Field Of Dreams Still Tops In My Book

"It keeps on getting better, how life just keeps movin' on.

Children growing older, seems I just looked over

Found that time was here and gone."

From Time is Here And Gone, by The Doobie Brothers.

The  opening lines above to one of my favorite Doobie Brothers songs have definitely been hitting home with me over the course of the past few months.  Although I don't want to sound like I am growing old before my time, I am surely beginning to feel the aches and pains, and the occasional exhaustion of a man who is creeping ever closer to his 50s, and simply wondering just where the time went.

I guess it is during this time in your life when you become a bit more cognizant of life seemingly zooming by in much more rapid speed. I find myself also becoming more emotional now as people I have known most or all of my life begin to fade dramatically and then suddenly they are no longer in my life anymore. My dad's death back in November touched me in ways that I still probably do not fully realize yet, but I know it has certainly made me a lot more aware regarding the issue of mortality.

OK, I know all of that is a bit gloomy, so I want to lighten the mood just a tad by noting that even a much more trivial matter such as my favorite movie of all time has also served to remind me yet once again that even 25 years can travel by in what seems like the speed of light.  This year marks the 25th anniversary of the iconic Kevin Cosner film Field of Dreams, a Frank Capra-esque movie which has appropriately been tabbed by many as the It's A Wonderful Life of our generation.

A couple of nights ago, with nothing of note really on television to suit my viewing needs, I pulled out my DVD of the superbly-cast (James Earl Jones, Burt Lancaster, Amy Madigan, Timothy Busfield and Ray Liotta, among others, also shine alongside Costner, my favorite actor) and superbly-directed fantasy-drama, and watched along with my mom.  And for me personally, even 25 years after I first saw this Oscar-nominated flick for the first time with friends at a theater in Tuscaloosa, Field of Dreams, shot on that now-legendary farm in Dyersville, Iowa,  still resonates within me on a deep and powerful level, and the emotional impact that it has on me has only grown through the years.

Some of you might say those are overly syrupy sentiments to use for a fictional baseball movie, but for people who have always totally embraced all of the movie's various layers, of which there are many, they recognize that simply writing Field of Dreams off as a "sports flick" is actually demeaning to the film's overall brilliance in terms of the script, and its ability to bring so many conflicts to a neat and poignant resolution while wrapped in a baseball theme.

While there are religious tones to the film, with the Heaven vs Iowa thing, the more prevailing themes include the strained father-son relationship between Costner's Ray Kinsella and John Kinsella, played in moving fashion by Dwier Brown,  the deep desire of Jones' Terrence Mann to revive his career as a journalist, the heartbreaking love of the game of baseball expressed in such descriptive form by Liotta's scandal-ridden "Shoeless" Joe Jackson and the story of Lancaster's revered "Moonlight" Graham, a very successful doctor who fell agonizingly short of achieving his chance at the spotlight in the game he so deeply loved.

All of those storylines are, of course, resolved in miraculous fashion and we are all transported back into a simpler and better time,  and I guess like Costner's character at the end of the film, we are all wondering if that Iowa cornfield is indeed Heaven or just a symbol of what many of us would like Heaven to be.  Perhaps it is only fitting near the end of the movie when John Kinsella tells his son that there is indeed a Heaven, noting "it is where dreams come true."  The father and son dynamic of the film is what has always grabbed me by the heart more than anything about the film, and watching the movie now in the aftermath of my father's passing only makes the viewing experience of Field of Dreams even more emotional for and relatable to me.  This is not to say that the relationship between my dad and I was anywhere close to that of the Kinsellas in terms of their long-term estrangement and the cruel remark that Ray Kinsella made to his father regarding "Shoeless" Joe Jackson.  I loved my dad dearly and we were very close for the most part and shared so many incredible times together. He was truly my hero.

But dad and I did not always agree on everything, and it was hard for him to show his emotions to me until later in life when he had mellowed quite a bit with age. Like with every father and son, we had our arguments and I am sure I tested his patience more times than even I knew sometimes.  But sports was always a common bond for us, especially Alabama football....but also baseball. My dad had a baseball hero too, and it was the legendary Stan "The Man" Musial of the St. Louis Cardinals, whom he named me after, and I take pride in that fact every day of my life.  We didn't play many games of catch together, but we watched a lot of baseball together and especially loved those games between his Cardinals and my Cubs. That great baseball rivalry was also a fun personal rivalry between dad and I.  

That is why the whole segment near the end of the film with the two Kinsellas is so compelling, so engrossing and even gut-wrenching, from the time that Costner's character first sees his dad walking toward him to the end of the movie when Ray Kinsella asks his dad if he wants to "have a catch" and the two instantly reconnect while the lighted baseball field beams in all of its beauty, and the lights of cars from miles and miles away are seen making their way toward the magical farm.  Of course the sight of all of those cars also makes good the predictions made by Kinsella's young daughter and by Mann that "people will come" to see the field and to pay money to see it, which no doubt was a way to resolve yet another conflict relating to the financial difficulties the family were facing with the farm. No matter how many times I see the movie, that final overhead shot of the gleaming park below and the cars coming toward it, never fails to give me chills. The music in that final sequence, and throughout the entire movie, also only serves to enhance the mystique of Field of Dreams even more.

Happy 25th Anniversary to an American icon and a cinematic treasure, and may the legacy of Field of Dreams always remain strong.  It will always move me in ways that no other movie can even come close to doing.  As Ray Kinsella would say, "It is perfect."