Field of Dreams
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Field of Dreams (1989) is a movie about a farmer who becomes convinced by a mysterious voice that he's supposed to construct a baseball diamond in his corn field. It stars Kevin Costner, Amy Madigan, Gaby Hoffmann, Ray Liotta, Timothy Busfield, James Earl Jones, Burt Lancaster, and Frank Whaley. The film is a fantasy that is meant to remind viewers of a more innocent and pleasant time.
The movie was directed and adapted by Phil Alden Robinson from the novel Shoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella. It was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Music, Original Score, Best Picture and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium.
The character played by Burt Lancaster and Frank Whaley, Archibald "Moonlight" Graham, was a real baseball player. The background of the character is based on his true life, with a few factual liberties taken for artistic reasons.
The character played by James Earl Jones, the fictional author Terence Mann, is based on the author J. D. Salinger in the original novel. In 1947, the real Salinger wrote a story called A Young Girl In 1941 With No Waist At All, featuring a character named Ray Kinsella.
The restored relationship between protagonist Kinsella and his father is notable for making male viewers cry. Psychiatrist Dr. Mark Goulston, writing for the October 2005 issue of Readers Digest, quotes psychologist David Powell "There's a 95% tear factor when a group of men watch Field of Dreams... Sports is the archetypal bond between men and their fathers, and for most men the most primitive, important relationship in their lives is with their dads."
The baseball field built for the film has become an attraction with the same name.
Synopsis
Field of Dreams is a movie about a man who through an apparently supernatural revelation feels compelled to construct a baseball diamond on his farmland, regardless of the financial consequences of so doing. Throughout the movie, this man, protagonist Ray Kinsella, struggles to understand the purpose of his aforementioned action. Strangely enough, famous ball players of yesteryear (i.e., dead) soon begin to show up to Ray's field for practices and pickup games shortly thereafter (none so noteworthy as the great Shoeless Joe Jackson). Perhaps even more strange, only Ray and his family seem to have the ability to observe this magical celebration of an earlier time and simpler way of life.Having uprooted his crop for the field, Ray finds himself facing ridicule and foreclosure from the bank. Yet he holds tight to his mission, all the while doubting its purpose and reflecting on the turbulent way in which he cut off his father in his early adulthood.
Indeed, Kinsella's pain is ultimately "eased" when he realizes this magical field has a power to not only bring back other heroes from his past, but will pose a far more important mission that he must see through, which may well bring peace and finality to his painfully nostalgic memories.
Trivia
- The original working title of the movie was the same as the book, Shoeless Joe, before it was renamed by the producers. Author W.P. Kinsella later reported that his original working title for the novel itself was Dream Field. Kinsella liked the title Dream Field, but his publishers made him change it to Shoeless Joe.
- During the filming, in the summer of 1988, the midwest was stricken with a severe drought. Water was brought in to irrigate the cornfield and make it look good for the movie. The act of plowing the healthy corn under, to build the ballfield, was met with real-life bewilderment by area farmers whose crops were suffering from the rainless summer.
- Because of that drought, the infield grass on the baseball field died and turned brown, and had to be painted green.
- In the scene where Shoeless Joe Jackson talks to Costner's character about heaven, fog is seen creeping out of the corn field and across the diamond. This was not a special effect — the fog had actually come in at the time.
- The frequently-asked question, "Is this Heaven?" became a bumper-sticker slogan for Iowa for some years thereafter.
- The line, "Hey, Dad, you wanna have a catch," originally didn't include "Dad". Test audiences were disappointed in the lack of acknowledgement of father and son, and the word "Dad" was looped in during post-production.
- The real Joe Jackson was a rural southerner, while Ray Liotta spoke with a northern city accent. Liotta also batted right-handed and threw left-handed, while Jackson batted left-handed and threw right-handed. These were known facts to the producers, who decided not to do as was done in The Pride of the Yankees, wherein Gary Cooper was filmed batting right-handed and then the film was flipped to simulate the left-handed Lou Gehrig.
- In a unique trivia record of some kind, this was the second consecutive year that Kevin Costner had played a baseball-oriented character with a love interest named Annie. In 1988 he had starred with Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins in Bull Durham.
- Burt Lancaster was unaware that Timothy Busfield was part of the cast, and had him fetching water and chairs before realizing Busfield was going to be in the scene with him.
- According to supplementary material on the DVD edition of Field of Dreams, shortly before filming of the movie began, the actor who played Ray Kinsella's father, Dwier Brown had his father unfortunately pass away. Immediately after the funeral, he traveled directly from the funeral to filming in Iowa for the scene. He stated that although the emotion was too fresh and painful, it had an effect on how he eventually played his scene with Kevin Costner.
