A/k/a The Bambino. A/k/a The Sultan of Swat. A/k/a George Herman Ruth. A from-the-beginning biographical approach (the abandonment at Saint Mary's Industrial School for Boys, the breaking of the chapel window by batted ball, etc.), plus some child-in-a-candy-store psychological analysis. John Goodman starts out too old (and too fat) for the role, and the role never catches up with him. He nevertheless looks strikingly like the real man — not so well when swinging a bat, best of all when trotting the bases in slightly fast motion from the vantage of a newsreel camera high up in the stands. (But did we really have talkie newsreels by 1925?) The main dramatic idea, repeated several times, is to have him answer taunts and insults with a towering home run that leaves every mouth agape. Kelly McGillis, Trini Alvarado; directed by Arthur Hiller. (1992) — Duncan Shepherd
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