Field Of Dreams

Field Of Dreams is one of my all time favourite films.  I have seen this movie so many times, I can quote it as the movie plays.  I used to have it on VHS but of course now own the DVD.  I even have the novel the movie was based on.  As I was channel hopping on Friday night, I was very happy to see it starting, so of course that is where it stayed.  My wife said that she didn't see my attraction to this film as it is just about baseball, and my response was while it is about baseball, that is not the story, it was really my first foray into magic realism in film.  It was a real story with real people (the baseball characters and their circumstances are based on real ball players), in an extraordinary situation and the key players go with it.  They don't fight it and they, and us, are rewarded because of it.
The story has a corn farmer, Ray Kinsella, in Iowa who hears a voice while out in his field saying "If you build it, he will come", he sees a baseball field where his crops are and then Shoeless Joe Jackson.  Because his Dad was into baseball, Ray knew all about the players from the past, especially the eight who were suspended for life for throwing a game, one of which was Shoeless Joe Jackson.  Ray believes he is being asked to build a baseball field, so Shoeless Joe Jackson can come back from the dead to play again.  Because he is afraid of becoming his Dad, who never did a spontaneous thing in his life, he decides to plow under part of his corn to build a beautiful field.  His wife, Annie, accepts what is happening and supports him.  Her attitude to her husband is so positive and powerful and shows just how much she loves him.
I don't want to go into the full story but in short, Ray hears other messages, goes across country to collect the J.D. Salinger-ish author, Terrance Mann and take him to a ball game where they get another message to collect another ball player, Moonlight Graham, who died in 1972!  Meanwhile, the farm is in debt and Annie's brother, who can't see the ball players on the field, buys the debt and threatens to foreclose.
This is not just a story about baseball.  It is really about a son reconciling with his deceased father (Ray never got to apologise to him before he died for a nasty thing he said about Shoeless Joe) through a common love, baseball.
The movie stars my favourite actor, Kevin Costner as Ray, the wonderful Amy Madigan as his supportive wife, Ray Liotta as Shoeless Joe and Darth Vader himself, James Earl Jones as Terrance Mann.  It also has Burt Lancaster in his final major film appearance as Moonlight Graham.  The director is Phil Alden Robinson who also made another of my all time favourite movies, Sneakers, but that's a story for another time.
This is a magical film and if you are one of the three people on the planet who haven't yet seen it, rent or better still, buy a copy now.  You will love it.  10/10