- The diamond's outfield was much smaller than a regulation ballfield would have been. For filming purposes, the corn lining the outfield needed to be closer to the cameras than normal major league dimensions would allow.
- The "Clean Shaven Umpire" listed in the closing credits was played by a member of the production team who normally sported facial hair. He has one speaking line in the film. After batter Archie Graham asks "how 'bout a warning?" referring to the pitcher throwing beanballs, the umpire says, "Sure...", looks at the pitcher briefly, then turns to Archie and says, "...Watch out you don't get killed!"
- In the closing credits, we see that "The Voice" is played by "Himself." It's actually the voice of Lee Garlington, a friend of the director's.[[Citing sources citation needed]]
- The movie's line "If you build it, he will come." was voted as the #39 movie quote by the American Film Institute (out of 100).
- Among the thousands of extras in the Fenway Park scenes were a then-unknown Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.
- Sheila McCarthy and Reba McEntire both auditioned for the part of Annie.
- Tom Hanks was originally offered the role of Ray Kinsella but turned it down.
- "The Final Shot" was a big community event, enlisting 1,500 volunteers to drive for the last scene. For only a brief time could the headlights and also the blue of the sky be shown in one shot. The first take was too bright. On the second shot the lighting was perfect, but the camera f-stop was messed up. Just before the third and final shot, the director realized that as with any heavy traffic, most of the cars weren't moving. They would just look like lights on posts. He relayed a quick instruction through the local radio station: flash your high beams on and off. Though the cars are not moving, this simulated the appearance of lights passing behind obstructions to perfect effect.
Places featured in the film
Except for a few location shots for Boston, notably Fenway Park, much of the film was shot in and around Dubuque County, Iowa. Places that were used in the film were:- Dubuque was featured in the following:
- *University of Dubuque- Kevin Costner's character Ray looks up information on Terence Mann in the school library. When Ray and Annie are walking to their truck Blades Hall and the Van Vliet main administration building are shown.
- *Hendricks Feed. The store where Ray had gone to purchase supplies is located in downtown Dubuque.
- *Terence Mann's apartment and neighborhood - This was located near 17th Street and Central Avenue in Dubuque.
- *Airline Inn. This roadside motel is about three miles south of Dubuque along US Highways 61/151. This is the motel where Ray and Terrance stayed while traveling to Minnesota.
- *Downtown gas station. The gas station where Ray gets directions to Terence Mann's place was originally just south of the intersection of 3rd and Locust Streets in Dubuque. The gas station is no longer there, torn down to facilitate economic development.
- *Zehentner's Sports World. In one of the last scenes cut from the final movie (outtakes available in the 15th Anniversary Commemorative DVD), Ray buys equipment at a local sporting goods store and discovers its employees are the first people who don't think he's crazy. Now since closed after 60 years in the business, Zehentner's was located near 9th and Main.
- Farley, Iowa. The PTA meeting about Terence Mann's books was at Western Dubuque Elementary/Jr. High School, in Farley.
- Galena, Illinois - Galena was used to represent parts of Chisholm, Minnesota.
- U.S. Highway 20 - Part of the highway between the Illinois towns of East Dubuque and Galena was used to represent the drive from Boston to Chisholm. The Citgo station where Ray and Terrance stopped was along the highway west of Dubuque. When Ray and Annie are driving home from town, parts of the highway west of Dubuque are shown.
- U.S. Highway 52 - Parts of the highway north of Dubuque were used in the drive from Chisholm to Dyersville.
- U.S. Highway 151 - A portion of this highway that is about six miles south of Dubuque is seen in the scene where Ray and Terrance are in the van and talking about Ray's father.
Extras
Some from the community, as well as some more well known Hollywood actors were used as extras. Ben Affleck and Matt Damon were extras in the scenes filmed at Fenway Park in Boston. Local radio personality Paul Hemmer also was an uncredited extra when he appeared as the husband who held "Beulah - the Angry PTA Mother" back after Annie asked her if she wanted to step outside. Local businessman and Iowa lawmaker Paul Scherrman also appeared as an extra in the film as an additional ballplayer. Most of the entire population of Dyersville was employed in the film's final scene; it turned out to be a big community event, enlisting 1,500 volunteers to drive for the last scene.Since filming wrapped, the Field of Dreams movie site has become the destination for thousands who travel to Dyersville each year in true "life-imitates-art" fashion to see if there is any magic in the Iowa corn. That pilgrimage is chronicled in Tim Crescenti's video Dreamfield and in Brett Mandel's Is This Heaven? The Magic of the Field of Dreams (2001, Diamond Communications).
External links
- [Field of Dreams] - reviews at Rotten Tomatoes
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