I love baseball. Not only in its purest form is it the greatest game ever invented, it is also the only game that completely and thoroughly transcends and binds our country to past, present, and future--generation to generation.Director Phil Alden Robinson's FIELD OF DREAMS pays homage to baseball's majestic, magical link to nostalgia. When a struggling Iowa farmer, Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) begins "hearing voices" and subsequently plows under his cornfield and builds a baseball diamond, he becomes a pariah to his community--to his family. But Ray knows he's tapped into a special level of consiousness: a beautiful, soothing karma that slowly but wonderfully manifests itself throughout this incredible film. The baseball field itself becomes a portal to another world, enabling players from baseball's Golden Age to return. To play baseball. As the film draws to its dramatic, moving ending, Ray surveys his field of dreams and remarks, "This is perfect."
And it is.
Kevin Costner turns in his finest performance. Ray Liotta, Amy Madigan, Timothy Busfield, and the great Burt Lancaster are exceptional. But it is James Earl Jones, who plays disgruntled author Terrence Mann and eventual soul mate to Kinsella, who is the catalyst that takes this film to a higher level. And FIELD OF DREAMS goes to that level, and beyond, like a homerun leaving the upper deck. Highly, highly recommended.
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Field of Dreams is an incredible movie. It is about the importance and timeliness of belief and hope and family and even baseball. It has a fine cast with Kevin Costner, Ray Liotta, James Earl Jones and Burt Lancaster and Amy Madigan who all work so well together. This is also one of a handful of movies that is even better then the book.I also agree with and want to thank a prior reviewer who suggested keeping your old Field of Dreams DVD (mine is the Collectors Edition) and buying the new two DVD version (rather than trading the older version for the newer one). The extras on both are great. I especially loved the deleted scenes included in the new version as well as a piece on how people still visit the field where the movie was made. Still, The Making of Field of Dreams on the earlier DVD, which is not included in the new version, taught me much about the movie and movie making and added to my appreciation of the movie. If you can--keep both copies in your DVD library.
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I saw Field of Dreams in 1989 at the theater with my wife and cried my eyes out at the end of it. She thought I was totally crazy and freaked out over the tears that I was shedding over a movie about baseball. When she asked me what was wrong, I didn't know what to say because I had no control over the tears that were flowing. It surprised me as much as it did her. I've since seen Field of Dreams about twenty-five times, and it's now an American classic. I no longer break out in tears when viewing the film, but my eyes still get kind of watery for the magic of the movie hasn't diminished with time. It's just as powerful now as it was eighteen years ago.As all of you probably know by now, Field of Dreams deals with an Iowa farmer named Ray Kinsella (played wonderfully by Kevin Costner), who hears a mysterious voice in his cornfield one day, saying the famous words, "If you build it, he will come." Since Ray's the only person who can hear the voice, he has to wonder if maybe he's going just a little bit crazy. As the movie progresses, Ray decides to do what the "voice" wants and plows under a third of his major crop so that he can build a baseball diamond for no apparent reason. Now, everybody in town thinks he's absolutely nuts. His wife, Annie (played by Amy Madigan), sticks by him through thick and thin, but she does worry about how all the mounting bills are going to get paid. In time, however, the ghosts of baseball players from the past appear from out of the cornfield to play on this rather unique ball diamond, including the legendary "Shoeless" Joe Jackson (played by Ray Liotta in one of his first acting roles). The catch here is that only Ray and his family can see the ghosts. With the bank threatening to foreclose on the farm, the "voice" tells Ray to go on a long journey to get a reclusive novelist, Terence Mann (played by James Earl Jones), who lives in Boston and an elderly doctor, Archibald "Moonlight" Graham (played by the late Burt Lancaster), who lives in Minnesota, and to bring them both back to the ball field. What happens after that is for the viewer to find out as the film delves into the emotional need for a special "reunion" and the sheer magic of making your dreams come true.
Let me just say that at the end of the film, the camera rises up to show hundreds of cars approaching the Kinsella farm at night, which is poetic in that it eventually happened in real life. Since 1989, over a million people from all over the world have visited the real Field of Dreams, which is located on the eastern side of Iowa about seven miles outside of Dyersville. This movie not only touched my heart, but evidently the hearts of millions of others. It was even nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture of 1989. I consider this film to be # 1 on my personal top-10 list because it not only deals with the reunion of father and son, but the possibility that you can actually make your dreams come true if you believe in yourself. This special two-disc anniversary edition is definitely worth the upgrade. I spent the money without a second thought. The first disc contains the complete theatrical release, plus a full-length commentary by its director, Phil Alden Robinson, and the director of photography, John Lindley. The second disc contains a number of featurettes. The first is a thirty-minute get together between Kevin Costner and three baseball stars, Bret Saberhagen, Johnny Bench, and George Brett. They watch the movie at Kevin's house and then discuss their careers in baseball, their sons, and how the movie has affected their lives. The second feature is a look at Galena, Illinois, which was used in the movie to represent the small city where "Moonlight" Graham lived--Chisholm, Minnesota. The third feature is a look at the real Field of Dreams outside of Dyersville, Iowa, and how it's grown since its construction in 1988. This is a great little documentary that discusses how this magical field has affected the hundreds of thousands of people who have visited it over the last fifteen years. The fourth feature is the Bravo show: From Page to Script, which deals with the novel, Field of Dreams, and how it was turned into an Academy Award nominated movie. If you love the film, you're going to enjoy this fifty-minute documentary. You finally get to meet the author of the book, William Kinsella, and to hear how the director, Phil Alden Robinson, began to doubt himself during the making of the film. All in all, this is a very special movie with wonderful behind-the-scenes stuff that certainly adds to the enjoyment of the movie. As Phil Robinson says, though the film didn't win Best Picture of 1989, it turned out to be a movie that literally changes people's lives for the better. That's the big reward for him. Highly recommended.
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I lost my Father Bob almost 11 years ago and my life changed forever. Every time I see this film, I think about my regrets, my past, and my Father. I cry every single time I see this great American classic film. I always feel better at the end of the film. As an aspiring Screenwriter, I urge everyone who has lost a parent or love baseball or love film, to own this film. Learn from it and learn that perhaps dreams can come true. And perhaps Heaven is somewhere in Iowa...-Mark McLaughlin, marknetproductions.dyndns.ws
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