“The Voice is back.” ~ Ray Kinsella
“Oh, Lord. You’re
supposed to build a football field now?” ~ Annie Kinsella
“Man, I did love this game. I’d have played for food money.
It was the game.... the sound, the smells. Did you ever hold a ball or glove to
your face?” ~ Shoeless Joe Jackson
“We just don’t recognize life’s most significant moments
while we’re happening. Back then I thought, well, there’ll be other days. I
didn’t realize that was the only day.” ~ Doc Graham
“The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been
baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been
erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it’s part of
our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that was good and that could be again.” ~
Terrence Mann
“Is this heaven?” ~ John Kinsella
“It’s Iowa.” ~ Ray
“Iowa? I could have sworn this was heaven.” ~
John
The 1989 fantasy drama Field
Of Dreams has established itself as a beloved classic, particularly around
Father’s Day, and is, among other things, a supernatural tale, a story of the
power of dreams and magic, and a
sentimental (in the best of ways) analogy about life. It boasts a terrific cast
who fit their roles perfectly, and is based on the novel Shoeless Joe, by W.P. Kinsella, who wrote his surname into the
characters and would end up having a good deal of input into the film
adaptation.
The film introduces us to Ray and Annie Kinsella (Kevin
Costner and Amy Madigan), a couple in their thirties who have settled down to a
quiet life of corn farming in Iowa. They have a daughter, Karin (Gaby
Hoffmann), and are content to live away from the busy city and feel the grass
grow. Ray is out in his field one day, however, when he hears a voice, just a
whisper, telling him, “if you build it, he will come.” Ray doesn’t quite know
what to make of it- was he hearing things? Have other farmers heard weird things in the back forty?
The voice is persistent, and Ray sees a vision- a baseball
diamond carved into his field of corn, and with it, perhaps the return of the
disgraced but legendary Chicago White Sox player “Shoeless” Joe Jackson (Ray
Liotta), who’d been a hero to Ray’s late father, with whom Ray had unresolved
issues. While his wife is sceptical, she lets him go ahead and build the
diamond. And one night, the family spots a baseball player in their diamond.
It’s Jackson himself, a ghost somehow come back to vivid life.
Director Phil Alden Robinson wrote the screenplay and helmed
the production. The narrative of the book is closely adapted (with one major
character having a name change). It might surprise the casual viewer that the
author of a story so deeply entrenched with Americana is in fact Canadian- W.P.
Kinsella was born and raised a Canadian, and continues to live here. Robinson
had first read the acclaimed book after publication, bringing it to the
attention of producers Lawrence and Charles Gordon.
The themes of dreams, hope, family, and possibility play out
throughout the film, and Robinson’s screenplay, filled with advice from
Kinsella, is a strong one. It invests the characters and dialogue with a strong
sense of character and authenticity- the old time ball players sound exactly
like you’d expect them to sound, while the reclusive pacifist writer comes
across as one might think of him. There’s never really an explanation for why these baseball players are able to
turn up in this field, or anything else that occurs during the film- nor does
there need to be an explanation. The audience accepts it for what it is, and
accepts the poetic vision of where the film ends up, simply because the film is
that good.
Robinson had a number of earlier directing and writing
credits to his name- among them the screenplay for the delightful Steve Martin
and Lily Tomlin comedy All Of Me.
After this film, his resume would end up including Sneakers, The Sum Of All Fears, and Band Of Brothers. He shot the film on location, mostly in Iowa and
Illinois (with some work in Boston around Fenway Park), crafting a baseball
diamond into a corn field. The filming process gives things that strong
authenticity- rather than be on a set, you feel like you’re among stalks of
corn, or on a lit diamond late at night (Jackson’s remarks about the lights
feeling out of place ring true as well). The ghostly baseball players might be
dead, but they’re real enough, looking like they stepped out of a period photo
in their uniforms, and the performances fit in with the authentic mood of the
rest of the film- the actors carry themselves physically as baseball players.
