Field of Dreams, with an Iowan's insights

Continuing our sports theme (after a brief side trip to a Bob Hope/Lucille Ball comedy called “The Facts of Life”), we screened “Field of Dreams” last week for one very important reason: Kandy had never seen it. Miss Iowa had never seen “Field of Dreams.” To repeat: Miss-Goes-Back-to-the-State-This-Movie-Was-Filmed-All-the-Time had never seen “Field of Dreams.” This was right up there with Rich having never seen “Grease” or Steve having never seen all of “It’s a Wonderful Life” or me having somehow skipped “Caddyshack” or “The Blues Brothers.” Here at movie night, we aim to correct all wrongs.

Now that I’ve mercilessly teased Kandy about this gap in her cinematic resume, I have to confess: I haven’t seen “Field of Dreams” all the way through in a looooong time. It’s one of those movies that you rarely catch at the very beginning, which features a lovely bit of exposition dump.

As with most sports movies, there isn’t much game playing being shown on screen. Instead, this movie is suffused with sports history, to the point where the ghosts of the game become flesh. 

Iowa insights 

All the way through, thanks to Kandy, I learned new things about how the filmmakers didn’t really know that much about Iowa:

• “No Iowa farmer would ever wear short sleeves in the corn field.”
• “True, a bunch of people might be watching him plow over his corn – it is Dyersville, after all – but not the actual farmers. They have work to do.”
• “2200 bucks an acre? Not anymore.”

See, this is stuff that you can’t even get from IMDB. 

The Costner era 

“Field of Dreams” comes during the period in movie history known as “Kevin Costner Takes Over the Place.” This one comes two years after “The Untouchables” and “No Way Out,” a year after “Bull Durham,” and it’s ahead of “JFK,” “The Bodyguard,” “Dances with Wolves,” and the deathless “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.” Seriously, the guy had a major streak going.

It’s also the first of his baseball trilogy (I choose to only count the movies that feature on-screen games, which leaves out “The Upside of Anger”) that includes “Bull Durham” and “For Love of the Game.” Those three movies just missed the leading lady hat trick, though: Two of the three feature redheaded lead actresses named Annie. So close.  

Requisite movie trivia 

Honestly, for as much unnecessary trivia I know about some movies, I am always humbled by what I don’t know. 

• Tom Hanks was originally offered the role of Ray Kinsella but turned it down.
• Archibald "Moonlight" Wright Graham was a real baseball player. On 29 June 1905, with the New York Giants, he played one Major League Baseball game. Five days later, he quit his dream of being a pro ball player to become a doctor. 
• The shot of the line-drive knocking over the bag of baseballs next to Costner was sheer luck off the bat of Ray Liotta. During the movie, Chanda thought she saw the ball coming from a different angle than from the bat and speculated that someone was throwing it. Amazing that Liotta made that hit himself.) 
• J.D. Salinger, on whom the character Terence Mann is based, was very offended by the fictional portrayal of himself in W.P. Kinsella’s novel "Shoeless Joe", upon which the film is based. His lawyers said that they would be "unhappy if it the story were transferred to other media," so the studio created the character of Terence Mann. 
• "Shoeless" Joe Jackson remarks about Ty Cobb's desire to play: "None of could stand the son of a bitch when he was alive, so, we told him to stick it." In real life, both players were very close friends, towards the end of Jackson’s life, Cobb came into his liquor store in South Carolina and asked Jackson whether or not he knew him. Joe replied he did, he just wasn't sure if Cobb wanted to know him since most of the old players didn't want to anymore.
• The line, "Hey, Dad, you wanna have a catch?" originally didn't include "Dad." Audiences were disappointed in the lack of acknowledgment of father and son, and the word "Dad" was looped in during post-production.

And, just for fun, a photo that makes me go awwwww: