Last week, upon hearing of the passing of James Earl Jones, instead of Star Wars, Coming to America, Lion King, or Sesame Street’s second episode ever, we settled in to watch Field of Dreams.
I saw Field of Dreams as a kid— something I picked out with my Dad at the rental store back when that was a ritual families the world over enjoyed. I remembered liking it in that easy-to-please kind of kid way when “liking” was what I did to movies. I recalled the general plot: A man hears a voice telling him to build a baseball field on his farm, ghost baseball players show up and play.
I knew I had to be missing key points because that basic concept is so bizarre and outlandish that it couldn’t be right.
It is far, far stranger.
This movie is intensely Boomer coded, which is unsurprising for a movie that came out in 1989, which I would call peak Boomer power but we all know peak Boomer power is 1980-present. Some things about our protagonist, Ray Kinsella — played very Kevin Costner-y by Kevin Costner, that struck me with extra Boom:
Ray’s single father worked in the Boston shipyards. Ray never mentions growing up hungry or struggling financially.
Ray GOES TO BERKELEY across the country on what I assume is meager savings, if any, and against his father’s wishes.
Ray “majored in the sixties” (actual quote) as indicated by a montage of black and white photos of hippies smoking weed and holding protest signs. He met his wife at Berkeley.
After graduating from college, Ray is convinced by his wife, Annie (played by Amy Madigan, who I’d love to see in more things and is married to Ed Harris), to buy a farm in Iowa.
Sorry, did you get that? He buys a farm. Right outta undergrad. He’s never farmed nor had a job. Anything is possible for Ray.
The reason for the beef between Ray and his father, who died shortly after Ray was married and was not invited to the wedding, is because Ray was mad at his Dad for being boring.
Again, so sorry: You’re mad at your Dad for “living a life of mediocrity” (providing stability for you throughout childhood) so you cut him out of your life and Millennials are the entitled snowflakes?
The farm house is massive and it is FILLED with THINGS.
Karen, their daughter, played by six-year-old Gaby Hoffman’s in her debut role (Now and Then, Sleepless in Seattle, and MANY more) is yelled at for being a small child who notices things. This is both a plot device and a sign of grown-ups’ emotional immaturity.
The crux of this entire movie is, “Follow your dreams and everything will turn out fine.” But you know that Karen ended up going to art school and getting her masters in a highly specialized field of study like culinary art history with intersections of performance and now she has to sell her parents’ farm so she can pay off her student debt.
The timeline gets a little fuzzy here but the important part is Ray starts hearing a voice in the cornfield that repeats, “If you build it, he will come.”
Ray, who is special and an everyman— like all man-Boomers, intuits that the “it” is a baseball field because he sees a vision and “he” is Shoeless Joe Jackson, because that’s his favorite baseball player. Shoeless Joe, a dead person, was sent to baseball purgatory because he and eight of his teammates threw a game back in the day for reasons I didn’t care enough about to fully digest. It’s not integral to the plot, which continues to get fucking bonkers.
Annie’s brother, a remarkably Richard Dreyfus-looking guy, for being Not Richard Dreyfus (it’s Timothy Busfield), keeps nagging Annie and Ray to sell the farm— specifically to him. He so overstates that he has the family’s best interest at heart, that I assume he doesn’t (spoiler alert— he does! This might be the weakest part of the movie).
Ray builds a baseball field.
Again, did you catch that? They’re broke and he builds a baseball field. My inner DIY theater kid was crunching the numbers for how much the tiny bleachers he made would cost while he’s laying sod and astroturf and purchases full stadium lighting. THIS IS BILLIONAIRE BEHAVIOR. If this movie was made in 2024, our boy Ray would be the villain and Annie’s brother would be played by Glen Powell with a pleading earnestness and, “I’m not going to tell you what to do, but I love you and care about you.” kind of gentleness. Therapy would be offered!
He builds it and Shoeless Joe Jackson (the glorious Ray Liotta of Heartbreakers fame) comes! End of movie!
Just kidding! Joe brings some friends (the eight others from baseball purgatory) but not enough to play a game. They stretch a lot and wise talk each other. The voice comes back and tells our boy Ray to “Ease his pain.” By the power of a library montage and expositional car ride, he deduces that he needs to go get famous author and known recluse Terrence Mann in Boston. Terry needs to see the magic baseball boys!
