Field Of Dreams

If you build it they will come

I was reminded of this movie while reading John’s blog on Saturday. This movie appeals to more than baseball fans. It’s sci-fi, fantasy, and drama with a little baseball. It would probably be in my top twenty movies of all time. I’ve always thought that baseball is the perfect sport to film a movie around. More than any other sport it lends itself to drama and comedy. You do not have to be a baseball fan to enjoy this movie.

It has a little bit of everything. Historical figures, time travel, baseball, and a great soundtrack. Some don’t know but Moonlight Graham was a real ball player. His name was Archibald Wright “Moonlight” Graham and he played one game in 1905 without getting an at bat for the New York Giants. John McGraw was his manager. He retired from baseball after that and became a doctor.

The movie makes me think of my father who passed away in 2005. He got me interested in baseball. While growing up he was a Brooklyn Dodger fan while his brothers liked The Yankees. My dad’s favorite player was Jackie Robinson. He loved the way he could disrupt a game with his baserunning. He passed that along to me and I’ve passed it to Bailey my son. I think at times…he could have been a Yankees fan like his brothers. That would have been different. I would have actually liked Reggie Jackson.

As far as baseball movies go…this one tops the list for me. I also would recommend The Natural, The Sandlot, Bull Durham, A League of Their Own, Pride of The Yankees, Eight Men Out, The Bad News Bears (Only the original), and Major League…in no order.

Kevin Costner has experience in baseball movies…Bull Durham, For The Love Of The Game, and this one. Like John said…he had his best reviews in them. What a cast this movie has. Kevin Costner, James Earl Jones, Ray Liotta, Amy Madigan, Burt Lancaster, and more.

The two actors that made a big impression on me were James Earl Jones and Burt Lancaster. They dissolved into their characters and became Terrance Mann and Moonlight Graham respectively. I will also add that Amy Magidan plays the most understanding wife on the planet.

My only problem with the movie…this would not affect anyone else sane from enjoying it but…Shoeless Joe Jackson was LEFT-HANDED for goodness sake. Why couldn’t they have turned Ray Liotta around when he hit in the movie. Ok…I know that is being picky…but come on.

The field built for the film is still there in Dubuque County, Iowa. There was a MLB game played there in 2021. MLB plans to return there. 

Here is a summary from IMDB.

“If you build it, he will come,” is what thirty-six-year-old novice farmer Ray Kinsella hears several times over the course of days from a bodiless voice emanating from somewhere in the cornfield on his Iowa farm. Later, he has a vision that the “it” is a baseball field, the “he” is Shoeless Joe Jackson, who was infamous for his association in the Chicago 8, the eight players of the 1919 White Series who were banned for life from the sport for throwing games in exchange for money from gamblers. Although it was proved that Jackson did take money, it was never proved that he participated in throwing any of the games. Ray grew up with baseball, his long-deceased father, John, who played in the minor leagues, lived in Chicago during that infamous year, and told stories to Ray about it and Jackson when he was growing up.

He was estranged from his father at the time of his death, something that he now regrets. With the moral support of his wife, Annie, he tears up part of their cornfield to build that baseball field. He eventually hears the voice telling him other things, always without a clear understanding on his part of what it all means. One he believes it has to do with is famed ’60s writer Terence Mann, now a recluse who stopped writing because he, renowned as the voice of his generation, didn’t always want to be the answer to his generation’s problems. Another he believes has to do with it is Archie “Moonlight” Graham, who played only one half of one inning of one major league game in 1922 and died in 1972.

Ray’s voice-led path may be difficult to achieve since cynical Mann may not have the same direction of the voice as him and Graham is dead. He will have to work through these puzzles to understand the full meaning of what the voice wants for him, which may not happen if he and Annie lose the farm and thus the baseball field, a real possibility due to the latter taking away from earning income from the farm, especially as Annie’s cutthroat brother, Mark, who says he is looking out for her best interest, will do whatever needed to get Ray back to what he considers reality of earning a living from the farm.

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

48 thoughts on “Field Of Dreams”

      2. Well that makes complete sense… my dad didn’t like the Yankees so went with the underdog at the time…thats why I like the Dodgers now.

