Field of Dreams: A Film Review

“If you build it, he will come.”

This is a poignant line in the movie Field of Dreams starring Kevin Costner in 1989. Field of Dreams is based on the semi-historical baseball fictional novel  Shoeless Joe Jackson by W.P. Kinsella.  ‘Shoeless’ Joe Jackson (the late Ray Liotta) was one of the greatest professional baseball players in the 1900s, however, he and seven other Chicago White Sox players infamously threw the World Series so some gamblers could make money. They were suspended from playing baseball forever.

The movie and book picks up where Ray Kinsella who owns a cornfield starts hearing voices telling him, “If you build it, he will come.” The voice is driving him nuts as his wife Annie (Amy Madigan) stands by him and hopes that he isn’t losing his mind. Ray figures out that he has to build a baseball diamond in his cornfield and Shoeless Joe Jackson will be able to play again. He builds the diamond, and soon he, his wife and daughter are the only ones who can see Jackson. Jackson asks if this is heaven and Ray responds “No, it’s Iowa.” Soon other players including the ghosts of the seven other White Sox banned baseball players appear. The only problem is, these players can not leave the diamond, and they appear and disappear through the corn husks.

Although Ray seems like a lunatic for doing this, he believes he has a purpose to make something better and fulfill his dream and not be like his father who didn’t get to live out his dream in playing with the major league players. John Kinsella’s favorite player was Shoeless Joe Jackson. Ray blames Joe for the reason why he never spoke to his father again because he forced him to play baseball.

Ray hears the voice again and has to find Terrance Mann, a fictional 1960s revolutionary Civil Rights activist who now lived a reclusive life away from the public eye. Mann, who is played by the well known James Earl Jones, also begins to hear the voice. Mann helps Ray with his quest of helping Archibald “Moonlight” Graham to come to his field to play and remember what baseball was truly like and to play in a game with the greats.

Ray and Terrance discover that Moonlight had passed away and they did researchheavily into the man’s life via interviewing the townspeople. Ray met with the older Graham’s ghost (Burt Lancaster) who declined to play, but they instead found on their way home, Doc’s younger version of himself played by Frank Whaley.

Moonlight was a real baseball player who had only one game in the majors. Then he was sent back down to the minors never getting a chance to bat and lived the rest of his days as a doctor in a small town in Chisholm, Minnesota.

While Ray and Terrance were on their adventure, Ray’s wife had to endure hearing her brother Mark (Timothy Busfield) constantly pitch about her selling the farm because the baseball diamond took up their expenses.

When Ray and Terrance return they are watching the game when Mark interrupts that the farm has to be sold, which leads Ray to conflict with himself of letting go of his dream.

Terrance delivers a powerful speech about the way baseball brings people together and “that if you build it, they will come in droves to see this place and they won’t know why. They will give you $20 to just sit by the field and remember what it was like when they were kids watching their favorite players, their heroes play”. Ray decides to keep the farm and has faith that things will turn all right.

Only when his daughter’s life is in peril, Doc Graham was able to step over the line onto the farm and leave behind his youthful self who got to play ball at last, in order to save Karin, Ray’s daughter’s life. Mark is then able to see the ghosts and convinces them not to sell the farm. 

The players leave for the night and Liotta says “If you build it, he will come” pointing to the last player on the field, a catcher. That player, as Ray finds out, is his father, played by Dwier Brown. They chat and he asks “Is this heaven?” in which Ray replies again as he did to Jackson, “No, it’s Iowa.”

As John was leaving, Ray asks if he can have a catch and the two play for hours on end into the night as 1,500 cars come in droves to see this Field of Dreams.

Having a stellar cast such as Kevin Costner, James Earl Jones, the late Ray Liotta and many more provided raw, funny and emotional scenes. I personally never tire of seeing any of their films. These actors can stop you in your feet, make you pause by even just a look or a phrase.

This movie isn’t just about baseball. It is about making amends with the ones you love and enjoying a game of catch. After watching the interviews of the special features, actors and crew have seen grown men cry after watching this movie. Although it was nominated three times for Oscars and didn’t win, the letters from men who said they saw the movie, cried and made amends with their fathers or children makes up for any Oscar. These letters made their way to the director Phil Alden Robinson and brother producers Lawrence and Charles Gorden, whose own lives were impacted in a similar way because they lost their fathers at a young age.

The fact that a movie has touched the lives of so many to make them reach out to one another again is spectacular. Fathers and families have seen this movie together, reconciled and gone to have a catch. In fact the field on the farm in which it was built still stands. The Farmers have kept this Field of Dreams in the hopes that people will come, and they have. After seeing the movie or hearing about the Field of Dreams, 34 years later  people still come in droves to be able to either just sit and talk or play a pick up game or have a catch. There are even people who dress up as the Ghost players and play at events around the world and bring people back to Iowa to see this Field of Dreams.

This field, right here in the middle of America, in Dyersville, Iowa has made a lasting impact for 34 years and people make amends with one another. America’s favorite pastime is baseball and it brings people together. This book, movie and sport has made people believe in one another again and be willing to have a catch.

To learn more about Field of Dreams, visit the website, rent or buy the film and discover for yourself where you can relive the magic of the movie and go and have a catch. 

If you want to read more about Shoeless Joe Jackson, Bookshop.org has several biographies, books and media regarding the film, Shoeless Joe Jackson and the Field itself. I plan to buy several of these books and when I am finished, I know that it was a worthwhile journey. I love baseball and love this film. It is a timeless classic to watch growing up.  Here is the book that started it all, Shoeless Joe Jackson by W.P. Kinsella. 

The biography of Shoeless Joe Jackson seems like it will be a great read even with its long title; Tales from the Deadball Era: Ty Cobb, Home Run Baker, Shoeless Joe Jackson, and the Wildest Times in Baseball History by Mark S. Halfon. You can purchase the book on Bookshop.org.

Released in 2020, Is This Heaven?: The Magic of the Field of Dreams by Brett Mandel is a behind the scenes look at the film and book that inspired people to reconnect. This is also available on Bookshop.org.

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