Field of Dreams

Field of Dreams
Directed by	Phil Alden Robinson
Written by	W.P. Kinsella (novel Shoeless Joe) Phil Alden Robinson (screenplay)
Produced by	Lawrence Gordon and Charles Gordon
Starring	Kevin Costner Amy Madigan James Earl Jones Ray Liotta Burt Lancaster Timothy Busfield Frank Whaley Gaby Hoffmann
Cinematography	John Lindley
Edited by	Ian Crafford
Music by	James Horner
Distributed by	Universal Studios
Release date	April 21, 1989 (1989-04-21) (USA)
Running time	107 min.
Language	English
Box office	$84,431,625

Field of Dreams (1989) is a movie about a farmer who becomes convinced by a mysterious voice (which I have to admit is pretty creepy) that he is 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, Frank Whaley and Burt Lancaster in his last film appearance. The film's underlying theme concerns the fulfillment of dreams and overcoming regrets for about the choices that people make in their lives.

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 fictional author Terence Mann (James Earl Jones) is based on the reclusive author J. D. Salinger. Salinger was the author sought out by the main character 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. Also, a minor character named Richard Kinsella appeared in Salinger's most famous work, The Catcher in the Rye, a fellow student of protagonist Holden Caulfield, who kills himself by jumping from a dormitory window.

The baseball field built for the film has become an attraction with the same name.

Synopsis

Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) is a novice farmer, living in rural Iowa with his wife, Annie (Amy Madigan), and their young daughter Karin (Gaby Hoffmann). Ray's deceased father, John Kinsella (Dwier Brown) loved baseball, the Chicago White Sox, and Shoeless Joe Jackson (Ray Liotta), who was banned from baseball for his part in throwing the 1919 World Series. His father, though seemed "worn down" by life.

Ray hears a voice whisper, "If you build it, he will come" and he imagines a baseball field in his cornfield. Annie is skeptical but she tells to follow his vision. One night the next summer, several deceased ballplayers from the 1919 team begin practicing and playing on the field. Ray realizes that unless he gets rid of the baseball field and returns it to farmland, he will go bankrupt.

Ray hears the voice again, which prompts him to contact 1960s author Terence Mann (James Earl Jones), who used to write about the good old days of baseball. The voice tells Ray to find a 1920s ballplayer named Archibald "Moonlight" Graham, who has been deceased since 1972.

Ray explains his father's love for the game and admits that he refused to play catch with his father, which created a rift that remained unresolved before his father's death. Back at the farm in Iowa, there are now full-fledged games being played on the cornfield. Ray learns that he is bankrupt, and that the bank will foreclose his property. Mann insists that spectators will come to the farm and pay admission to see the games, so that they can recapture their memories of youthful innocence.

The Field of Dreams, Dyersville, IA - May 2006.

Shoeless Joe tells Ray that the team needs a catcher; the player removes his catcher's mask, and Ray recognizes his father as a young man. As Ray asks his father to play catch, a long line of cars begin approaching the baseball field - people coming to watch the game.

Locations

Except for a few location shots for Boston, notably Fenway Park, much of the film was shot in and around Dubuque County, Iowa. The home and field were on adjoining farms near Dyersville, Iowa. The field was retained as a tourist attraction. The house is a private residence. Other places that were used in the film were:

Baseball field from the movie.

The Bleachers and the House

File:4thElevator7.jpg

Downtown Dubuque

• 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 on Central Avenue in downtown Dubuque.
  • Terence Mann's apartment and neighborhood - This was located near 17th Street and Central Avenue in Dubuque, although the scene takes place in Boston.
  • 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.
  • Martin's gas station. The gas station where Ray gets directions to Terence Mann's place was located at the southeast corner of the intersection of W. 3rd and Locust Streets in Dubuque. The gas station has since been razed to facilitate economic development.
  • Zehentner's Sports World. In one of the 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.
• Local Dubuque attorneys Dan McClean and Bill Conzett were featured in the kitchen scene as Timothy Busfield's partners. The two lawyers, playing bankers, were the only two "bad guys" in the film.

The film used local roads quite extensively to represent the drive from Dyersville to Boston, Boston to Chisholm, and Chisholm to Dyersville. The following are some of the local roadways used:

• 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.

Other Roads: Interstate 90 - Near La Crosse, Wisconsin - The first scenes from Dyersville to Boston.

• Huntington Avenue in Boston, near the campuses of Northeastern University and Wentworth, the site of the first world series game, and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston - As Ray rides along, practicing how he will greet Terence Mann, he drives along this heavily traveled route, away from downtown Boston and towards Natick.

External links

• Field of Dreams at IMDb
• Field of Dreams at Rotten Tomatoes
• Field of Dreams at Box Office Mojo
• Field of Dreams Movie Site