Field of Dreams... cringey?

[T206Collector]

Could not disagree more. Love the movie at the same level as The Natural.

I don’t see how anyone who seriously loves pre-war baseball isn’t in love with this movie. We had it so good for a few years there — Hollywood was making A-List movies about pre-war Baseball seemingly every year: 8 Men Out, League of their Own, as well. Pre-war Baseball was part of our national consciousness, which I am convinced is the biggest driver of interest into our current cardboard collections than anything else. There is an active Moonlight Graham thread on Net54 today. We may not have lived to see Shoeless Joe play, but that movie gave us something better - his legend!

“If you build it, he will come.” Still gives me chills the first time it is whispered in the movie. And the James Earl Jones speech at the end is amazing. “Oh people will come, Ray. People will most definitely come.” 700,000+ people have watched just that clip alone:

https://youtu.be/7SB16il97yw

[BoyWonder089]

Originally Posted by T206Collector

Could not disagree more. Love the movie at the same level as The Natural.

I don’t see how anyone who seriously loves pre-war baseball isn’t in love with this movie. We had it so good for a few years there — Hollywood was making A-List movies about pre-war Baseball seemingly every year: 8 Men Out, League of their Own, as well. Pre-war Baseball was part of our national consciousness, which I am convinced is the biggest driver of interest into our current cardboard collections than anything else. There is an active Moonlight Graham thread on Net54 today. We may not have lived to see Shoeless Joe play, but that movie gave us something better - his legend!

“If you build it, he will come.” Still gives me chills the first time it is whispered in the movie. And the James Earl Jones speech at the end is amazing. “Oh people will come, Ray. People will most definitely come.” 700,000+ people have watched just that clip alone:

https://youtu.be/7SB16il97yw

+1

James Earl Jones makes the movie if you ask me. Personally, field if dreams is one of my all time favorites. I watch it about once a year.

However, NOTHING tops The Sandlot. I was a kid when it came out, which is why I think it is so near and dear to my heart.

[Rookiemonster]

I like field of dreams. I did notice that Ray call the Black Sox the White Sox. Also the entire Brother in law aspect is weird. Like worry about your own life bro.
Otherwise it’s a great movie.

Moonlight coming off the field and saving Rays Daughter.

James earl jones speech.

I do wish that JEJ came back from the corn and told everyone what was out there.

[Rhotchkiss]

I agree, what do you mean by “cringey”?

For me, field of dreams is a top 5 movie. So many quotable lines, love all the characters, love the father son scene at end. I watch it whenever I am flipping through channels and it’s on.

If cringey means 100% totally awesome, than I agree with the OP!

[JollyElm]

Add my name to the lovefest. So many great lines, great scenes (even the winter pall over Iowa) and the "Hey, Dad...wanna have a catch?" moment is just ridiculously moving.

[quinnsryche]

How can you not tear up when Ray and his dad "have a catch". OMG what a heart wrenching scene. Anybody who ever threw a ball with their dad would have to have a heart of stone not to get emotional over that. Oh, and The Natural SUCKS! What a stupid movie. When he hits the HR and the lights explode, probably the dumbest scene in any movie ever. Robert Redford is one of the most overrated actors of all time (especially in that movie).
I'm sure I'll get pasted for that one but I don't care.

[Bigdaddy]

Love Field of Dreams. Don't watch it every year, but it's one of my favorite movies.

[conor912]

What separates FoD from The Natural for me is the fact that FoD is supernatural. You just check your suspension of disbelief at the door and enjoy it for what it is. The Natural tried (and IMO failed) to be perfectly realistic. It just came off as hokey to me.

[Orioles1954]

FWIW both films rate very high on IMDB with each getting a 7.5 (out of 10) rating. I much prefer The Natural....but these things are all personal preferences.

[the 'stache]

Originally Posted by conor912

What separates FoD from The Natural for me is the fact that FoD is supernatural. You just check your suspension of disbelief at the door and enjoy it for what it is. The Natural tried (and IMO failed) to be perfectly realistic. It just came off as hokey to me.

Except, The Natural isn't trying to come across as a realistic baseball film, at all. It is, in fact, quite supernatural. Bernard Malamud's novel is allegorical.

On the train ride after Roy Hobbs strikes out the Whammer, Harriet Bird asks Hobbs if he'd ever read Homer.

"Homer lived ages ago, and wrote about heroes and gods. And he would've written about baseball had he seen you out there today."

This is the first point in the movie where Roy Hobbs is likened to a mythical character. She then references Arthurian Legend, invoking the name of Sir Lancelot, Arthur's "greatest knight" that was felled by his uncontrollable desire for Guinevere. This was his fatal flaw; Roy Hobbs' fatal flaw is hubris.

