New Page 1

MINNEAPOLIS - Field of Dreams (1989) "If you build it, he will come." Possibly one of the best baseball movies made. The movie takes place in Iowa, an odd place for a baseball movie to take place, yet for the type of movie it is, maybe it is the perfect place for it to take place.

A voice of "If you build it, he will come" talks to Ray Kinsella as he works in his farm field in Iowa, along with the voice he gets a visual, a baseball field. It comes to Ray that if he builds a baseball field in his corn field that Shoeless Joe Jackson, he fathers hero, will get to come back and play baseball.

Ray convinces his wife Annie to build the field, and does so. Another voice shows up telling Ray to "Ease his pain." Who's? That is unclear until after a great PTA meeting with the subject of burning books and banning Terrence Mann (James Earl Jones) books. Ray figures out that it is Terrence Mann he needs to visit to figure out what is next.

So off to Boston to visit Mr. Mann, a writer that became popular in the 1960s and now wants to be left alone. Ray shows up at Terrence's apartment and in a very humorous way is told to get lost. Using his finger as a gun Ray kidnaps Terrence Mann, taking him to a Red Sox game that night.

At the game they get a message on the score board, the life time stats of Archibald 'Moonlight' Graham, which was 1 game, 0 at bats. A voice also tells them to "Go the distance."

It takes some time for Terrence Mann to admit he heard the voice, but once he does they head to Chisholm, MN and find that Dr. Graham, who became a doctor after his 1 game has been dead for 20 years. Ray than takes a step back in time to visit with the Doctor, trying to take him with. He declines and Ray and Terrence go back to Iowa alone.

On the way they pick up a young Archibald Graham, who wants to play ball. They get back to find a full field of players, two teams worth, Graham joins right it.

While Ray is gone, he wife has to deal with her brother who wants to sell the title on the farm, as it is not nearly as valuable with a baseball field on it. But wait, maybe it is.

While watching an afternoon game, Annie's brother makes a visit, pleading to them to sell, that is when, the best part of the movie comes about with a speech from Terrence Mann:

Ray, people will come, Ray. They'll come to Iowa for reasons they can't even fathom. They'll turn into the driveway, not knowing for sure why they're doing it. They'll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past. "Of course we won't mind if you have a look around," you'll say. "It's only twenty dollars per person." They'll pass over the money without even thinking about it; for it is money they have and peace they lack.

And they'll like walk out to the bleachers, sit in shirt-sleeves on a perfect afternoon. They'll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they'll watch the game, and it'll be as if they had dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick they'll have to brush them away from their faces.

People will come, Ray.

The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers; it has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game, is a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good, and it could be again. Ohhhh, people will come, Ray. People will most definitely come.

People have most defiantly come, about a million visitors to the actual field. This is truly one of the better movies around.