The Babe

Universal/Waterhorse. Director Arthur Hiller; Producer John Fusco; Screenplay John Fusco; Camera Haskell Wexler; Editor Robert C. Jones; Music Elmer Bernstein; Art Director James D. Vance

John Goodman
Kelly McGillis
Trini Alvarado
Bruce Boxleitner
Peter Donat
James Cromwell

Despite Haxell Wexler's alluring lensing, this thinly dramatized, overly episodic Babe Ruth biopic resembles a telepic that has lost its way onto the big screen.

Lovable TV star-erstwhile movie character actor John Goodman plays one of America's most endearing folk heroes. Though heavier with a bigger torso and thicker legs than the Bambino's incongruously spindly pins, Goodman otherwise has been made up into a remarkable likeness of the real Babe. Goodman has an exuberant, bumptious charm ideally suited to the overgrown child he's playing.

Starting in his Dickensian childhood when he's abandoned into the care of boys school in Baltimore, pic touchingly shows how the fat, unloved boy (Andy Voils) blossoms into an athletic marvel under the tutelage of a kindly Brother (James Cromwell). But it skips too quickly over Ruth's turbulent adolescent years. The rage and feelings of neglect that fueled Ruth's ambition aren't explored adequately.

Pic is so infatuated with the Babe, warts and all, that it fails to bring to life the feelings of his first wife (Trini Alvarado). His satisfying second marriage to a practical-minded showgirl (saucy Kelly McGillis) brings out a new strain of maturity in Ruth, but it's hardly big-league pic material.

(Color) Available on VHS, DVD. Extract of a review from 1992. Running time: 113 MIN.

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