Something to watch tonight: Tuesday 1 April
Field of Dream (Robinson, 1989)
Last week saw the opening games of the new baseball season in North America. It’s a pastime I don’t much care for (or understand) but I am always amazed at how it brings out the best in American filmmakers.
Films like The Natural, Bull Durham, A League of Their Own, 8 Men Out and even – I’m sure I am in something of a minority here – Million Dollar Arm speak to the romantic place the sport has in the culture.
The best remains Phil Alden Robinson’s classic Field of Dreams, and the appearance of a new 4K UHD collector’s set (including a fancy lenticular box and a selection of postcards) prompted me to persuade the family to watch it with me once again on Saturday night. (Actually, it was the 22-year-old’s first viewing! How have I failed in this aspect of his education up to now? His response as the credits rolled? “That was the best film ever.”)
Back during the 2021 lockdowns, when I was filling in on At the Movies and struggling for new release content, I chose Field of Dreams as something to help get us through the dislocation and anxiety:
It stars Kevin Costner at the peak of his Hollywood everyman phase as Ray, a reluctant Iowa farmer who hears a voice in his cornfield one day telling him that "If you build it he will come".
Baseball fan Ray thinks that means that if he ploughs under a few acres of his crops and installs a pitching mound, bases, home plate, and lights for night games, then disgraced former White Sox hitter Shoeless Joe Jackson will come back and play ball one more time.
Of course, it's not quite that simple and the voice starts making even more cryptic demands.
…
The more you watch it the more you get out of it. You soon realise that baseball is just context and that what you are watching is a gentle portrait of intergenerational angst, a changing America, a family that's found love and now has to work out how to send that love where it is needed.
On Ray's quixotic journey he meets a disaffected author, an ageing country doctor and a wide-eyed young ballplayer and his mission is to discover the connection between them all - and to him.
…
This time around I was struck by the spiritual dimension - I've always been moved by the family stuff - but that sense of embracing the unknown, the adventure beyond the life we have here was what I felt most strongly last night. Or maybe it's just the acceptance of the unknown, the unknowable, that I felt.
Transcendant.
Where to watch Field of Dreams
Worldwide Physical Media: 4K UHD disc from ViaVision (only six left in stock apparently)
Aotearoa: Digital rental
Australia: Streaming on Paramount+, FoxtelNow, Stan or Binge
Canada: Streaming on Netflix
Ireland: Streaming on Sky
India: Digital rental from Amazon
USA: Digital rental
UK: Streaming on Sky
Legitimately in my Top 10 all time - I saw it when I was about 9 and it’s been a comfort food ever since (like The Princess Bride). I can probably recite the whole script at this point but for now I’ll share my favourite moment in the film:
Ray: So what do you want?
Mann: I want them to stop looking to me for answers, begging me to speak again, write again, be a leader. I want them to start thinking for themselves. I want my privacy.
Ray: No, I mean, what do you *want*?
[camera changes angle to show food stand]
Mann: Oh. Dog and a beer.
I've seen more men legit cry at the end, as the young father and older son finally connect, than at any other movie I've seen!
I've also noticed that people who love it are often hesitant to talk about it to anyone they think isn't going to get it - there's something fragile about it that makes many of us want to protect it from cynicism.