Tag: Field of Dreams

Kevin Costner Says FIELD OF DREAMS In Dyersville, Iowa “Perfect” – Watch The Highlights From NY Yankees And Chicago White Sox

“The one constant through all the years has been baseball.”

On Thursday evening in Iowa, MLB proved that the game of baseball is truly America’s great past time.

More than three decades after “Field of Dreams” seeped into the country’s cultural consciousness, with a one-year delay caused by the pandemic, one of the most famous cornfields in Hollywood history finally gets the opportunity to host real major league ball.

“Is this heaven?” the ghost of John Kinsella asked in the movie that inspired the game to be played Thursday between the Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees next to the actual site used in the 1989 film, which is maintained as a tourist attraction.

“No, it’s Iowa,” dutiful farmer Ray Kinsella — played by Kevin Costner — responded to his father with a smile before they played catch under the lights in the movie’s most poignant scene.

Source: AP

Fittingly, Costner was here, there and everywhere during the Iowa festivities, including on the field for a pregame ceremony that was everything a fan of this particular movie could have hoped for.

With dramatic music playing over the loudspeaker, Costner, holding a baseball, emerged from the cornfield beyond the outfield. He looked around, soaking in the scene, and then turned back to the outfield, where White Sox and Yankees players, dressed in throwback uniforms and looking so much like the characters in the movie, walked out from the corn fields. Just like the movie.

“Thirty years ago, on the other side of that corn, we filmed a move that stood the test of time,” Costner said to the crowd. “Tonight, thanks to the enduring impact that little movie had, it’s allowed us to come here, again, on a field that Major League Baseball made. We come to see a first place White Sox play the mighty Yankees, in a field that was once corn. It’s perfect.”

Source AP https://www.mlb.com/news/best-moments-from-field-of-dreams-game

Players didn’t compete on the actual field used in the movie but rather one just a corn maze away. 

MLB broke ground in Iowa in 2019 for a game that was originally set for the Chicago White Sox and the Saint Louis Cardinals. The diamond was designed to resemble that of Chicago’s Comiskey Park.

Thursday night, 8,000  fans were in attendance at the makeshift stadium. MLB conducted a public lottery for the opportunity to purchase tickets for those with Iowa zip codes.

This won’t be a one-time visit, either. Commissioner Rob Manfred confirmed that the Field of Dreams game will return in August 2022, with the teams to be determined.

In the end, the White Sox outslugged the Yankees 9-8 in the first Major League Baseball game in Iowa.

“We love numbers in baseball, and here is one to remember: 30,000 — as in, construction crews moved 30,000 cubic yards of material in order to clear the acreage and level the terrain necessary to build the MLB field. You’ll see why on Thursday night, if you notice the upward slope of the cornfields beyond the left-field (corn) wall. The terrain’s natural grade had to be smoothed in order to build an MLB-caliber playing surface.

As your eyes trace the outfield perimeter, you’ll notice a few more unique features. The batter’s eye is a perfect hitting backdrop, in the shape of a country barn with a dark brown hue. The bullpens are situated beyond the wall in straightaway center field, a nod to their location in the original Comiskey Park. And there’s a hand-operated scoreboard in right field, completing the aesthetic that would have been familiar to Shoeless Joe Jackson and the film’s fellow “ghost players.”

For more read here: https://www.mlb.com/news/featured/field-of-dreams-keeps-reality-on-deck

A Field of Dreams Game just wouldn’t be the same without “Field of Dreams” actors, and this event featured two. Fittingly, given how much the father-son theme of the film still resonates today, Ray Kinsella (Costner) and his pops, John (Dwier Brown) were part of the Iowa festivities.

“Hey Dad? You wanna have a catch?” Brown tweeted, while standing on the field.

Field of Dreams is about the Chicago “Black Sox” scandal that plagued baseball and that fascinates Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) as he undertakes an extraordinary gamble before setting off on a journey that connects him with three unlikely allies: reclusive author Terence Mann (James Earl Jones), baseball player Archibald “Moonlight” Graham (Burt Lancaster) and “Shoeless Joe” Jackson himself (Ray Liotta). With the support of his wife (Amy Madigan), Ray discovers the importance of long-sought forgiveness in director Phil Alden Robinson’s film, which has become synonymous with baseball.

Father’s Day at the Movies: FIELD OF DREAMS Returns to Theaters June 16th & 18th

A disembodied voice whispers to farmer Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) and begins a classic film fantasy about fathers, sons, baseball and the power of unwavering belief in Field of Dreams, which marks its 30th anniversary by returning to movie theaters for two days only: on Father’s Day (Sunday, June 16) and Tuesday, June 18.

Field of Dreams returns to movie theaters a century after the Chicago “Black Sox” scandal that plagued baseball and that fascinates Ray Kinsella as he undertakes an extraordinary gamble before setting off on a journey that connects him with three unlikely allies: reclusive author Terence Mann (James Earl Jones), baseball player Archibald “Moonlight” Graham (Burt Lancaster) and “Shoeless Joe” Jackson himself (Ray Liotta). With the support of his wife (Amy Madigan), Ray discovers the importance of long-sought forgiveness in director Phil Alden Robinson’s film, which has become synonymous with baseball.

Before and after each presentation of Field of Dreams, TCM Primetime host Ben Mankiewicz will offer fascinating insight into the making and legacy of the film.