Hobbs opines that his one and only goal in this life is to achieve baseball immortality:

"You know what? Someday, l'll break every record in the book. When I walk down the street, people will say, "There goes Roy Hobbs, the best there ever was."

Hobbs is so focused on achieving baseball legend that everything else in his life falls by the wayside. His relationship with his childhood love, Iris, fades away, even though he promises her that he will call for her after he makes it to the Majors. He later laments that he should have seen Harriet Bird for what she was; his tunnel vision blinded him to how dangerous she was. He'd just heard a story read from a newspaper that two world class athletes had been shot to death, mere days apart.

When Roy Hobbs finally makes it to the Major Leagues, nearly two decades after being shot in Harriet Bird's hotel room with a silver bullet (which, in and of itself, carries a magical connotation), he joins the fictitious baseball team the New York Knights. The team name alludes to the heroic Knights of the Round Table. This scene immediately follows the one where Hobbs is shot, and Bird jumps from her hotel window to her death. We've seen Hobbs' fall, and now the hero's reclamation begins.

For his first Major League at bat, Hobbs takes out the bat he made as a boy, from a tree that was split in two by lightning the night after his father died. The young Hobbs etched a lightning bolt on his bat, naming it "Wonder Boy". Manager Pop Fisher tells Hobbs to "knock the cover off the ball." After lightning flashes across the sky, Hobbs swings....



He proceeds to knock the cover off the baseball, and circles the bases, sliding in the mud into third base. The game lifts the Knights, who had been mired in a losing streak. The lightning bolt that split the tree, that appears on the bat, and that appears again just before Hobbs swings, are symbolic of Zeus, and Greek Mythology.

After the death of right fielder Bump Bailey (he dies crashing into the outfield wall chasing a fly ball), Hobbs wins the starting job, and encounters temptation in the form of Bailey's girlfriend, Memo Paris (played by Kim Basinger). Memo is Pop Fisher's niece, but he thinks she is bad luck. He does not know she is part of a nefarious plot. Fisher has entered into an arrangement with team owner Judge Banner; if the Knights win the pennant, Banner is out as team owner. If they do not, Fisher will be out of a job. Memo is employed by Banner and Gus Sands, an Arnold Rothstein-type hood that was involved in Hobbs' shooting nearly two decades earlier.

"I once bet money on three pitched balls (the balls Hobbs threw in striking out The Whammer, which cost Sands a large amount of money). The next week I ruined the guy with a different deal (he had Harriet Bird shoot him; pictures taken of her half naked body in the street, and Hobbs in her hotel room, could be used by Sands for blackmail in the future)".

Symbolism abounds. The sinister Judge "much prefers to sit in dark rooms". Memo Paris dresses in black; these characters, along with Gus Sands, are representative of evil forces at work.

When Hobbs begins a relationship with Memo, he badly slumps at the plate. Then, in an away game against the Chicago Cubs, his childhood love, Iris Gaines, appears in the stands, standing up, dressed in white, bathed in sunlight, symbolic of purity and goodness. Hobbs connects with the next pitch, driving it deep for a home run that breaks the scoreboard clock.



The Knights rally, and take sole possession of first place. But when Hobbs is rushed to the hospital because the silver bullet used by Harriet Bird has eaten away at the lining of his stomach, the Knights falter; at the end of the season, the Pittsburgh Pirates tie them for the league lead. A final game will determine who wins the pennant, and moves on to the World Series. Hobbs is told that if he plays again, his stomach could rupture, killing him instantly. Knowing that he could die, he decides to play that final game.

Hobbs learns that the Judge has a contingency plan in place; he's paid starting pitcher Al Fowler to throw the game, assuring that Fisher would be gone after the last out. Roy convinces the pitcher to "give them the real stuff". With the Knights behind, and down to their final out, Hobbs, who has struck out three times, comes to the plate. As blood from his stomach stains his jersey, Hobbs swings, and connects.



He hits a two run home run, and wins the game. Having put the good of the team, and Pop Fisher's future ahead of his own well-being, the hero's reclamation is complete; Hobbs is no longer focused on his immortality. He has beaten his demons, and found peace with Iris and their son. The final scene of the film shows Roy playing catch with his boy in the fields, Iris smiling and looking on.

The Natural just drips with symbolism, metaphor and allegory. It is clearly not just meant to be a realistic depiction of the National Pastime.

As an aside, I love The Natural and Field of Dreams, both, for different reasons. I watch each of them multiple times every year.

