Field of Dreams (DVD)

"All his life Ray Kinsella was searching for his dreams, then one day his dreams came searching for him." That was the tag line in the preview I saw for Field of Dreams in the spring of 1989.

I remember thinking 'that looks interesting'. I had no idea that what seemed like an 'interesting' little film would end up being one of my all-time favorites.

Field of Dreams is an amazing illogical, fantastic journey that never seems to be going where you think it is. Rather than get distracted in trying to figure out what is going to happen (like I often do upon first viewing), Field of Dreams is one film where I was just content to sit back in wonder waiting to find out where Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) and I were being led to.

The film wastes no time with set up and supposition. "If you build it he will come" a strange voice whispers in the opening minutes of the film and Ray Kinsella, the Iowa farmer who is the only one who can hear the voice is just as perplexed as you are as a viewer. Without giving too much away, because of this voice Ray is led on a pilgrimage across America, that is seemingly all about baseball; but turns out to be really about something far more poignant and touching.

A fine cast does an excellent job tip-toeing around the fragile confines of the story, somehow avoiding the corny or ridiculous. To a great degree what keeps Field of Dreams from becoming nothing more than an absurd excercise is that Kevin Costner makes his character so down-to-earth that he really seems like an ordinary person who has been placed in an extraordinary situation that is beyond his control or understanding.

I loved Field of Dreams the first time I saw it and it has never lost it's luster in the countless times I've seen it since. I highly recommend it.