Field of Dreams facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Field of Dreams
Promotional poster by Mick McGinty and Olga Kaljakin
Directed by	Phil Alden Robinson
Produced by	Lawrence Gordon Charles Gordon
Screenplay by	Phil Alden Robinson
Starring	Kevin Costner Amy Madigan James Earl Jones Ray Liotta Burt Lancaster
Music by	James Horner
Cinematography	John Lindley
Editing by	Ian Crafford
Studio	Gordon Company
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	May 5, 1989 (1989-05-05)
Running time	107 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$15 million
Money made	$84.4 million

Field of Dreams is a popular American movie from 1989. It's a mix of sports, fantasy, and drama. The movie was written and directed by Phil Alden Robinson. It's based on a book called Shoeless Joe by W. P. Kinsella.

The film stars famous actors like Kevin Costner, Amy Madigan, James Earl Jones, Ray Liotta, and Burt Lancaster. This was Burt Lancaster's last movie role. Field of Dreams was nominated for three Academy Awards, which are very important movie prizes. These nominations included Best Original Score, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Picture.

In 2017, the movie was chosen to be kept safe in the United States National Film Registry. This means the Library of Congress thought it was very important for culture, history, or art.

Story of Field of Dreams

The movie follows Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner), a 36-year-old farmer. He lives with his wife, Annie (Amy Madigan), and their daughter, Karin (Gaby Hoffmann). They live on a corn farm in Iowa. Ray feels sad about his relationship with his father, John Kinsella (Dwier Brown), who loved baseball. His father has passed away, and Ray regrets how they left things.

Building the Baseball Field

One evening, Ray is walking in his cornfield when he hears a voice. The voice whispers, "If you build it, he will come." Then, Ray sees a vision of a baseball diamond in his cornfield. He also sees the famous baseball player, Shoeless Joe Jackson (Ray Liotta), standing on it.

Ray believes what he heard and saw. Annie, his wife, supports him. She lets him plow under part of their corn to build the baseball field. This is a big risk for their family's money.

Mysterious Players Arrive

As Ray builds the field, he tells Karin about the 1919 Black Sox Scandal. This was a real event where some baseball players were accused of cheating. Months pass, and Ray starts to doubt himself. But then, Shoeless Joe appears! He asks if other players can come too. Soon, the seven other Black Sox players appear on the field.

Annie's brother, Mark (Timothy Busfield), cannot see the players. He worries that Ray and Annie are losing all their money. He offers to buy their farm. Meanwhile, the mysterious voice tells Ray to "ease his pain."

Finding Terrence Mann

Ray and Annie go to a school meeting. Annie speaks up against someone who wants to ban books by a writer named Terrence Mann (James Earl Jones). Ray figures out that the voice might be talking about Mann. Mann had named a character "John Kinsella" in one of his books. He also once said he dreamed of playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers as a child.

Ray and Annie both have the same dream. In the dream, Ray and Mann are at a baseball game at Fenway Park. Ray travels to Boston and finds Mann, who lives alone and doesn't see many people. Mann agrees to go to one game with Ray. At the game, Ray hears the voice again, saying "go the distance." He sees a scoreboard with information about a player named Moonlight Graham (Burt Lancaster). Graham played one game for the New York Giants in 1922 but never got to bat. Mann also admits he heard the voice and saw the scoreboard.

Meeting Moonlight Graham

Ray and Mann drive to Minnesota. They learn that Graham, who became a doctor, died years ago. But then, Ray finds himself in 1972. He meets an older Graham, who says he was happy to leave baseball to be a doctor.

On the way back to Iowa, Ray picks up a young hitchhiker (Frank Whaley). This young man is Archie Graham, and he is looking for a baseball field. Ray tells Mann that his own father wanted to be a baseball player. But his father tried to make Ray play baseball instead. When Ray was 14, he stopped playing catch with his dad. They grew apart after Ray made fun of his dad for having a "criminal" as a hero. Ray admits he deeply regrets that they never made up.

The Field Comes Alive

When they arrive back at the farm, many classic all-star players have appeared. They form a second team. A game is played, and young Archie finally gets to bat.

