Field of Dreams

For other uses, see Field of Dreams (disambiguation).

Field of Dreams
Promotional poster by Olga Kaljakin
Directed by	Phil Alden Robinson
Screenplay by	Phil Alden Robinson
Produced by	Lawrence Gordon Charles Gordon
Starring	Kevin Costner Amy Madigan James Earl Jones Ray Liotta Burt Lancaster
Cinematography	John Lindley
Edited by	Ian Crafford
Music by	James Horner
Distributed by	Universal Pictures (USA) TriStar Pictures (International)
Release date	April 21, 1989 (1989-04-21)
Running time	107 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$15 million
Box office	$84.4 million

Field of Dreams is a 1989 American fantasy-drama film directed by Phil Alden Robinson, who also wrote the screenplay, adapting W. P. Kinsella's novel Shoeless Joe. It stars Kevin Costner, Amy Madigan, James Earl Jones, Ray Liotta and Burt Lancaster in his final role. The film was nominated for three Academy Awards: Best Original Score, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture.

Plot

Ray Kinsella is a novice Iowa farmer who lives with his wife Annie and daughter Karin. In the opening narration, Ray explains how he had a troubled relationship with his father, John Kinsella, who had been a devoted baseball fan. While walking through his cornfield one evening, Ray hears a voice whispering, "If you build it, he will come." Ray continues hearing the voice before finally seeing a vision of a baseball diamond in his field. Annie is skeptical of his vision, but she allows Ray to plow the corn under in order to build a baseball field. As Ray builds the field, he tells Karin the story of baseball's 1919 Black Sox Scandal. As months pass and nothing happens at the field, Ray's family faces financial ruin until, one night, Karin spots a uniformed man in the field. Ray recognizes the man as Shoeless Joe Jackson, a deceased baseball player idolized by Ray's father. Thrilled to be able to play baseball again, Joe asks to bring others to the field to play. He later returns with the seven other players banned as a result of the 1919 scandal.

Ray's brother-in-law, Mark, cannot see the baseball players and warns Ray that he will go bankrupt unless he replants his crops. While in the field, Ray hears the voice again, this time urging him to "ease his pain."

Ray attends a PTA meeting at which the possible banning of books by radical author Terence Mann is discussed. Ray decides the voice was referring to Mann. Ray comes across a magazine interview dealing with Mann's childhood dream of playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers. After Ray and Ann both dream about Ray and Mann attending a baseball game together at Fenway Park, Ray convinces his wife that he should seek out Mann. Ray heads to Boston and persuades a reluctant, embittered Mann to attend a game with him at Fenway. While at the ballpark, Ray again hears the voice; this time urging him to "go the distance." At the same time, the scoreboard "shows" statistics for a player named Archibald "Moonlight" Graham, who played one game for the New York Giants in 1922, but never had a turn at bat. After leaving the game, Mann eventually admits that he, too, saw the scoreboard vision.

Ray and Mann then travel to Chisholm, Minnesota where they learn that Graham had become a doctor and had died sixteen years earlier. During a late night walk, Ray finds himself back in 1972 and encounters the then-living "Doc" Graham, as he was known, who states that he had moved on from his baseball career. He also tells Ray that the greater disappointment would have been not having a medical career. Graham declines Ray's invitation to fulfill his dream; however, during the drive back to Iowa, Ray picks up a young hitchhiker who introduces himself as Archie Graham. While Archie sleeps, Ray reveals to Mann that his father, John, had wanted Ray to live out John's dream of being a baseball star. Ray stopped playing catch with his father after reading one of Mann's books at 14. At 17, Ray had denounced Shoeless Joe as a criminal to his father and that was the reason for the rift between father and son. Ray expresses regret that he didn't get a chance to make things right before his father died. When the three arrive back at Ray's farm, they find that enough players have arrived to field two teams. A game is played and Archie finally gets his turn at bat.

The Field of Dreams, Dyersville, IA—May 2006.

The next morning, Mark returns and demands that Ray sell the farm. Karin says that they will not need to sell because people will pay to watch the ball games. Mann agrees, saying that "people will come" in order to relive their childhood innocence. Ray, after much thought, refuses to sell and a frustrated Mark scuffles with him. Karin is accidentally knocked off the bleachers during the scuffle. The young Graham runs from the diamond to help, becoming old "Doc" Graham — complete with Gladstone bag — the instant he steps off the field, and saves Karin from choking (she had been eating a hot dog when she fell). Ray realizes that Graham sacrificed his young self in order to save Karin. After reassuring Ray that his true calling was medicine and being commended by the other players, Graham leaves, disappearing into the corn. Suddenly, Mark is able to see the players and urges Ray not to sell the farm.