Just prior to this, Annie and Ray are at a school parent assembly where a woman at the microphone is arguing why books by Terrence Mann (in the book Field of Dreams, the author being protested is J.D. Salinger, who apparently threatened to sue if they used him in the movie), should be banned. Depressingly, this scene could happen and is happening all over the country today and was a bummer to watch. We have not come far! Annie stands up and calls the woman a “Nazi cow.” in front of a very full gymnasium and pearls are clutched. Annie then celebrates as though she’s achieved meaningful policy change regarding book banning and free speech by calling a shitty person a nasty name in front of her whole town (she has not).
Ray does the only sensible thing and drives his VW bus (because of course it’s a VW bus) to Boston, where he meets/stalks Terrance Mann (James Earl Jones is without a doubt, my favorite part of this movie. He is both comic relief and thoughtful reflection) and with much difficulty convinces him to go to a baseball game (Matt Damon and Ben Affleck were extras in this scene— I did not see them). At Fenway Park, they BOTH see a vision that they have to go to Minnesota and find “Moonlight” Graham.
I’d forgotten about this part of the movie, but as a new Minnesota resident, I LOVE a Northern Minnesota cameo! Sadly, no Minnesotas were filmed during the making of this movie. Galena, IL was used as the Northern Minnesota substitute which is embarrassing for both locations.
They drive from Boston to “Chisholm, MN” (Galena, IL), where they find Archie Graham (ladies, gentleman, and enbies, Mr. Burt Lancaster), a one-inning pro baseball player turned town doctor… who has been dead for years! OOOOooooOOOoooo. Dead doctor declines to join Ray and disappears into the mist from whence he came.
Our new besties, Mann and Kinsella, drive from Minnesota back to Iowa feeling defeated when they pick up a young and spry baseball-loving hitchhiker named… ARCHIE GRAHAM! Baseball ghosties unite!
Archie joins the ghost team back at Chez Ray, which has grown enough in ghost population to play a real baseball game.
Not Richard Dreyfus enters to yell at Annie and Ray about selling the farm again. He gets so emotional that he grabs their five-year-old-daughter and shakes her? Not to be outdone by another adult who has so little control over his emotions he could harm a child, Ray starts grabbing Not Richard Dreyfus, who loses his grip and Karen falls from the top of the bleachers to the earth with a dramatic thud.
They took in there, folks. We may have some of that classic late-80’s early-90’s dead kid stuff on our hands.
But wait! Archie boy comes to the rescue and saves Karen’s life so she can one day ask to speak to a manager. But in doing so he had to leave the baseball field, which means he can never return1 and they get the music just right so I cry like I’ve been expertly emotionally manipulated by a movie.
This miracle opens Not Richard Dreyfus’s eyes (oh yeah, some people can’t see Shoeless Joe and his pals. Very chill and normal). He’s a believer and says, “You can’t sell this farm!” and everyone chuckles over the near-death of a tiny person.
Finally, the baseball ghosties are about to head in for a break by disappearing in the cornfield (they invite Terrance to the party and he delivers an okay-written monologue in a beautiful way) and our boy Ray notices the catcher, who is none other than our hardworking shipyarder from Boston: Ghost Daddy. They play catch together because that’s what good fathers and sons do and the camera pulls out to reveal a line of headlights coming towards the farm to watch the baseball game, which is how our farmers will make their money now: by taking something magical that they don’t understand and charging strangers money for it. Capitalism saves the day!
I genuinely enjoyed this rewatch. High production value. Very strange. James Earl Jones.
Hire me to write Field of Dreams: Next Inning! I’ll include another book banning scene, Glen Powell as Karen’s thoughtful and sensitive partner who helps figure out how to sell the farm so they can afford the lawyer fees to take their abusive landlord to court, and Karen visiting a therapist to work through the trauma of when her uncle tried to kill her.
What’s a movie you saw as a kid and watched again and were like, “What the fuck?” and why was it Waterworld, also with Kevin Costner?
Other Updates:
I’ve been devouring books lately and one of my recent favorites was Severance by Ling Ma. Exit Interview, a memoir about working at Amazon by Kristi Coulter was also fantastic. Both workplace dramas with some levity and some gut punches.
Looking for work is terrible. Please don’t ask people who are looking for work, “How’s the job search going?” It’s going really bad and it’s miracle we’re not in tears.
I start teaching yoga in-studio for the first time since June 2023 this Sunday! If you’re local check it out! If you’re not, you can join virtually!
I love that the conceit here is that it’s wildly disappointing to not make it as a professional baseball player and so embarrassing that you have to do something like be a doctor instead.
Sarah, this is SO HILARIOUS. I have never seen this movie but now I feel like I don't even need to. I know everything!!