Field of Dreams

1989 Fantasy

"If you build it, he will come." That's the ethereal message that inspires Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) to construct a baseball diamond in the middle of his cornfield. At first, "he" seems to be the ghost of disgraced ballplayer Shoeless Joe Jackson (Ray Liotta), who materializes on the ballfield and plays a few games with the awestruck Ray. But as the weeks go by, Ray receives several other messages from a disembodied voice, one of which is "Ease his pain." He realizes that his ballfield has been divinely ordained to give a second chance to people who have sacrificed certain valuable aspects of their lives. One of these folks is Salingeresque writer Terence Mann (James Earl Jones), whom Ray kidnaps and takes to a ball game and then to his farm. Another is Doc Graham (Burt Lancaster), a beloved general practitioner who gave up a burgeoning baseball career in favor of medicine. The final "second-chancer" turns out to be much closer to Ray. That "magical" field in Dyersville, Iowa still draws thousands of baseball-happy tourists each year. more..

Director: Phil Alden Robinson

Starring: Kevin Costner, Amy Madigan, Ray Liotta, James Earl Jones,Burt Lancaster

 24 Reviews  15 Awards

Reviews

  • This is the kind of movie Frank Capra might have directed, and James Stewart might have starred in - a movie about dreams.

    Roger Ebert - The Chicago Sun-Times

    19 January 2013

  • A work so smartly written, so beautifully filmed, so perfectly acted, that it does the almost impossible trick of turning sentimentality into true emotion.

    - The New York Times

    19 January 2013

  • Imagine: a pseudo-intellectual baseball fantasy loaded up, like a spitter, with seductive sentiment. You can distrust the mix, but still like the movie - and I do.

    Mike Clark - USA Today

    19 January 2013

  • As shrewd and accomplished as the movie is, there's still something uncomfortably manipulative about it... It doesn't explore its primal theme as much as it exploits it, tapping into the automatic, nearly universal power of guilt and regret.

    Dave Kehr - The Chicago Tribune

    19 January 2013

  • But there's something missing, something tentative and uncertain. In order to pull off a magic trick, you often have to distract the audience with smooth patter, clever detail or indirection. And this movie tries to play it so pure and unabashed that we can see right up its sleeves.

    Michael Wilmington - Los Angeles Times

    19 January 2013

Awards

  • Best Music, Original Score

    Academy Awards (1990)

     

  • Best Fantasy Film

    Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films (1991)

     

  • Best Edited Feature Film

    American Cinema Editors (1990)

     

  • Best Foreign Film

    Awards of the Japanese Academy (1991)

  • Best Foreign Language Film

    Blue Ribbon Awards (1991)

Lists

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