Monday, September 8, 2008
#191: Field of Dreams
Field of Dreams (1989)
Written and Directed by Phil Alden Robinson
Based on the book by W.P. Kinsella
Starring Kevin Costner, Amy Madigan, Ray Liotta, James Earl Jones, Frank Whaley, Timothy Busfield, Burt Lancaster
Field of Dreams is a very sentimental film, and usually the overly sentimental rubs me the wrong way. Maybe it's the combination of baseball and fantasy that reels me in, but I can watch this movie any time and it always makes me feel great.
Costner isn't the cesspool of cinema a lot of people make him out to be, I think he's much more consistent than Nic Cage for instance. And when he does anything related to baseball it's a winner.
Ray Kinsella (Costner) is just so damned likable. He seems crazy and if you met anyone who said they heard voices telling him to build a baseball diamond in his corn field, you'd have that person committed.
But Kinsella is portrayed in an endearing way. It helps that the story is told from his point of view, but when other characters are telling him he's crazy, I root for him. Obviously in reality Kinsella would be nuts, but for the two hours this film is on it's magical.
The first time he sees "Shoeless Joe" after the field is built shows it's all worthwhile even though the road is long.
Field of Dreams represents the magic baseball has had on a nation of people. It may be tainted due to cheating and steroids in recent years but at one time it represented purity and hope. I think in some ways people still think of it in that way. When I watch Field of Dreams I certainly forget about all the bullshit accompanying professional sports today.
More importantly it's about family and second chances. Kinsella never had the chance to connect with his own father, until he built the field...the field of dreams.
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