News'Field of Dreams' turns 20
Film about a baseball field, father-son reunion still resonates
Kevin Costner was the star of "Field of Dreams" in 1989. (Universal Studios Home Entertainment)
By Ben Platt / MLB.com
04/21/09 10:00 AM ET
"Hey dad. You wanna have a catch ...?" Simple words asked 20 years ago by Kevin Costner's character Ray Kinsella to the ghost of his late father, John, in the film "Field of Dreams" has made more men cry than possibly any film in history. By now, most everyone knows the story of the film, based on writer W.P. Kinsella's novella, "Shoeless Joe," about Ray, an Iowa farmer, who hears a voice that tells him, "If you build it, he will come," and proceeds to build a baseball field in the middle of his farm. Out of the cornfield comes the ghost of Shoeless Joe Jackson, played by actor Ray Liotta, and other long-dead ballplayers, who play on the field.Ray is sent on a mission to bring writer Terence Mann, played by James Earl Jones, and another player, Archie "Moonlight" Graham, played by Burt Lancaster, back to the field. During that mission the audience finds out that Ray had been estranged from his father, John, a former Minor League player, and never had the opportunity to make things right before he died. John shows up at the field at the end and the reunion between father and son is complete.
"Never has a movie lived on the edge for one line," said Costner five years ago for a DVD retrospective about the film produced by Universal Studios Home Entertainment. "'Field of Dreams' could have been very dopey. People hearing voices, the corn ... and it winds itself all the way down -- and the movie doesn't work unless this one line, 'You wanna have a catch?' is said." "When I was watching it I couldn't believe what an impact it was when I finally appear as the father," said actor Dwyer Brown, who played John in the film. "That film has been the highlight of my career, thus far. I'm from Ohio and I felt right at home among those cornfields in Iowa and I had lost my father, so I understood the sentiment that scene represents." Costner believed the film's theme was much deeper than audiences first imagined it would be. "Even though it's considered a baseball movie, it's about things gone unsaid in your life," said Costner, who would go on to win two Academy Awards for producing and directing "Dances With Wolves" the following year in 1990. "What do we wish we could have said to our dad? How do we wish we could have talked to our son differently?" "It was certainly our hope that it would speak to things, more than just the love of baseball," said the film's writer-director, Phil Alden Robinson. "One of my theories is that it holds up because we don't answer the mystery. We don't try to explain who the voice is or where it comes from or why it's speaking to Ray. We let people decide on their own." It took a couple of years and many drafts for Robinson to adapt Kinsella's novella for the screen. Costner, who had just become a major star in such films as "The Untouchables" and "No Way Out," was Robinson's first choice to play Ray, but there was a problem. The actor had just finished making a baseball-themed film called "Bull Durham," and Hollywood logic dictated that no one would star in two baseball films in a row. "One of the great things about Kevin is when the conventional wisdom says, 'Kevin, you must not go do this,' he'll go do it," said a very grateful Robinson. "He really believes in himself and his own judgment. Kevin I'm sure was being advised by everyone not to do this, but he and I have this in common, that we can be sort of contrarians, when people tell us to do something, we will do the opposite." The film not only became a hit, but it also garnered critical acclaim, something rarely done for sports movies, and an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. It would lose out to "Driving Miss Daisy," but Robinson has no regrets. "I love 'Driving Miss Daisy,'" said Robinson, who was also nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay. "You lose to a film that was that good, you think 'OK, we gave it our best shot, we gave it a great ride.' You can't be greedy about these things." Different aspects from the film still resonate today. James Horner's music score from the film is played in baseball stadiums big and small and the field that was built for the film in Dyersville, Iowa, is still up and has become a major tourist attraction where thousands of people come to reconnect with their love ones or just have a catch in what many consider a sacred baseball place. "It's nice that it means different things to us," said Costner. "The two hours in the dark with 'Field of Dreams,' it takes you for an emotional ride. It takes you somewhere and it's simple as fathers being with sons. It's kind of our game and our movie. I like to think of it as our generation's 'It's a Wonderful Life,'" "Field of Dreams" is available on DVD from Universal Studios Home Entertainment.Ben Platt is a national correspondent for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