The Field of Dreams, Dyersville, Iowa, May 2006

The next morning, Mark returns. He demands that Ray sell the farm because the bank will take it. Karin, Ray's daughter, says that people will pay to watch the games. Mann agrees, saying that "people will come" to feel like children again.

A fight breaks out between Ray and Mark. Karin falls off the bleachers. Graham quickly saves her. He knows that by stepping off the field, he will become old again and cannot return. Now an old doctor, he tells Ray he has no regrets. The other players praise him, and he disappears into the corn. Suddenly, Mark can see the players too. He tells Ray to keep the farm.

A Father's Reunion

Shoeless Joe invites Mann to enter the cornfield, and Mann disappears. Ray is upset he wasn't invited. But Joe looks at the catcher at home plate and says, "If you build it, he will come." When the catcher takes off his mask, Ray sees it's his own father as a young man. Ray realizes that "ease his pain" was about his father.

Ray introduces his father to Annie and Karin, without telling them who he is. As his father starts to walk towards the cornfield, Ray calls him "Dad." He asks if he wants to play catch. They play catch as hundreds of cars are seen driving towards the field. This fulfills the prophecy that people will come to watch baseball.

Main Cast Members

Anne Seymour also played a kind publisher in Chisholm. She passed away before the movie was released.

The actor who provided "The Voice" that speaks to Ray is still a mystery. Some think it was Kevin Costner or Ray Liotta. The book's author, W. P. Kinsella, was told it was Ed Harris. Even famous actors Matt Damon and Ben Affleck were extras in the Fenway Park scene when they were teenagers.

Making the Movie

Phil Alden Robinson read the book Shoeless Joe in 1981. He liked it so much that he brought it to producers Lawrence Gordon and Charles Gordon. Lawrence Gordon worked for 20th Century Fox. He often suggested making the book into a movie. But the studio always said no. They thought the story was too unusual and wouldn't make money.

Robinson kept working on his script. He often asked W. P. Kinsella, the book's author, for advice. Lawrence Gordon left Fox in 1986 and offered the movie idea to other studios. Universal Pictures said yes in 1987. They hired USC baseball coach Rod Dedeaux as a special advisor. Dedeaux brought World Series champion Don Buford to help coach the actors.

Choosing the Title

The movie was first filmed using the book's title, Shoeless Joe. But later, the studio decided to change it to Field of Dreams. Robinson didn't like this idea. He thought Shoeless Joe was a better title. However, Kinsella later told Robinson that his original title for the book was The Dream Field. The publisher had made him change it to Shoeless Joe.

Casting the Actors

The filmmakers didn't first think of Kevin Costner for the role of Ray. They thought he wouldn't want to make another baseball movie after Bull Durham. But Costner read the script and was very interested. He felt it could be "this generation's It's a Wonderful Life." Costner also offered to help Robinson with the movie.

Amy Madigan, who loved the book, joined the cast as Ray's wife, Annie. In the book, Ray looks for the real author J. D. Salinger. But Salinger threatened to sue if his name was used. So, Robinson changed the character to Terence Mann. He wrote the part with James Earl Jones in mind.

Robinson wanted Shoeless Joe Jackson to be played by an actor in his 40s. Someone older than Costner who could be like a father figure. Ray Liotta was not in his 40s. But Robinson thought he would be a better fit because he had a "sense of danger" and mystery. Burt Lancaster first said no to playing Moonlight Graham. But a friend, who loved baseball, told him he had to do the movie. So, Lancaster changed his mind.

Filming Locations

Filming started on May 25, 1988. The schedule was planned around Costner's availability. He had to leave in August to film another movie. The crew worked six days a week, with some delays due to weather.

The indoor scenes were shot first. The cornfield planted by the filmmakers was growing too slowly. They had to use special watering to make the corn grow quickly to Costner's height. Most of the filming happened in Dubuque County, Iowa. A farm near Dyersville, Iowa was used for the Kinsella home. An empty building in Dubuque, Iowa was used for indoor sets. Galena, Illinois was used for the scenes in Moonlight Graham's town. One week was spent filming in Boston, especially at Fenway Park.

