Field of Dreams

I will freely admit that I thought it was a bit overly manipulative at the time.

The second time I saw it, I got it. For me, the film really doesn't take off until James Earl Jones and Burt Lancaster appear.

"Son, if I'd only gotten to be a doctor for five minutes... now that would have been a tragedy."

It's taken on new meaning since losing my own father (who loved baseball BTW) a few years ago. Now, I can't watch the ending without blinking away tears.

"Hey Dad? Wanna have a catch?"

Ray and Terence have just picked up young Archie hitchhiking.

:)

My favorite baseball movie!

"Ty Cobb wanted to play, but none of us could stand the son-of-a-bitch when we were alive, so we told him to stick it!"

When I was pregnant, my ex and I were trying to come up with names, and he suggested Ty Cobb. I said NO WAY!!!

(We had a girl, which saved us from that anyway.)

could he?

I mean, sure he's a HOFer but he was also a racist asshole.

• Shoeless Joe Jackson batted left-handed and threw right-handed.

• I doubt three Fenway Park vendors would've been just waiting for a couple guys to order a dog and a beer. (That scene was actually shot in Iowa because the Sox suits wanted too much money for additional filming at the Fens.)

Other than that, like the field, it's perfect.

Well... unless you count that Kevin Costner can't act unless he's portraying a baseball player.

:P

I still love the movie.

He was also good in Tin Cup, Dances With Wolves and The Untouchables. The rest get a big meh.

And don't forget his memorable role in Night Shift as Frat Boy #1.

were when he was Crash Davis in "Bull Durham" — he had ballplayer-speak and attitude screwed to the boards — and Billy Chapel in "For Love of the Game."

In both cases, though, I'm talking only about the scenes in which he was playing baseball. Get him off a ball diamond and it's like he's stuck in two feet of mud.

I liked "The Untouchables," but he was even more wooden in it than his teevee predecessor, Robert Stack. The one line he delivered well was the last one: "Think I'll have a drink."

Haven't seen "Tin Cup" or "Dances With Wolves."

It's like a Bull Durham substituting baseball with golf. Cheech Marin has a great supporting role.

Dances With Wolves is such a great story and the majority of his lines are voice overs of him reading from his "journal" where it's understandable to be a little stilted. Somehow it works because the story is so compelling.

I would certainly place Untouchables below the above two films, but again the role fits his woodenness. He was supposed to be a stuck up full-of-himself crusader. "C'mon, let's do some good."

I guess if they wanted someone who was faithful to Robert Stack's statue-like quality, they got the right guy. Stack did look cautiously around a corner better than anyone in history, but the only time he was any damned fun was in one episode where he pretended to be drunk to fool some bad guy into thinking he'd become "touchable."

But, yeah — Eliot Ness was a do-gooder, or at least legend has painted him that way. So, in that sense, it was good casting and a good performance. But when Costner delivered lines like "I'll tell you how I feel about prohibition, gentlemen: It is the law of the land," I just cringed. (Then again, Connery and DeNiro so utterly walked away with that film, it didn't much matter what anyone else did. They carried it.)

Is "Tin Cup" the one where Costner's a golfer who drank himself off the tour, but sobers up and tries to get back on it? I might get that from Netflix.

as the fact that his character played so out of control that he couldn't remain on it. Always going for the impossible shot just to prove he can make it. Now he lives in a Winnebago at a crummy driving range in the middle of west Texas.

Rene Russo plays the romantic interest and Don Johnson his nemesis. I don't think the romantic comedy side worked as well as it did in Bull Durham, but if you liked the sports humor aspect of BD, you'll find plenty of it here.

ETA: also written and directed by Ron Shelton, who also wrote/directed Bull Durham.

"For Love of the Game" would've been a perfectly good film without Kelly Preston. :shrug:



Y'know what I think it is? Film directors are LOLLYGAGGERS!

:7

probably figure that they're already appealing to the sports fan, let's toss in some romance.

I kinda liked how Sorkin steered clear of that in Few Good Men. Of course, I read somewhere that Demi Moore's character was original written as a man.

Anyone who doubts Costner's acting abilities will quickly change their minds. Great movie, often overlooked. Laura Dern is in it as an extra added bonus!

http://imdb.com/title/tt0107808/

A very underrated movie. Costner was outstanding, Eastwood was great, Dern was great, the little boy was REALLY great, and it was kinda weird seeing Bradley Whitford as a bad guy!

very intense and touching. I'm a Costner fan*, so of course I liked it.

*Bull Durham is one of my top 5 films of all time, but mostly because of Susan Sarandon's great character, Annie Savoy. Also love the extended lovemaking scenes with her and Costner at the end. Hubba Hubba!

I love that movie! It has a lot to say about the juvenile justice system too.

I always cry at the end. I cannot help it. Yes, I can be manipulated. This is one of my favourite movies. I want to read the book but haven't as of yet.

and I still need to see the field. That's something I've gotta do.

Cool.

I've always wondered about that place having a magical feeling.

The last time I was there, it had become somewhat of a commercial enterprise, with the whole "continuing to have the field here is driving is into bankruptcy" spiel.

Oh god, as if the field is taking up that much farmland. :eyes:
Anyone who'd plow that field over just to plant a few more acres of corn or beans belongs a few miles down the road in Independence.

I think right after the movie was done there was the time to go, now they are just being sharky about the commercialization.

W.P. Kinsella's Shoeless Joe is an excellent read.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoeless_Joe_%28novel%29

I've lost count of how many times I've watched it now; if it had been a theatrical release (instead of made for cable), I'm convinced it would've received multiple Oscar nods. The attention to historical detail (thanks mostly to Billy Crystal) is stunning, and the acting is great. Thomas Jane and Barry Pepper WERE Mantle and Maris.

That's on my list of things to do someday.