Field of Dreams

Field of Dreams has so many wonderful things going for it. It was filmed in Iowa (on a farm near Dyersville), it is based on an excellent book (I have read it) written by W. P. Kinsella called Shoeless Joe which varies slightly in translation from book to movie. It is mixture of humor and poignancy, and a story about relationships, religion, faith, baseball, and making your dreams come true

It also asks the question – “What is it about fathers and sons?”

Quotes

There are so many good quotes in this movie – I will only list a few.

Ray Kinsella: I'm 36 years old, I love my family, I love baseball and I'm about to become a farmer. But until I heard the voice, I'd never done a crazy thing in my whole life.

The Voice: If you build it, he will come.

Dr. Archibald "Moonlight" Graham: Well, you know I... I never got to bat in the major leagues. I would have liked to have had that chance. Just once. To stare down a big league pitcher. To stare him down, and just as he goes into his windup, wink. Make him think you know something he doesn't. That's what I wish for. Chance to squint at a sky so blue that it hurts your eyes just to look at it. To feel the tingling in your arm as you connect with the ball. To run the bases - stretch a double into a triple, and flop face-first into third, wrap your arms around the bag. That's my wish, Ray Kinsella. That's my wish. And is there enough magic out there in the moonlight to make this dream come true?

Ray Kinsella: Fifty years ago, for five minutes you came within... y-you came this close. It would KILL some men to get so close to their dream and not touch it. God, they'd consider it a tragedy.
Dr. Archibald "Moonlight" Graham: Son, if I'd only gotten to be a doctor for five minutes... now that would have been a tragedy.

John Kinsella: Is this heaven?
Ray Kinsella: It's Iowa.
John Kinsella: Iowa? I could have sworn this was heaven.
[John starts to walk away]
Ray Kinsella: Is there a heaven?
John Kinsella: Oh yeah. It's the place where dreams come true.
Ray Kinsella: Maybe this is heaven.

Plot Summary

Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) is a newbie farmer, who lives on a farm near Dyersville, Iowa with his wife, Annie (Amy Madigan) and their young daughter Karin (Gabby Hoffman)
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While walking through his cornfield Ray hears a voice whisper, "If you build it, he will come" and sees a vision of a baseball field. Believing he is somehow being asked to build it, and fearing he is in danger of "turning into" his father who he felt lived a dull existence and never did a spontaneous thing in this life—Ray decides to listen to the voice and build it. Annie is supportive and so Ray plows under his corn (something a farmer would NEVER do) and builds the field.

Ray and Annie are eventually forced to consider replacing the field with corn to stay financially solvent. At this point Karin sees a man dressed in a vintage baseball uniform on the ballfield who Ray discovers is Shoeless Joe Jackson, a baseball player idolized by his father. Joe is thrilled to be able to play baseball again and asks to bring others with him to the field. He later returns with the seven other players banned in the 1919 Black Sox Scandal, emerging from the corn by the outfield.

Soon after, Ray is told by Annie’s brother Mark, who cannot see the players, that he will go bankrupt unless he replants the crop. Ray later hears the voice, which had been silent since Ray began building the baseball field, say "Ease his pain." After attending a PTA Meeting which involves a heated discussion over the books of 1960s author and activist Terence Mann (James Earl Jones) , Ray decides the voice is referring to Mann who has since become a recluse. Mann was quoted in an interview as saying that as a child he dreamed of playing with the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field but was never able to do so. Although reluctant to agree to another expensive flight of fancy, Annie agrees that Ray should seek out the author in Boston, after Annie and Ray share a dream of the two men watching a baseball game together.

Although Mann rebuffs Ray's initial approaches, Ray eventually persuades him to attend a baseball game at Fenway Park. Ray hears the voice again, which urges him to "go the distance." While looking at the scoreboard, he sees a statistic for a 1922 baseball player named Archibald "Moonlight" Graham (Young Archie: Frank Whaley - Old Archie: Burt Lancaster), who played one major league game for the New York Giants, but never was given a turn at bat.

Mann initially claims he does not see the special vision. However, as Ray prepares to leave Boston, Mann stops him. Mann did see the vision, and to his own surprise, wants to find out more about its significance. The two travel to Minnesota to find Graham. Eventually the trio of Kinsella, Mann, and Graham return to Dyersville and the Field of Dreams to complete the journey. This is my favorite baseball movie; I think it might become yours too.

Life Lessons

Relationships are suppose to be easy – I don’t know who said that, but who ever said that has probably never actually been in one because relationships are complex. They take situational deafness, understanding, compassion, forgiveness, “tending to,” and lots of love to keep them in good working order.

My husband and his dad have been farming together since my husband was old enough to run a tractor in second grade. Their working relationship (50 years) and a personal relationship (58 years) works like a well oiled machine.

Both have tempers and, while rare in their dealings with each other, those do flare every once in awhile, more in the younger than older Wildemuth, but no one leaves the others side until “the thing” has been worked through and worked out.

I collect quotes, I have a three ring binder full of them, one of these days I’m going write them all down on muslin and use it for a quilt backing.

This is one of my favorite concerning fathers and sons….

“Henry James once defined life as that predicament which precedes death, and certainly nobody owes you a debt of honor or gratitude for getting him into that predicament. But a child does owe his father a debt, if Dad, having gotten him into this pack of trouble, takes off his coat and buckles down to the job of showing his son how best to navigate through it.”

Field of Dreams asks the question, “What is it about fathers and sons?”

I think the key is respect and, young or young-at-heart, knowing when to step forward and to step back.

Field of Dreams Movie Cast

• Kevin Costner as Ray Kinsella
• Amy Madigan as Annie Kinsella
• Gaby Hoffmann as Karin Kinsella
• Ray Liotta as Shoeless Joe Jackson
• Timothy Busfield as Mark
• James Earl Jones as Terrence Mann
• Frank Whaley as young Archie Graham
• Burt Lancaster as a senior Dr. Archibald “Moonlight” Graham
• Dwier Brown as John Kinsella
• And Others