It's a little hard to explain why this film affects me the way it does. For other posters on this board as well as myself, the story really doesn't have much to do with baseball per se. It has all to do with one's relationship with family, and more notably, a father that one wishes he had a better relationship with. Not that mine was bad, but looking back on it now, it could have been so much better. The blame goes both ways, and I don't recall ever having a conversation with him that lasted more than a couple of sentences. I would ask him about the war (WW II),and he would shrug it off as if his story wouldn't matter. Now that he's gone, I find myself visiting his grave and spending more time talking to him now than I ever did back when he was around. So even though I can sit here and choke back some emotion as I write this, it's all but impossible to do so when Ray Kinsella sees his dad unbuckling the shin guards and the flash of recognition hits him. I think back almost fifty years ago to the time when I would have a catch with my dad, never even thinking back then what it would be like when he wouldn't be around anymore. And then I think about my own boys, and have to consider if when they watch this movie, they might wonder the same things about me.

I know this is supposed to be a movie review, but you'll have to cut me some slack. The above is pretty much all I want to say here, besides recommending the film for it's own sake. It's story telling at it's finest, mixing elements of fantasy and reality in a wonderful way, and laying it all out there for the baseball kid in all of us. We all have our own idea of what heaven might be like, and the movie reminds us that it might be a pretty good idea to take a few good practice swings while we're still here.

Continuing my plan to watch every Kevin Costner movie in order, I come to 1989's Field Of Dreams.

Plot In A Paragraph: Ray Kinsella (KC) an Iowa corn farmer, starts hearing voices, he interprets them as a request to build a baseball diamond in his crop field.

Is this heaven??

I don't like baseball, never have had even the slightest interest in the game, so why do I cry like a baby every time I watch Field Of Dreams??

I will admit from the off, I am bias. I love this movie. It is not just one of my favourite KC movies, it's not just my favourite movie of 1989 (and in a year that featured Last Crusade, Lethal Weapon 2, Batman, Back To The Future 2, Dead Poets Society and the classic Weekend At Bernie's, you know how high that praise is) one of my favourite movies of the 1980's, it's one of my favourite movies in general.

KC, Amy Madigan, Ray Liotta, James Earl Jones and Burt Lancaster are all perfect. Everything about this movie is perfect, not just the casting, the performances, the screenplay, the directing, the atmosphere and the score all knock it out of the park (yes pun intended again)

I will deliberately avoid talking about the movies ending (so I don't ruin it for those who have not seen it) but I cried like a baby when I seen it in 1990, and I have cried every time I have watched it since, and I watch it a couple of times a year. It doesn't matter if I sit and watch it all, or catch the last twenty minutes on TV, I will be in floods of tears. If I'm not already crying, the way KC's voice breaks, will do it!! EVERY TIME.

I read somewhere that the best motion pictures find meaning in not aspects of the story but rather in the underlying emotional core and heart that defines the story. Field Of Dreams is a perfect example of that saying. It's no surprise that Field Of Dreams is still entertaining and touching people regularly today (it plays regularly on TV in the UK) more than 25 years after its release.

A timeless classic. 10/10 for this reviewer.

When this movie came out in 1989, I drew parallels to my father that had just died. He never wanted to have a catch with me as he was too old, having me late in his life. I had twin sons in the 1980's and played ball with both of them. Fast forward to a Saturday morning July 31, 2010. RAGBRAI, the most famous bike ride in America the rides across Iowa, was starting its 7th and last day in Manchester to Dubuque, Iowa, passing through Dyersville, the location of the Field. Several of the riders stopped and we had a pickup game on the Field. I had lost one of my sons to a tragic accident the year before, and had a truly wonderful warm thought from the movie playing on the Field that my catch was not with my dad, but my son. Tears came to me and the movie did it. I still had to ride the twentysome miles into Dubuque for the finish, and my eyes were not dry on that hot morning the whole way. My son was on that Field that day having a catch with me. The movie touched so many mens' hearts. Mine came 21 years after the movie came out. To do that makes it a special movie.