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  3. a great movie and it reminds me, I should watch it again. It’s been a good few years since I last watched it, we did watch ‘Bull Durham’ (another good one) maybe 6 months back. I’d add ‘Moneyball’ to the list too, it helps if you’re a baseball fan (although if you are you realize the situation was simplified and there were A’s who were crucial to the team winning that didn’t get mentioned in it) but anyone can get the story itself, Beane and his conflicts with the owner and manager, his personal life problems and his hard-headedness in following his plan that he knew could work when few believed in him.

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    1. This one has a magic about it that I’ve always liked it. James Earl Jones is great and so is the entire cast. It’s one that you don’t have to be a baseball fan to enjoy it…. it’s built around the idea of baseball more than baseball.

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  4. Classic movie which has meant so much to so many who love the game of baseball. but as you noted it is a film which truly has mass appeal. You don’t have to be a baseball aficionado to appreciate it.⚾

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  6. Always great to revisit this movie, one of those I find easy to re-watch every few years. It was interesting you bring up that Shoeless Joe was a lefty, especially since the movie is an adaptation of the book titled Shoeless Joe. Written by a Canadian author W.P. Kinsella while he was visiting Iowa. Another piece of trivia is the James Earl Jones characters name was changed to Terrance Mann for fear JD Salinger who was in the book would sue them, as he had threatened he would. I agree Amy Madigan played the most understanding wife ever!

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    1. Great trivia there! Yea you don’t have to love baseball to like this movie…it doesn’t hurt though. I still don’t know why they didn’t make him left handed…in Pride of the Yankees…they filmed Gary Cooper hitting right handed and then running to third base….and then flipped the film somehow.

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      4. I wouldn’t go that far! But growing up I had two big heros….Babe Ruth and The Beatles….oh and Ron Cey counting the current players of the time.

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      5. Lol I was just talking to my buddy and he’s a history buff and when he watches movies those errors that most of miss drive him crazy. Like soldiers using guns that were available until ten years later or something like that.

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      6. One thing that always gets me is the geographic glaring errors… like the films “set” in Florida that have big mountains in the background of scenes, or in ‘Moneyball’, in the middle of winter they visit Cleveland (to talk to then-Indians management) and everything is green and in bloom! In January!?

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      2. Oh yes…and I just watched it! Lancaster made that character come to life… I named my fantasy team after his character.

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      2. YES! A kid said that to him. He was accused of taking money from gamblers to lose the 1919 World Series BUT he hit for a high average in the World Series…he played great and didn’t appear to try to lose like the most of the rest. He wasn’t educated hardly at all…but he was one of the best hitters baseball has seen…then banned for life.

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  9. While admittedly I’m not into baseball and most sports in general, the cast in that movie certainly is impressive. Based on the trailer, I guess I’d be willing to watch it, even though I don’t really get the game. I’ve been to two baseball games as a work-related team activity. I thought the best was the company and consuming the ridiculously overpriced ballpark food! 🙂

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    1. This one…you don’t have to know or like baseball. It’s more about the idea of baseball…not really the game. The only person you would have to look up is Shoeless Joe Jackson…then you have it. It has a lot of fantasy and some time travel.
      Oh yea…sports and theaters will drain you dry on food

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  11. Max, I saw this back when it came out and don’t remember it grabbing me like other baseball movies I’ve seen (e.g. Bull Durham, Major League, A League of Their Own, Moneyball) but that trailer looks pretty good. Maybe time to give it another watch.

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      1. Max, did you know that JEJ grew up not too far north of here and started out with a terrible stutter? I have his autobiography, which is a fascinating story.

        I’ve loved Burt Lancaster since forever.

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  12. Ray Liotta/Shoeless Joe was a bit complicated. Joe batted left and threw right. Ray batted right and threw left. In “Eight Men Out”, D.B. Sweeney played Shoeless Joe and batted left, threw right, like the real thing.

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    1. I’m picky on stuff like that because I’m a baseball nerd. In Pride of the Yankees they reversed the film where Gary Cooper looked as though he was batting left…but he really was batting right and running to third.

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