After the game, Shoeless Joe invites Mann to enter the cornfield; Mann accepts and disappears into the corn. Ray is angry at not being invited, but Joe rebukes him: if Ray really wants a reward for having sacrificed so much, then Ray had better stay on the field. Joe then glances towards home plate, saying "If you build it, he will come". The catcher then removes his mask, and Ray recognizes him to be his father as a young man. Shocked, Ray realizes that "ease his pain" referred to John Kinsella, and believes that Joe was the voice all along; however, Joe implies that it was Ray himself.

Ray introduces his father to Annie and Karin. As his father heads towards the cornfield, Ray asks him if he wants to have a game of catch. They begin to play and Annie happily watches. Meanwhile, hundreds of cars can be seen approaching the baseball field, fulfilling Karin and Mann's prophecy that people will come to watch baseball.

Cast

• Kevin Costner as Ray Kinsella
• Amy Madigan as Annie Kinsella
• James Earl Jones as Terence Mann
• Timothy Busfield as Mark
• Kelly Coffield Park as Dee
• Frank Whaley as Archie Graham
• Gaby Hoffmann as Karin Kinsella
• Dwier Brown as John Kinsella
• Fern Persons as Annie's Mother

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon appear as extras in the scene at Fenway Park.

Players

• Ray Liotta as Shoeless Joe Jackson
• Burt Lancaster as Dr. Archibald "Moonlight" Graham
• Art LaFleur as Chick Gandil
• Michael Milhoan as Buck Weaver
• Steve Eastin as Eddie Cicotte
• Charles Hoyes as Swede Risberg

Production

Phil Alden Robinson read Shoeless Joe in 1981 and liked the book so much that he brought it to producers Lawrence Gordon and Charles Gordon. Lawrence Gordon worked for 20th Century Fox, part of the time as its president, and repeatedly mentioned that the book should be adapted into a movie. The studio, however, always turned down the suggestion because they felt the project was too esoteric and noncommercial. Meanwhile, Robinson went ahead with his script, frequently consulting W. P. Kinsella, the book's author, for advice on the adaptation. Lawrence Gordon left Fox in 1986 and started pitching the Shoeless Joe adaptation to other studios. Universal Studios accepted the project in 1987 and hired USC coach Rod Dedeaux as baseball advisor. Dedeaux brought along World Series champion and USC alumnus Don Buford to coach the actors.

The film was shot using the novel's title; eventually, an executive decision was made to rename it Field of Dreams. Robinson did not like the idea saying he loved 'Shoeless Joe,' and that the new title was better suited for a movie about dreams deferred. Later, Kinsella told Robinson that the author's originally chosen title for the book had been The Dream Field and that the title Shoeless Joe had been imposed by the publisher.

Casting

Robinson and the producers did not originally consider Kevin Costner for the part of Ray because they did not think that he would want to follow Bull Durham with another baseball movie. Costner, however, did end up reading the script and became interested in the project, stating that he felt the movie would be "this generation's It's a Wonderful Life". Since Robinson's directing debut In the Mood had been a commercial failure, Costner also said that he would help Robinson with the production. Amy Madigan, a fan of the book, joined the cast as Ray's wife. In the book, the writer Ray seeks out is real-life author J.D. Salinger. When Salinger threatened the production with a lawsuit if his name was used, Robinson decided to rewrite the character as reclusive Terence Mann. He wrote with James Earl Jones in mind because he thought it would be fun to see Ray Kinsella trying to kidnap such a big man. Robinson had originally envisioned Shoeless Joe Jackson as being played by an actor in his 40s, someone who would be older than Costner and who could thereby act as a father surrogate. Ray Liotta did not fit that criterion, but Robinson thought he would be a better fit for the part because Liotta had the "sense of danger" and ambiguity which Robinson wanted in the character. Burt Lancaster had originally turned down the part of Doc Graham, but changed his mind after a friend, who was also a baseball fan, told Lancaster that he had to work on the movie.

Filming

Filming began on May 25, 1988. The shooting schedule was built around Costner's availability because he would be leaving in August to film Revenge. Except for some weather delays and other time constraints, production rolled six days a week. The interior scenes were the first ones shot because the cornfield planted by the filmmakers was taking too long to grow. Irrigation had to be used to quickly grow the corn to Costner's height. Primary shot locations were in Dubuque County, Iowa; a farm near Dyersville was used for the Kinsella home; an empty warehouse in Dubuque was used to build various interior sets. Galena, Illinois served as Moonlight Graham's Chisholm, Minnesota. One week was spent on location shots in Boston, most notably Fenway Park.

