Field of Dreams (Widescreen): Amazon.ca: Kevin Costner, James Earl Jones, Ray Liotta, Amy Madigan, Gaby Hoffmann, Timothy Busfield, Burt Lancaster, Frank Whaley, Dwier Brown, James Andelin, Mary Anne Kean, Fern Persons, John Lindley, Phil Alden Robinson, Brian E. Frankish, Charles Gordon, Lawrence Gordon, Lloyd Levin, W.P. Kinsella: DVD

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Additional Features

This video contains a 10-minute feature including interviews with the stars of the film.

Amazon.com Essential Video

A phenomenal hit when it was released in 1989, Field of Dreams has become a modern classic and a uniquely American slice of cinema. It functions effectively as a moving drama about the power of dreams, a fantasy ode to our national pastime, and a brilliant adaptation of W.P. Kinsella's exquisite baseball novel Shoeless Joe. Kinsella himself found the film a delightful surprise, differing greatly from his novel but benefiting from its own creative variations. It is the film that cemented Kevin Costner's status as an all-American screen star, but the story resonates far beyond Costner's handsome appeal. As just about everyone knows by now, Costner stars as Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella, who hears the mysterious words "If you build it, he will come," and is compelled to build a baseball diamond in the middle of his cornfield. His wife (Amy Madigan) supports the wild idea, but a reclusive novelist (modeled after J.D. Salinger and played by James Earl Jones) is not so easily persuaded. The idealistic farmer is either a visionary or a deluded fool, but his persistence is rewarded when spirits from baseball's past begin appearing on the ball field. Past and present intermingle in the person of "Moonlight Graham" (superbly played by Burt Lancaster), an unknown player who sacrificed his dreams of baseball glory for a dignified life as a small-town physician ... but what all of this means is unclear until the film's memorably heartfelt conclusion. A meditation on family, memory, and faith, the film balances humor and magic to strike just the right chord of thoughtful emotion, affecting audiences so deeply that the baseball field created for the production has now become a mecca of sorts for dreamers around the world. Universal's widescreen Collector's Edition DVD is a real treat, offering extensive production notes, full-length commentary by writer-director Phil Alden Robinson, and the extensive behind-the-scenes documentary The Making of Field of Dreams. --Jeff Shannon

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141 Reviews

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4.6 out of 5 stars (141 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars If you build it, he will come, Feb 29 2012

By

Steven Aldersley (Oshawa, Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Field of Dreams [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)

Field of Dreams (1989)
Drama, Family, Fantasy, 107 minutes
Directed by Phil Alden Robinson
Starring Kevin Costner, James Earl Jones and Ray Liotta

Here's a movie that feels like vintage Spielberg. It was nominated for three Oscars: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Score, but failed to win. It's more of a fantasy than a drama and the viewer is required to ignore logic and any expectation of how the real world works. If you can do that, there's a chance you might end up loving Field of Dreams.

The story focuses on Ray Kinsella (Costner) who runs a farm in Iowa. One day, he hears a voice whispering to him out in the cornfield. It says, "If you build it, he will come." That would be both worrying and annoying, I imagine. We aren't told what he has to build or who will come, but he eventually has a "vision" of a baseball field among the corn.

Put yourself in that situation. Would you think you were losing your mind? Dare you tell anybody? Would you consider acting on it, even for a moment? Well, Ray tells his wife Annie (Amy Madigan) and she believes him. You would have to have an incredibly honest relationship to inspire that level of trust.

Ray destroys part of his crop, builds the field, and somebody does come. It turns out to be Shoeless Joe Jackson (Liotta). That's amazing enough, but the voice doesn't stop. It wants something more from Ray. I won't reveal anything else about the plot as it's better to experience it for yourself.

Costner was a huge star in the 80s and 90s and plays Ray very effectively. My favorite character is Terence Mann, played by James Earl Jones, and he should have been nominated for his performance. The whole cast works well and the story plays out like a wild fantasy adventure. I always find myself engrossed in the story, anxious to see what happens next, although I have watched the movie many times.

Field of Dreams is nonsense, but it's heartwarming, feel-good nonsense that I will never tire of seeing.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars One of Costner's Best Movies, July 18 2004

By

C. Baker "cbaker" (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Field of Dreams (DVD)

This ranks as one of my favorite movies of all time. You don't have to be a baseball fan to appreciate the nostalgia and warm heartedness this movie brings to the big screen - well little screen in the case of the DVD. It's part ghost story, part fantasy, part nostalgia. It's also about redemption and the fulfillment of dreams.

The story begins when Ray Kinsella, a reluctant Iowa farmer, although he won't admit he's reluctant, starts hearing a voice telling him "build it and he will come." Ray dreams, ponders and finally plows under many acres of his crop to build a baseball field on his farm, against all rational logic. And the magic begins. This magic takes Ray on a strange quest in search of a '60s radical holed up in a New York City apartment writing children's books played by James Earl Jones - to tell why would spoil the movie. But suffice it to say Jones ends up with one of the most memorable "speeches" in the movie about the nostalgia of baseball.

It's hard to really do justice to the plot without spoiling the movie but it will at times give you chills and in the end is very uplifting.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars It was you. -- No, it was YOU., Jun 26 2004

By

Rocco Dormarunno (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Field of Dreams (Widescreen) (VHS Tape)

When I attended the Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa, we were given one rule: "Never write about Christmas, the circus or baseball." The reasoning was that these three topics were just too ingrained in the American psyche, they were too iconic, and that they had been used too often. Well, I'm glad that Ray Kinsella (author of the book "Field of Dreams") and screenwriter Phil Alden Robinson didn't attend the Iowa Writers' Workshop.

FIELD OF DREAMS is a marvelous examination of America's infatuation with baseball and a moving exploration of family loyalties. Ray (as sensitively played by Kevin Costner) has a loving wife (Amy Madigan, making it look so easy) and a doting daughter, but something is missing. A voice tells him that he must build a baseball field in his corn crop (in Iowa!). When he does, the apparition of Shoeless Joe Jackson (Ray Liotta) shows up to play. What follows is a series of baseball adventures on and off Ray's baseball diamond, as well as in and out of the present day. Eventually, it becomes apparent that what was missing in Ray's life can only be addressed through baseball, and through a cultural icon from his past, played by the ubiquitous James Earl Jones.

When everything is resolved, there's a bit of throwaway dialogue that, in reality, is very moving. "It was you," Ray tells Shoeless Joe Jackson in reference to the voice he'd heard early in the film. "No, it was YOU," Jackson replies, indicating that
Ray's conscience prompted the entire adventure. Don't let anyone tell you that FIELD OF DREAMS is just a baseball movie. That would be like someone telling you that baseball is just a game.

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Most recent customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars What's the Point?
It's almost a waste of time rating this movie. Like the Wizard of Oz and a several others, virtually nobody hasn't seen it and just about everyone loved it. Read more

Published 6 months ago by Lawrence Wood

5.0 out of 5 stars Great movie!
Field of Dreams is still a great movie! It's definitely an inspirational movie that has made an impact on pop culture, who doesn't know the line "If you build it, he will come."?!

Published 14 months ago by thrifty shopper