The 1989 movieField of Dreamsis obsessed with the last word in its title. What is a dream? DirectorPhil Alden Robinsonapproaches the question staunchly refusing cynicism, a type of sentimentality that the movie’s detractors often deem wishy-washy. But the film has become such a staple of Americana that it must strike something deep in the hearts of viewers that other movies of the same ilk can’t quite reach. Its love affair with baseball is enough to win some over, but its subtly complex depiction of the stuff dreams are made of is much more enchanting. It doesn’t view dreams as goals to be achieved, nor as visions simply imagined. It sees them as the collision between mystical forces and stories, moments where events of the past become more than just ghosts.Field of Dreamshas ensnared the hearts of so many Americans because it understands dreams to be little bits of unexplainable magic helping people deal with things all too real.
The movie begins with a story of the lives of two men. One of them is the storyteller, Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) who tells the audience about his life up until he purchases a farm with his wife in Iowa. The other man, and the more important subject in the story, is his father John, who has died. Ray’s story of his father now consists of moments he can’t possibly remember, from John’s youth to the time Ray was born, to moments he wishes he could redo, to try and prevent the earthquakes that caused rifts between the two. One of the few things that Ray can recall holding any value in their relationship is baseball. It’s not something that outwardly possesses any meaning, but it’s something that is remembered as important for some indeterminable reason. It was something associated with serenity in a world where everything else weighed too much, and it’s only after his father is gone that Ray finally understands how much it meant.
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When Ray hears the voice in his cornfield telling him to build a baseball diamond, he follows its directions despite not knowing why. But its precisely because he doesn’t know why that he follows them. It’s an unearthly tug, an ethereal chance that he has been handed, although he’s not quite sure what the chance might lead to. It’s exactly the type of chance that he used to begrudge his father for not taking, but now Ray is only scared of what might happen if he doesn’t chase his own white rabbits. What part of his future might be jeopardized, and what he might be forced to leave behind if he only chooses to do what makes sense is what he finds terrifying. As he embarks on his journey across the country, following the magic laid out in front of him every step of the way, he meets another who could use a nudge from the intangible. The two are connected through their love of the game of baseball, but more importantly find ways to use the sport to reintroduce them to a type of magic they once knew but have long forgotten.
Terence Mann (James Earl Jones) is a generation defining writer, a (fictional) satirist who saw success in the 1960s but has since lost the will to write due to his ever-increasing misanthropy. He doesn’t write anymore because he doesn’t think his books can help anyone in a world he now classifies as doomed. Propelled by an urge, Ray drives out to meet Mann and take him to a Red Sox game. Mann hears the voice and feels the uncanny force urging him to embark on Ray’s journey that appears to have no end goal, but chooses to ignore it because it can’t be real. At the last second however, he chooses to accompany Ray because the voice he heard was first thing in a long time that hasn’t made any sense. The horrors that he views enveloping the country are all too predictable in Mann’s eyes, so perhaps the only thing worth giving a chance is the one thing that he can’t understand.
As Ray and Mann drive across the country and eventually arrive at the Kinsella farm, they begin to remember the importance of baseball in their own stories. In Ray’s life, as mentioned before, baseball represented this incomprehensible bond he shared with his father — a bond that he threw away and wishes he could have recaptured. As a child, Mann said he always wanted to play at Ebbets field, and that he was heartbroken when the stadium was torn down, causing him to later abandon baseball altogether. They each have stories about baseball, stories that they think have ended, but whatever force is spurring them on is giving them a second chance to write find a different ending. Ray wants the chance to rewrite his own story, to be given an opportunity to mend bonds he was too scared to approach before, and the field brings back his father to help him reconcile. Mann needs a reminder of “all that once was good, and it could be again”, a reason to pick back up his pen and write the stories that inspired so many, and the field shows him that there’s something left in the world worth fighting for.
But perhaps the character most affected by this intersection of magic and stories is Archibald “Moonlight” Graham, the last character visited on Ray’s trip. Graham was a small town doctor before he passed away years before Ray and Mann’s yellow brick road lead them to his Minnesotan hometown. But he was also a baseball player who got to play a half inning in the major leagues, never getting an at bat, before realizing that dream would never come to fruition, and he quit. The elderly ghost of Graham (Burt Lancaster) declines the offer to travel back to Iowa with Ray and Mann, but a younger ghost of Graham, one still bent on making the major leagues, is picked up by the two on their return trip. Graham gets the chance to play with the greats on Ray’s baseball diamond, his only at bat fittingly ends up as a sacrifice fly, and he also saves Ray’s daughter’s life as she chokes on a chip. Graham’s story is different from the other two because it’s already been written. His book has already been closed, but the chance to step onto the baseball diamond one more time means Graham gets to open it back up and read it himself. It’s often tough to find worth in one’s life, especially someone like Graham who lived modestly. But the magic in Ray’s baseball field let Graham’s ghost see that his life was worth something, not just the baseball bit but also his career as a doctor. It was not a life that will find its way into any history books, but it is one that has as story worthy of being told.
Many Americans are entranced by the type of mystical forces depicted this film. They are forces that find the middle ground between faith and will. It’s not a reliance on cosmic interference to bring about a happy ending, but it’s the idea that a little boost from something intangible is given to those who are worthy and willing to accept its assistance. Americana is also driven by the power of stories, and how those stories shape the passage of time. The passing down of not only cultural touchstones and family traditions, but also the pains of regret and guilt is what has shaped the landscape of the country throughout its years. The way that the characters inField of Dreamsfind ways to use that which is mystifying to help them reconcile with the burdens in their own stories is the sort of dream that keeps the heart of America moving forward.
The dreams thatField of Dreamsdepicts are not clearly drawn lines in the sand that separate lives of worth and those of failure. They are lifelines cast by incomprehensible forces that make everything understandable. They don’t lead to a life where everything is the best it could possibly be, but to a life in which everything feels the way it’s supposed to feel. That’s whyField of Dreamsdoesn’t see heaven as a place filled with grandeur and indigestible excess. Ray’s heaven is in a baseball field in the middle of an Iowa farm because that’s where he can encounter serenity, a feeling that life isn’t all it was cracked up to be but that it’s outcome is all he could have ever asked for. It’s the same feeling that shines over baseball, where playing a simple game of catch or watching from the bleachers doesn’t put blinders on the rest of the world but makes everything else feel worthwhile. Mystical forces are the only means to reach these dreams because all forms of logic would hide their path, and all attempts to understand these forces result in blindness to what they create. Whether one believes in the magic that fuels the type of dreams this classic baseball movie cherishes is up to the viewer. But so many Americans adore the type of dreamsField of Dreamscelebrates because they feel that they’re the only ones worth chasing.