Robinson felt a lot of stress during filming. He felt pressured to make an amazing movie. He worried he wasn't doing the book justice. But Lawrence Gordon told him the movie would be great.

For the final scene, Robinson wanted to show car headlights stretching for miles. The local Chamber of Commerce in Iowa said they could help. The final scene became a community event. The film crew hid on the farm. Dyersville was blacked out, and local people drove their cars to the field. They switched their low and high beams to make it look like the cars were moving.

The Baseball Field

The baseball field from the film, May 2004

The scenes at the Kinsella farm were filmed on Don Lansing's property in Dyersville, Iowa. Some of the baseball field scenes were shot on the nearby farm of Al Ameskamp. The filming schedule was too short for grass to grow naturally. So, experts who laid sod for Dodger Stadium and the Rose Bowl were hired. They created the baseball field, even painting the grass green.

After filming, Ameskamp grew corn on his land again. But Lansing kept his field as a tourist destination. He didn't charge for entry or parking. He made money only from the souvenir shop. By the movie's 20th anniversary, about 65,000 people visited each year. In 2010, the farm was put up for sale. It was sold in 2011 to Go The Distance Baseball, LLC.

In 2019, Major League Baseball (MLB) announced a special game. The Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees would play at the Dyersville site. This game was planned for August 13, 2020. An 8,000-seat field was built next to the original one. A path connected the two fields. The new field was designed to look like the White Sox's old stadium, Comiskey Park. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the game was first changed to the White Sox playing the St. Louis Cardinals. Then, on August 3, 2020, the game was canceled because of problems with planning.

Movie Music

At first, James Horner wasn't sure if he could compose the music for the film. He had other projects. But then he watched an early version of the movie. He was so touched that he agreed to do it.

The director, Robinson, had used some temporary music that Universal executives didn't like. When Horner was announced as the composer, they were happy. They expected a big orchestral score, like his music for An American Tail. But Horner liked the temporary music. He found it "quiet and kind of ghostly." He decided to create a similar mood for the soundtrack. He wanted it to "focus on the emotions."

Besides Horner's score, you can hear parts of several pop songs in the movie. These songs are:

• "Crazy", by Willie Nelson and sung by Beverly D'Angelo
• "Daydream", by John Sebastian and sung by The Lovin' Spoonful
• "Jessica", by Dickey Betts and played by The Allman Brothers Band
• "China Grove", by Tom Johnston and played by The Doobie Brothers
• "Lotus Blossom", by Billy Strayhorn and played by Duke Ellington

Real-Life Connections

The character played by Burt Lancaster and Frank Whaley, Archibald "Moonlight" Graham, was a real baseball player. His story in the movie is mostly true. However, some small changes were made for the movie's story. For example, the real Graham played his only major league game in June 1905, not on the last day of the 1922 season. Also, the real Graham died in 1965, not in 1972 as shown in the film. The DVD special features mention that the facts given about Graham in the movie were taken from articles about the real man.

Movie Release and Home Video

Universal Pictures planned for Field of Dreams to open in the U.S. on April 21, 1989. The movie first opened in only a few theaters. Then, it was slowly released to more screens. This helped it stand out among the big summer movies. It played in theaters until December.

Field of Dreams was released on VHS in 1992. It later came out on DVD on May 4, 2003. It was released on Blu-ray on March 13, 2011. For its 30th anniversary, it was released on 4K UHD Blu-Ray on May 14, 2019.

Awards and Recognition

In June 2008, the American Film Institute (AFI) asked over 1,500 people in the film industry for their opinions. They created a list of the "Ten Top Ten" films in different genres. Field of Dreams was named the sixth best fantasy film.

American Film Institute Lists

• AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies—nominated
• AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes:
  • "If you build it, he will come."—#39
• AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores—nominated
• AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers—#28
• AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition)—nominated
• AFI's 10 Top 10—#6 Fantasy Film

In 2017, the US Library of Congress chose Field of Dreams for its National Film Registry. Film critic Leonard Maltin said the movie is "a story of redemption and faith, in the tradition of the best Hollywood fantasies with moments of pure magic."

Images for kids

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  The Field of Dreams, Dyersville, Iowa, 2012

See also

In Spanish: Field of Dreams para niños