Why hasn’t there been a good biopic of Babe Ruth? The three extant have ranged from unmemorable (1992’s The Babe with John Goodman and 1991’s Babe Ruth with Stephen Lang) to execrable (1948’s The Babe Ruth Story with the remarkably unathletic William Bendix).
Here is the greatest baseball player who ever lived. (Only Ted Williams, Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron and Willie Mays were in his league as a hitter, and Ruth was also a star pitcher in his early years – so there’s no argument that he was the greatest.) Ruth transformed the game itself from station-to-station to the power game.
On top of that, The Babe was a great character: a boisterous man of unrestrained appetites, a great athlete who did not look athletic, nevertheless charismatic and very funny. He was made for the movies. Unfortunately, the great Babe Ruth movie hasn’t been written.
Incidentally, Babe Ruth has been portrayed in 30 movies, the first seven times by Babe Ruth himself.
