Field of Dreams

Field of Dreams is a 1989 fantasy film which tells the story of a man who builds a baseball diamond in his Iowa corn field. It stars Kevin Costner, Amy Madigan, Gaby Hoffmann, Ray Liotta, Timothy Busfield, James Earl Jones, Burt Lancaster and Frank Whaley. (Madigan and Hoffman also appeared in Uncle Buck the same year.)

The movie was directed and adapted by Phil Alden Robinson from the novel Shoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella. It was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Music, Original Score, Best Picture and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium.

In the original novel, Shoeless Joe, the character played by James Earl Jones, called Terrence Mann in the movie, is J. D. Salinger. In 1947, Salinger wrote a story called A Young Girl In 1941 With No Waist At All featuring a character named Ray Kinsella.

The character played by Burt Lancaster and Frank Whaley, Archie "Moonlight" Graham, was a real baseball player. The background of the character is his true life.

Making of the Film

The Field

The studio built the baseball diamond on two actual farms a few miles outside Dyersville, Iowa. Most of the field, including the diamond, was on one farm, but left and center field were on an adjacent property. After filming was completed, the family owning the most of the baseball field kept it intact, and added a small hut where visitors could buy souvenirs. The owner of left and center field returned his land to farming for a year, but then restored the remainder of the field and opened up his own souvenir hut. The two owners continue to maintain separate tourist facilities, and have been at odds for several years.

In the movie, the scene where Shoeless Joe Jackson (Liotta) talks to Ray Kinsella, Costner's character, about Heaven, fog is seen creeping out of the corn field and across the diamond. This was not a special effect -- the fog had actually come in at the time. Director Robinson decided to keep shooting, he felt the fog gave an eerie feel to the scene.

Directions

The baseball field is located several miles outside the city of Dyersville. To get to the field from US Highway 20, take State Highway 136 north through Dyersville. When coming in from the north by US Highway 52, take 136 south from Luxemburg, Iowa. Remain on 136 for approximatly 9 miles. On the northern edge of town, there is a sign saying "Field of Dreams Movie Site." At that point, turn on to Dyersville East Road. Drive on Dyersville East Road for about three miles. A billboard for the baseball field has been placed at the intersection of Dyersville East Road and Lansing Road. Turn right onto Lansing Road. Go about one mile on Lansing Road, there will be two signs for the field - either the Lansing Family or the neighbor's sign. Also the blacktop ends at that point. Turn left on to one of the two driveways. On busier days it may be nessecary to park some distance from the field, but on slower days parking facilities are often available next to the field.

The field is open daily from 9am until 6pm. Due to insurance requirements, the operators cannot provide equipment (balls, bats, etc), but visitors are welcome to bring their own equipment.

Places Featured in the Film

Except for a few location shots for Boston, much of the film was shot in and around Dubuque County, Iowa. Places that were used in the film were;

• Dubuque was featured in the following
  • University of Dubuque- Kevin Costner's character Ray looks up information on Terrance Mann in the school library. The library was rebuilt in recent years - and the section of the library where Ray was seated has been remodeled. When Ray and Annie are walking to their truck Blades Hall and the Van Vliet main administration building are shown. Where Amy Madigan's character Annie parked the truck is actually a no parking zone.
  • Hendricks Feed. This is the store where Ray had gone to purchase supplies, it's located in downtown Dubuque.
  • Terrance Mann's Apartment and Neighborhood. This was located near 17th Street and Central Ave in Dubuque. Central Ave is still a one way street for southbound traffic, however in this film it appears as a two way street.
  • The Airline Inn. This roadside motel is about three miles south of Dubuque along US Highways 61/151. This is the motel where Ray and Terrance stayed while traveling to Minnesota.
  • The Downtown Gas Station. The gas station where Ray gets directions to Terrance Mann's place was originally just south of the intersection of 3rd and Locust Streets in Dubuque. The gas station is no longer there. Despite the fact that it was one of the first gas stations in the city, the city decided to have the gas station torn down to facilitate economic development. It is now mainly a parking lot for the restaurant that was opened in the building that was behind the gas station.
• Farley, Iowa. The PTA meeting about Terrance Mann's books was at Western Dubuque High School, which is located in Farley, Iowa.
• Galena, Illinois was used to represent parts of Chisholm, Minnesota for this movie.

