If you believe the impossible, the incredible can come true
Rating: 8/10
Running Time: 101 minutes
UK Certificate: pg
On DVD
Kevin Costner is Ray Kinsella, a child of the sixties who has settled down as an Iowa corn farmer with his wife Anni (Amy Madigan) and daughter Karin (Gaby Hoffmann). As he says himself in the film, he has never before done a crazy thing in his life. That all changes one day when he hears a voice speaking to him in his cornfield: “If you build it, he will come ”
At first, Ray has no idea what this means. Then he sees the vision in his field a baseball diamond amongst the corn. Cheerfully, and with the somewhat confused support of his long-suffering wife, he sets out to turn the vision into reality. Once the field is finished, he and his family are stunned to discover the presence of 'Shoeless' Joe Jackson (Ray Liotta) in it a long dead legendary baseball player with a black mark on his record. Shoeless Joe brings his friends, the other seven Chicago White Sox players banned from the game for throwing the 1919 World Series, and soon the field is full of historic baseball figures.
However, there is more to Ray's task than just building the baseball diamond. The voices continue, sending him on a journey to find other characters who he knows need to be there but doesn't know why. In the meantime, debts accrue against the farm which can no longer produce the full crop of corn. On his journey of self-discovery, Ray will explore the things he has left undone and learn the real priorities in his life.
This is gentle touching movie, full of baseball but not about baseball instead it is about a man getting in touch with his dreams and learning that sometimes you have to take a chance in life. Costner turns in a strong performance as the ordinary guy-next-door corn farmer who suddenly and without explanation does something extraordinary. Madigan is outstanding as his supportive wife for a change not an antagonist but a believing participant who finds the disbelief of others most amusing.
It's Got: A simple touching plot and likeable characters.
It Needs: Not to be mistaken for a baseball movie.
DVD Extras The Scrapbook offers an outstanding perspective into the making of the film. Commentary with Director and Director of Photography, Field of Dreams Scrapbook featuring Making Of, Trailer, Production notes, Cast and Filmmaker Biographies. DVD Extras Rating: 8/10
Summary
An outstanding and moving film that will appeal to both men and women one doesnt need to know or care anything about baseball to be inspired by it. Not to be missed.