Robinson also enlisted James Horner for the music score- a perfect choice, as
the composer gave one of his finest scores, quiet at times, melodic and dream
like.
There’s a dual role in the film, with two actors playing the
same character decades apart. Frank Whaley plays a young Archie “Moonlight”
Graham, a brash young player eager to get in the game, seemingly before his one
shot at the major leagues (in 1922), who encounters Ray (and seems oblivious to
what to his eyes should be a vehicle decades ahead of his time. The actor plays
him as wide eyed when he finds himself face to face with big players he would
have known, and just a little bit cocky at the same time.
His elderly counterpart, Doc Graham, is played by Burt
Lancaster in one of his final roles. It’s a wonderful character, an elderly
Minnesota doctor late in life (and a ghost, at that). Decades earlier he had
his one chance in the major leagues, but those days are long behind him. He’s
satisfied with his life- his remark about had he only been a doctor for fifteen
minutes being a tragedy rings true- and yet he’s never forgotten what baseball
meant to him. Lancaster invests the role with a quiet wisdom and a twinkle in
the eye. It’s tremendously likeable character- and one, it turns out, that’s
based somewhat in a real doctor.
Ray Liotta plays the pivotal role of “Shoeless” Joe Jackson
in different ways. The character is based on the real man, the disgraced ball
player who was kicked out of the game but insisted he’d done no wrong, and
taken in a different direction. Here he’s a ghost, the first of numerous ball
players who come to the diamond. Liotta gives the character an enigmatic quiet
wisdom at times in the way he plays Jackson, while also playing him as a bit
coarse, sure of himself, and ultimately yearning for the game he loved. It’s my
favourite role for him.
James Earl Jones gets a great role as the reclusive writer
Terrence Mann. In the book, the character was the real life recluse J.D.
Salinger (who threatened lawsuits after the fact if the book ever got adapted
into a movie. Robinson chose to change the name and race of the character
instead, and we get a man who’s
withdrawn from the world, from the fame his writings gave him. He’s suspicious
and grouchy at first, particularly when Ray first tracks him down. Beyond that
though is a similar sort of dreamer, who doesn’t question The Voice when it
speaks again to both Ray and himself, and Jones gives the role depth and
gravity and a good dose of humour in how he plays Terrence. There’s also a man
who remembers what the game meant for him in his youth- and that shows itself
so well in what he says about it.
Amy Madigan brings out the best in her role as Annie. At
first she’s understandably sceptical of her husband’s mysterious whisperer- and
yet she understands the need in a marriage to accept dreams and to trust on a
fundamental level. She’s outspoken and thoughtful- particularly about the issue
of book censoring, in a memorable way- and comes to share in the vision and the
dream without hesitation. Annie is spirited, something that Madigan really
invests in the character, and tremendously likable. The actress plays well with
Costner- the two actors bring such a grounded, genuine feel to their characters
that Annie and Ray come across as a believable married couple.
This is one of my favourite roles for Costner, who gives the
character a mixture of wide eyed wonder, occasional disbelief, and casual
charm. It’s the second of his baseball trilogy, in between Bull Durham and For Love Of
The Game. Ray is likable, something that comes across when we first meet
him through an introductory monologue, and carrying on through the film. He’s
stubborn at times, wondering at the oddity of what he’s being called to do, and
yet he does it. There’s another underlying element for the character- regret
over the estrangement that was in place with his father before the old man’s
death- that plays out through the film, and ends up in emotional catharsis.
Costner invests these elements into his performance, and we can’t help but like
Ray.
Field Of Dreams
was an audience favourite early on, and has become a beloved classic ever
since. As part of Costner’s baseball trilogy, it’s radically different from the
other two movies, and it’s the sort of film that the golden age director Frank
Capra, a dreamer himself, would have gone for. It’s also a film that speaks
truth and tugs at the heart strings in many ways- if you aren’t moved by the
ending, I would find the issue of your having a soul is in dispute.
