Field of Dreams
I was floored when my friends told me they hadn’t seen Field of Dreams. And it’s not as though I hold it in the absolute highest regard, but I do consider the film — now 25 years old — an American classic.
Fittingly, my father introduced me to the film, and at the time, I viewed it as a cheesy baseball movie. But over time, I learned it’s so much more.
Field of Dreams is a sports movie. It’s an adaptation of W.P. Kinsella’s 1982 novel Shoeless Joe. It’s a family movie. But mainly, it’s magic.
The moment a disembodied voice tells unassuming farmer Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner, Draft Day) those infamous words — “If you build it, he will come” — it’s evident this movie aims to be something special.
That’s not to say Field of Dreams isn’t cheesy, because it really, really is — but in the best way possible. Through Ray’s journey of following seemingly random signs, such as the voice in his cornfield or a vision on the Fenway Park Jumbotron, the film embraces its hokey nature and even makes fun of it, with characters acknowledging the ludicrousness of Ray’s actions but going along with them anyway.
On the surface, Ray puts his family’s future in jeopardy to build a baseball field for a reason he doesn’t immediately know. It’s crazy and spontaneous and stupid, but somehow director Phil Alden Robinson assembles the film perfectly. It works because the movie’s thematic foundation of unfulfilled dreams is relatable and moving, and the film ties together the lost hopes of its characters through a love of baseball.
Costner is unobtrusive as Ray, and he’s balanced out by his feisty, wisecracking wife, Annie (Amy Madigan, Shirin in Love). Gaby Hoffmann (Obvious Child) plays the too-cute kid who apparently was never taught not to chew and talk at the same time, and Ray Liotta (The Identical) gets to deliver his signature cackle as Shoeless Joe Jackson. But best in show is clearly the mighty James Earl Jones (The Angriest Man in Brooklyn) as reclusive writer Terence Mann, delivering the most humorous and emotional exchanges of the film with his booming voice.
The film was released in 1989 and still feels undeniably American; even its haters can acknowledge that. Baseball, dreams, the Midwest — can it get more patriotic? Field of Dreams is a thick slice of American cheese with a swelling score and sweeping images of Iowa, a state I associate with this film more than anything else.
And did I mention it’s funny? Between Annie celebrating her victory over censorship at a PTA meeting and Ray miming a gun with his finger in his jacket pocket, it’s a shame the humor in Field of Dreams gets overlooked for its overwhelming feel-good sentiments.
To top it all off, few movies end in as pitch-perfect sentimentality as Field of Dreams, with Ray playing the game of catch with his dead father, fulfilling his own smaller, impossible dream to make up for lost time. Then the game of catch zooms out to reveal an endless line of headlights — the “people” coming to relive their past and, I guess, to bail the Kinsellas out of financial trouble.
Field of Dreams probably won’t change your life, but it’s easy to watch and a great tribute to America’s pastime. The fact that Major League Baseball may have lost its magic since the film came out makes us all a bit more nostalgic about the days Shoeless Joe stepped up to the plate. Few movies deliver with as much remarkable ambition as Field of Dreams. After all, would you imagine a fantasy-sports hybrid film with an outlandish plot becoming so successful?
I can’t say Field of Dreams deserves tremendous critical accolades, but it’s a movie everyone should experience before disappearing into the cornfield.
