Field of Dreams
Time Out says
Despite a happy family life, Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella (Costner) is left musing over lost idealism and a squandered relationship with his father, a former baseball player now dead. Hearing a disembodied voice urging 'If you build it, he will come', he is propelled on a quest which initially involves putting a baseball pitch in the middle of his crop. This in turn heralds the arrival of ghostly baseball players - including the infamous Shoeless Joe Jackson, implicated in the fixing of the 1919 World Series. Taken in bare outline, the plot may appear faintly ridiculous; but this often beautiful film (John Lindley's cinematography is breathtaking) - using baseball as a metaphor for other issues, namely the bonding or lack of it between father and son - embraces qualities which are skilfully amplified and not sentimentalised. Writer/director Robinson has embellished WP Kinsella's novel to examine the ideological conflict between the '60s and the '80s; together with moments of dry humour and fine performances, the political element lends the film gravity sufficient to counterbalance any sense of whimsy. Pure magic.
Details
Release details
Duration:
106 mins
Cast and crew
Director:
Phil Alden Robinson
Screenwriter:
Phil Alden Robinson
Cast:
Kevin Costner
Amy Madigan
James Earl Jones
Timothy Busfield
Ray Liotta
Burt Lancaster
Gaby Hoffmann
Frank Whaley
Dwier Brown
Amy Madigan
James Earl Jones
Timothy Busfield
Ray Liotta
Burt Lancaster
Gaby Hoffmann
Frank Whaley
Dwier Brown