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Starring Kevin Kostner, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins. I was walking around the office this morning, debating about which drastically important task of working as a film critic at a free, monthly newspaper I should pursue, when I heard it near the water cooler. "If you write it, they will read..." I stopped once, not sure if I was hearing the computers humming, or what. Then I heard the voice again, "If you write it, they will read..." In the end, it turned out to be my editor doing what he could to get me to stop slacking and actually do some work, while sending me an inspirational message as well. And it worked, I sat down and started pounding choice observations like the following:Field of Dreams, based off the novel Shoeless Joe, by W.P. Kinsella, is a cinematic rarity in today's society, with Hollywood's focus on action films, lousy comedies, and cheap Tarantino rip-off, rife with graphic discussions of sex and violence at every new restaurant. This particular film is about one man's quest to find himself, and to make sense of what has happened in his life so far. Movies with this theme used to be more prevalent back in the day, with releases like Citizen Kane and The Searchers, back when this theme could be used as a marketing ploy. However, in the '80's and '90's, films with these thematic elements don't have the same financial draw as George Lucas' Star Wars prequels, or Jurassic Park 3: Why Don't We Just Nuke the Damn Dinosaurs? This is a shame, both for the quality of the films being produced, and for audiences across the world; a well thought out and smoothly plotted film like Field of Dreams is far more thought provoking and moving than that of Die Hard 15: Just Die Already. Phil Alden Robinson's celluloid vision of redemption, and unfulfilled hopes and dreams is one of the most spiritually elevated films I have had the pleasure to screen. It was such a welcome change of pace to see characters who seemingly worried more about their own fate, how they would deal with life's problems, and their own mental well-being than about paying the mortgage, or staying out of debt. Kevin Costner stars as Ray Kinsella, your run-of-the-mill, normal, Iowa farmer; Costner is married to his college sweetheart, played by Amy Madigan, has a young daughter, drives a VW bus, and hears a voice in his cornfields telling him to build a baseball diamond so that Shoeless Joe Jackson will be able to come back and play again. Costner, in the early throws of a mid-life crisis, basically says 'what the hell', and, with Madigan's approval, builds a baseball diamond next to his house. Like the voice said, Shoeless Joe does come back to play, and, as time progresses, and Costner's bank account decreases, Shoeless Joe begins to bring back more old ballplayers to the field, until finally the field has enough ghostplayers to play a game. The voice returns with more messages for Costner, ultimately sending him to Boston to find recluse author Terrance Mann (read J.D. Salinger), played by James Earl Jones, and with Jones to Minnesota, to find the man with the shortest baseball career, one at bat, in baseball's illustrious history. Throughout these travels, Costner and Jones attempt to grasp why the voice chose to speak to them, and what past regrets they have in their lives that need to be vocalized, or dealt with. The acting is stellar, Robinson's direction captivating, with lots of little effects like fog, mist, or hard-to-capture helicopter shots that didn't have to be included, but were, and Robinson's script genuinely heart-warming, without the sappiness and violin music associated with thought provoking screenplays. On the surface, Field of Dreams is a baseball movie: the characters play baseball, build a diamond for people to play on, etc., but at its heart, this is a film that digs deep into the American way of life, what we believe in, what we hold dear to our hearts, and how we can go about fulfilling lost dreams. In this respect, Field of Dreams is more than just a movie, it's an engaging look back at our own lives, and the choices we have made. You simply cannot go wrong with Field of Dreams.
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