Local Roads Shown

The film used local roads quite extensively to represent the drive from Dyersville to Boston, to Boston to Chisholm, and Chisholm to Dyersville. The following is some of the local roadways used;

• U.S. Highway 20 - Part of the highway between the Illinois towns of East Dubuque and Galena was used to represent the drive from Boston to Crisholm. The Citgo station where Ray and Terrance stopped was along the highway west of Dubuque. When Ray and Annie are driving home from town, parts of the highway west of Dubuque are shown.
• U.S. Highway 52 - Parts of the highway north of Dubuque were used in the drive from Crisholm to Dyersville.
• U.S. Highway 151 - A portion of this highway that is about six miles south of Dubuque is seen in the scene where Ray and Terrance are in the van and talking about Ray's father. About a mile after 151 splits off from U.S. Highway 61 there is a large hill. The van is filmed going up this hill in the southbound lanes, then it is filmed going back down the hill in the northbound lanes. As of May 2004, the segement of the highway south of the area shown in the film is being worked on as the highway is being made into a four lane connection between Dubuque and Cedar Rapids.

Extras

Some from the community, as well as some more well known Hollywood actors were used as extras. Ben Affleck and Matt Damon appear as extras and are uncredited. Local radio personality Paul Hemmer also was an uncredited extra when he appeared as the husband who held "Beulah - the Angry PTA Mother" back after Annie asked her if she wanted to step outside. Local businessman and Iowa lawmaker Paul Scherrman also appeared as an extra in the film as an additional ballplayer.

Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.

A child of the Sixties, Ray Kinsella is convinced by his wife to move from Berkeley and live on a farm in Iowa. He's 30 years old and up to his ears in mortgage debt when he hears a mysterious voice in his cornfield. "If you build it, he will come." Annie and his daughter don't hear it.

The next time he hears the voice, he also sees three visions of a baseball field illuminated for a night game, as well as a vision of Shoeless Joe Jackson. He becomes convinced that he's supposed to construct a ballfield so that Shoeless Joe, suspended from Major League Baseball in a gambling scandal, can play baseball again. Annie thinks he's crazy but also thinks that "If you really think you should do this, then you ought to do it."

To the jeers of his neighbors, Ray plows under several acres of ripening corn and constructs a full-size ball field next to his house. It looks great, but nothing happens, and a year later he's in "moderate to severe financial difficulties". He can keep the field, but that makes it "awfully hard to keep the farm" as his wife sympathetically points out. At this point, his daughter pops in to announce, "There's a man on your lawn."

Quotes

Tagline: "If you build it, they will come."

Shoeless Joe Jackson: "Is this heaven?"

Ray Kinsella: "No, it's Iowa."

"Well, you know I... I never got to bat in the major leagues. I would have liked to have had that chance. Just once. To stare down a big league pitcher. To stare him down, and just as he goes into his windup, wink. Make him think you know something he doesn't. That's what I wish for. Chance to squint at a sky so blue that it hurts your eyes just to look at it. To feel the tingling in your arm as you connect with the ball. To run the bases -- stretch a double into a triple, and flop face-first into third, wrap your arms around the bag. That's my wish, Ray Kinsella. That's my wish. And is there enough magic out there in the moonlight to make this dream come true?"

(After the pitcher nearly knocked Archie Graham off the plate.)
Ballplayer: "Hey Gandil, what'd you throw at the kid for?"
Gandil: "He winked at me!"
Ballplayer: "Don't wink kid."
Graham: "Hey ump, how about a warning?"
Umpire: "Sure kid, watch out you don't get killed."

"Ray, people will come Ray. They'll come to Iowa for reasons they can't even fathom. They'll turn up your 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 look around, you'll say. It's only $20 per person. They'll pass over the money without even thinking about it: for it's money they have and peace they lack. And they'll walk out to the bleachers; sit in shirtsleeves 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 dipped themselves in magic waters. And 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: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh,.. people will come Ray. People will most definitely come."

External Links

• • The Lansing family owns most of the field.
• • This is the site operated by the company that was created to manage the portion of left field that is owned by the neighboring farmer.

Other Images