kid's book about baseball, and was captivated. I think the reason may have been the player's physical appearance. He was not some strong muscleman, but an average looking, heavyset guy. The little documentary film that exits of Ruth show him running the bases at the speed of the average tortoise, but that didn't matter, since he hit home runs so often. Maybe the reason why Ruth was a childhood hero to me was because his success sent the message that you didn't need to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger to be a great athlete. If he could hit home runs, maybe I could too.
Obviously the career in professional baseball didn't pan out, so I became a film, uh, student. I went into The Babe knowing that it was critically panned upon its release in 1992, but something made me want to see it anyway. Maybe it was the chance to return to American mythology I liked from Field of Dreams. I dunno. Anyway, this is another one of those movies that I didn't really enjoy for the reasons intended by the director (I think), but was entertained by on some level anyway.
My childhood interest in the Babe was not followed up into adolescence and (I suppose) adulthood, so I have no way of known how accurate this movie is. If even half of it is true, it's sad, because according to the film, the Babe was an uneducated, immature, crude man-child, an awful husband and quasi-alcoholic who tried to buy people's love. In the movie, he has one saving grace- he genuinely loved children and tries to be a positive role model to them, even when he offends everyone else.
The Babe is a pretty standard biopic. Abandoned by his cruel parents, the young George is taken to a Catholic boarding school where he is a poor student and disrespectful to everyone except Brother Matthias (James Cromwell), who coaches the school baseball team and discovers his Mozart-level talent for the game. As an adult (played in a rare lead by usual supporting actor John Goodman) Babe quickly becomes a national icon, making thousands of dollars, much of which he spends on parties and alcohol. Despite his riches, he is despised by high society because of his immaturity and fondness for crude jokes involving bodily functions. He marries a waitress named Claire (Trini Alvarado) who is attracted to him because of a kind of sweetness he posses, but quickly finds him impossible to live with, and finally leaves him when he has numerous affairs. Although he remarries and continues playing baseball, as he ages he gains more and more weight and is eventually left on the team more as a mascot than an actual player.
This movie presents a Babe Ruth who was not really a good person, but could be excused due to his nature- he just didn't know any better. As I said before, I have no idea if this is true, but I hope it's not. Oddly enough, I think that making Ruth a loser sort of works for the film because a saintly portrayal probably would have been boring. The film is aided immensely by a strong performance from Goodman. Watch how the Babe subtlety matures over the course of the film, reaching a level of quiet self-awareness.
I also liked the strong production design and period atmosphere, showing a visually dynamic America from the teens to the thirties. And basically, that's about all I have to recommend the movie for. It entertained me, and I'm not even a sports fan. Will real baseball fans like it? I have no idea. Will anyone else? Maybe, as Goodman and the visuals are always interesting and the cheesy melodrama holds interest, even as the cliches are ticked off. Ok, that's not much, but at least I was honest.
The Babe (1992)