[ls7plus]

Originally Posted by quinnsryche

How can you not tear up when Ray and his dad "have a catch". OMG what a heart wrenching scene. Anybody who ever threw a ball with their dad would have to have a heart of stone not to get emotional over that. Oh, and The Natural SUCKS! What a stupid movie. When he hits the HR and the lights explode, probably the dumbest scene in any movie ever. Robert Redford is one of the most overrated actors of all time (especially in that movie).
I'm sure I'll get pasted for that one but I don't care.

I love 'em both, and have seen each about 5-6 times. By the way, in Bernard Malamud's novel, "The Natural," from which the movie was derived, Hobbs strikes out, instead of homering at the end. Malamud's theme was that we really just keep making the same mistakes over and over again, and never really learn!

Good thread,

Larry

[JollyElm]

I went to school up near Buffalo and there was a beach bar (yes, beach bar!!) in Silver Creek, I believe, that had a bunch of the heavy wooden paintings of 'fans' that were peppered into the background of the stadium scenes to make it look more packed. They had nothing there pointing them out, but there they were. Pretty cool. And War Memorial Stadium (The Rock or Rockpile) was an awesome site to see from the inside. Very old school baseball.

[BoyWonder089]

Originally Posted by Rookiemonster

I like field of dreams. I did notice that Ray call the Black Sox the White Sox. Also the entire Brother in law aspect is weird. Like worry about your own life bro.
Otherwise it’s a great movie.

Moonlight coming off the field and saving Rays Daughter.

James earl jones speech.

I do wish that JEJ came back from the corn and told everyone what was out there.

The fact that he doesn't come back is great! It gets to life's biggest question, what are we all doing here and what's after this life? No matter what the answers are, baseball is still a great way for people to find happiness.

[Rookiemonster]

Originally Posted by BoyWonder089

The fact that he doesn't come back is great! It gets to life's biggest question, what are we all doing here and what's after this life? No matter what the answers are, baseball is still a great way for people to find happiness.

I get that I do. But I just want to know so bad and then it ends.


Ps I also think the natural sucks

[Rhotchkiss]

Who among us played baseball and didn’t name their bat Wonderboy? No one!

Field of Dreams beats the Natural, but the natural is a great movie nonetheless

Best sports movies: 1. Field of Dreams (transcends sports); 2. Rudy; 3. Miracle

[T206Collector]

The Natural inspired me to try out for 10th grade JV Baseball. I made the team and got two hits and 4 RBI in my first two ABs. True story. And that was 30 years ago!

The music, the score... man that gives me chills just thinkin’ about it!

[clydepepper]

Originally Posted by Rhotchkiss

Who among us played baseball and didn’t name their bat Wonderboy? No one!

Field of Dreams beats the Natural, but the natural is a great movie nonetheless

Best sports movies: 1. Field of Dreams (transcends sports); 2. Rudy; 3. Miracle

I had a Jackie Robinson Louisville Slugger while playing in the same league (but not the same time) as Frank Thomas (I'm a name-dropper), but never named it 'Wonderboy'.

I had played for about 25 years when 'Field of Dreams' was released and the last 15 or so, someone always hit for me (DH).

All that said, I love 'Field of Dreams', even with its flaws and consider it along with 'Bull Durham' the best.

[Bored5000]

Originally Posted by Rhotchkiss

Who among us played baseball and didn’t name their bat Wonderboy? No one!

Field of Dreams beats the Natural, but the natural is a great movie nonetheless

Best sports movies: 1. Field of Dreams (transcends sports); 2. Rudy; 3. Miracle

I love Field of Dreams, and Ray playing catch with his father makes me tear up every time.

For me, though, the original Rocky is my all-time favorite sports movie. It helps that I live about 90 minutes from Philadelphia, but what makes Rocky so awesome is that he lost in the end. The easy, predictable ending would have been for Rocky to win.

[Fballguy]

I'm a football first guy, but Field of Dreams is in my movie Top 10 and no football movie comes close for me....maybe Rudy comes closest.

[jbhofmann]

Field of Dreams isn't even James Earl Jones' best baseball movie...




Sandlot is the perfect buddy nostalgia movie. Parts-- Stand by Me and Goonies, and incorporates baseball all while looking at it from a kid's point of view.

[Moonlight Graham]

Originally Posted by Rookiemonster

I get that I do. But I just want to know so bad and then it ends.


Ps I also think the natural sucks

I always thought that when Mr Mann goes into the cornfield he gets to play at Ebbets Field with Jackie Robinson. I'm probably wrong though.