Robinson, despite having a sufficient budget as well as the cast and crew he wanted, constantly felt tense and depressed during filming. He felt that he was under too much pressure to create an outstanding film, and that he was not doing justice to the original novel. Lawrence Gordon convinced him that the end product would be effective.

During a lunch with the Iowa Chamber of Commerce, Robinson broached his idea of a final scene in which headlights could be seen for miles along the horizon. The Chamber folks replied that it could be done and the shooting of the final scene became a community event. The film crew was hidden on the farm to make sure the aerial shots did not reveal them. Dyersville was then blacked out and local extras drove their vehicles to the field. In order to give the illusion of movement, the drivers were instructed to continuously switch between their low and high beams.

Field

The baseball field from the film

Scenes of the Kinsella farm were taken on the property of Don Lansing; some of the baseball field scenes were shot on the neighboring farm of Al Amsekamp. Because the shooting schedule was too short for grass to naturally grow, the experts on sod laying responsible for Dodger Stadium and the Rose Bowl were hired to create the baseball field. Part of the process involved painting the turf green.

After shooting, Amsekamp again grew corn on his property; Lansing maintained his as a tourist destination. He did not charge for admission or parking, deriving revenue solely from the souvenir shop. By the movie's twentieth anniversary, approximately 65,000 people visited annually. In July, 2010, the farm containing the "Field" was listed as for sale. It was sold on October 31, 2011, to Go The Distance Baseball, LLC, for an undisclosed fee, believed to be around $5.4 million.

Music

At first, James Horner was unsure if he could work on Field of Dreams due to scheduling restrictions. Then he watched a rough cut and was so moved that he accepted the job of scoring the film. Robinson had created a temp track which was disliked by Universal executives. When the announcement of Horner as composer was made, they felt more positive because they expected a big orchestral score, similar to Horner's work for An American Tail. Horner, in contrast, liked the temporary score, finding it "quiet and kind of ghostly." He decided to follow the idea of the temp track, creating an atmospheric soundtrack which would "focus on the emotions". In addition to Horner's score, portions of several pop songs are heard during the film. They are listed in the following order in the closing credits:

• "Crazy", written by Willie Nelson and performed by Beverly D'Angelo
• "Daydream", written by John Sebastian and performed by The Lovin' Spoonful
• "Jessica", written by Dickey Betts and performed by The Allman Brothers Band
• "China Grove", written by Tom Johnston and performed by The Doobie Brothers
• "Lotus Blossom", written by Billy Strayhorn and performed by Duke Ellington

Historical connections

The character played by Burt Lancaster and Frank Whaley, Archibald "Moonlight" Graham, is based on an actual baseball player with the same name. Graham's character is largely true to life except for a few factual liberties taken for artistic reasons. For instance, the real Graham's lone major league game occurred in June, 1905, rather than on the final day of the 1922 season. In the movie, Terence Mann interviews a number of people about Doc Graham. The DVD special points out that the facts these people give Graham were taken from articles written about the real man.

Release and reception

Universal scheduled Field of Dreams to open in the U.S. on April 21, 1989. It debuted in just a few theaters and was gradually released to more screens so that it would have a spot among the summer blockbusters. It ended up playing until December.

Critics responded positively to the film. As of May 2014, review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes scores the movie at 87%, making it "Certified Fresh" (based on 54 reviews with an average score of 7.9 out of 10). The consensus states "Field of Dreams" is sentimental, but in the best way; it's a mix of fairy tale, baseball, and family togetherness."

Honors

In June 2008, after having polling over 1,500 people in the creative community, AFI revealed its "Ten Top Ten" — the best ten films in ten "classic" American film genres. Field of Dreams was acknowledged as the sixth best film in the fantasy genre.

American Film Institute Lists

• AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies—nominated
• AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes:
  • "If you build it, he will come."—#39
• AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores—nominated
• AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers—#28
• AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition)—nominated
• AFI's 10 Top 10—#6 Fantasy Film

See also

• List of ghost films

External links

• Official website
• Field of Dreams at IMDb
• Field of Dreams at the TCM Movie Database
• Field of Dreams at AllMovie
• Field of Dreams at Rotten Tomatoes
• Field of Dreams at Box Office Mojo
• Field of Dreams Ghost Players
• Field of Dreams at the Baseball Movie Guide
• Field of Dreams locations at Google Maps