Field of Dreams : Not a Baseball Movie?!

Not a Baseball Movie?!

I started looking around here after seeing this movie again recently, and couldn't believe how many viewers were so quick to dismiss the importance of baseball to this movie. I can't imagine this story not being told through the prism of baseball. To me, this seems so plainly obvious as to be absurd to even point it out.

anyway, I posted this elsewhere, but thought it needed its own post:

I agree that one doesn't have to be a fan of baseball to appreciate the movie any more than one needs to know billiards to appreciate The Hustler. Having said that, the equivocating between baseball and - in one particular instance on this board - cricket and jai alai is astounding.

Field of Dreams, like it or not, uses baseball to comment primarily on the relationship between fathers and sons, the subtext of which is the American tradition, its value system and how the Baby Boomer generation and counterculture clashed with, often rejected and in many cases lost those relationships. Moonlight Graham perhaps serves as the intermediary or healer in this sense.

Baseball has a uniquely American history, rooted in its pastoral beginnings, marred by scandal and elevated by the greatness of its heroes. Yes, the sport most certainly functions as a metaphor in the story, but James Earl Jones' wonderfully delivered speech on baseball and its history may also be taken literally. We can walk and chew gum at the same time here, folks.

It's impossible for me to imagine this movie having the same impact using bowling or cricket. This isn't to say a good or even powerful movie could not be made using those games, but such a film would be saying something entirely different. So, while I'm sure we could agree that there are some universal themes at play here, I entirely disagree that baseball is merely incidental to the story; it has much to say specifically on the role baseball has played in American society throughout its history, using it as a through-line and giving it a spiritual significance not possible with any other game, except arguably football.

I'm equally amazed that so many on this board very casually accept this idea of baseball being meaningless to this story, hence a longer response than usual. My only explanation is that certain folks simply want to believe this, maybe for the same reason Ray rejected his father.

Re: Not a Baseball Movie?!

I totally agree with you. Everything about this movie is based on Baseball and it's legacy and past-time in America. The whole movie is based on Costner being reconnected with his dad. When he's walking through the field he hears a voice say "if you build it he will come." Which people confuse with "If you build it they will come" after Terrence Mann tells Ray "people will come". Every boy can remember playing baseball with their Dad as a child and this is what reconnects Ray with his Dad. It might not be a baseball movie in respects to it being a biopic or the rise of some one great but it illustrates the cultural significance it has played in America. If you watch any bio on a pro they will always say how they remember playing catch with their dad when the game was innocent and they were just having fun.

Re: Not a Baseball Movie?!

Thanks for the backup! Yes, the fact that the film does not chronicle real-life events should not dissuade people from the notion that it is a baseball movie, i.e, it's about Ray and his family, but also baseball, specifically.

Re: Not a Baseball Movie?!

I agree with both of you. It isn't a baseball movie. Yeah, except for the fact they were playing baseball the whole movie! I don't like boxing and when Million Dollar Baby came out people told me I had to see it. I said I didn't really like boxing and they said "Oh it isn't a boxing movie." So I saw it. Guess what? That was a damn boxing movie if I ever saw one! So, yeah, this is a baseball movie, and an excellent one at that.

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I did sixty in five minutes once...

Re: Not a Baseball Movie?!

the allman brothers band was an odd choice for the boston scene.




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Re: Not a Baseball Movie?!

Eh, I think you could switch baseball out with just about any other sport and have the same movie. If they switched it out with hockey it would have been a better movie.

Never did understand the appeal of baseball.
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