Review of Field of Dreams (1989) by Byron B — 08 Jan 2017

Baseball is my favorite sport to watch (although American Ninja Warrior is taking most of my attention lately). As a kid I loved baseball movies like The Sandlot and the remake of Angels in the Outfield.

I finally made the effort to watch two of the most popular 80s baseball flicks starring Kevin Costner, this and Bull Durham. Field of Dreams has been called a "male weepy" and with a PG rating it is fairly family friendly.

I also need to see the 80s movie Eight Men Out (as I write this, it is currently streaming on Hulu) because I might better understand the history of the eight Chicago White Sox players who threw the 1919 World Series.

I know some of the famous quotes from this film and I've seen clips from it. The story has themes in common with Noah's Ark and Don Quixote, but as the scenes unfold I did not expect the ghostly voices that Costner's character hears to continue to be so vague.

It seems complete unreasonable to keep moving forward with a plan that has been so unclearly expressed. Costner spends more time standing confused in that field of corn than I expected and James Earl Jones' character is not much help, really.

This isn't a fantasy in terms of wizards and swords. There are just a lot of things that are left unexplained. A sense of make believe that is the only way this story works. I lost my father a few years ago and I miss him, yet surprisingly this was not a story about a son missing his father that brought me to tears.

Its a feel good movie with a fairy tale plot that I had trouble fully embracing.