Presented by Fathom Events, Turner Classic Movies and Universal PictureW

·      Sunday, June 16, 2019 – 1:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. (local time)

·      Tuesday, June 18, 2019 – 4:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. (local time)W

Tickets for Field of Dreams can be purchased at www.FathomEvents.com or participating theater box offices. Fans throughout the U.S. will be able to enjoy the event in more than 600 movie theaters through Fathom’s Digital Broadcast Network (DBN). For a complete list of theater locations visit the Fathom Events website (participating theaters are subject to change).

Top Ten Tuesday: Friendly Ghosts

From Japanese ghost stories such as RINGU (1998) and JU-ON (2002, remade as THE GRUDGE) to modern revisionist ghost stories such as Brad Anderson’s SESSION 9 (2001) and Ti West’s THE INNKEEPERS (2011), cinematic specters have nearly always been evil, or at the very least, malicious. Scary movies have long held the belief that ghosts should frighten us, and Hollywood had lined their pockets with that notion, but is it possible to make a good movie about “good” ghosts? We think so, and here’s our proof… our Top Ten Movies About Friendly Ghosts.

10. HEART AND SOULS (1993)

heart and souls

Anything starring Robert Downey, Jr. is worth checking out in my book, but this comedy was surprisingly enjoyable. Downey plays a guy used by four ghosts to reconcile their lives before moving on into the afterlife. The catch is, Downey is less than enthusiastic, but finds himself the catalyst for something bigger than himself and goes along for the ride. The cast is comprised of several well-known actors making the film that much more enjoyable.

9. TRULY, MADLY, DEEPLY (1990)

truly madly deeply

The 1991 charming, English love story of a woman, Nina, (Juliet Stephenson) who’s inconsolable with grief over the death of her lover and cellist, Jamie (Alan Rickman). Just when Nina thinks she’ll never recover from her loss, Jamie’s ghost returns and, much to her dismay, begins to muck about in her daily life, which includes bringing other ghosts along to watch, of all things, videos to pass the time. TRULY, MADLY, DEEPLY was Anthony Minghella’s (THE ENGLISH PATIENT, THE READER) directorial debut, universally loved by the critics, and was called the British version of GHOST.

8. THE CANTERVILLE GHOST (1944)

The popular short story by Oscar Wilde came to life in 1944 when Charles Laughton stepped into the role of the ghost of Sir Simon de Canterville. Cursed to roam an English manor until a descendant can redeem the family name through an act of bravery, the character is one for the ages, and Laughton’s interaction with co-star Robert Young is timeless. The first of eight adaptations of the story for film, THE CANTERVILLE GHOST is a timeless comedy that is just as beloved now as it was nearly 70 years ago.

7. FIELD OF DREAMS (1989)

field of dreams

“If you build it, he will come.” The ghosts of the Chicago Black Sox in FIELD OF DREAMS aren’t, exactly, bad, but that voice the serves as their prelude has got to go. Creepy as it may be, it, and the ghosts themselves, help Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) rekindle that loss feeling of youth and helps subside that foreboding feeling he has that he is turning in this father. The ending of FIELD OF DREAMS would make a grown man cry, and I’m sure it’s done just that time and time again. You’ll never look at playing catch with your father the same way twice.

6. THE FRIGHTENERS (1996)

frighteners

Not only was this a pivotal film as director Peter Jackson’s American breakout film, it was also one helluva funny good time! Michael J. Fox plays a guy who develops the ability to see and talk to ghosts, working with them to con unsuspecting suburbanites into paying for spirit extractions. The ghosts may have the act down in this film, but they were anything but mean… more like completely harmless.

5. THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR (1947)

THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR (1947) is the impossible love story between a young widow, Mrs. Lucy Muir (Gene Tierney) and deceased Sea Captain Daniel Gregg (Rex Harrison, in one of his most colorful roles). Being a penniless widow, Mrs. Muir, along with her young daughter Anna (Natalie Wood), move into Gull Cottage on the English coast only to discover that it’s haunted by the previous owner, a loud-mouthed ghost reluctant to entrust it to a woman. The two form a friendship (with Lucy being the only one who can hear and see the Captain) and when seeing that she’s in need of money, the captain persuades “Lucia” to be the ghostwriter for his memoirs in the book Blood and Swash and they end up falling in love. With a great, moody score from Bernard Hermann and the Oscar nominated B & W cinematography from Charles Lang, THE GHOST AND MRS MUIR is one of those entrancing ghost stories and a fan- favorite.

4. BEETLEJUICE (1988)

Tim Burton’s dark comedy about a married couple who die and come back as ghosts is one of the most enjoyably original films from the last three decades. Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis are confined to their earthly home as a rich, dysfunctional family moves in and begins changing everything, leading the nice couple to employ the not-so-nice tactics of Michael Keaton’s “Beetlejuice” to scare them off.

3. GHOST (1984)

ghost

The late, iconic Patrick Swayze stars in the dramatic love story as a man who returns as a ghost in an attempt to protect Demi Moore, his wife, from impending danger with the help of a reluctant psychic, played by Whoopi Goldberg. The film is a staple for many women, but is also a great film on it’s own merit, earning Goldberg a Best Supporting Actress Oscar.

2. TOPPER (1937)

You need only take a gander at the cast list for TOPPER to realize there’s no nefarious dealings with the ghosts involved here. Cary Grant and Constance Bennett as George and Marion Kerby, respectively, are among some of the more memorable “good” ghosts around. Granted, they are charged by the minions of Purgatory to do one good deed, but that deed comes easy, and it is to the benefit of all that these wayward souls find their ultimate path to redemption. TOPPER is a laugh-riot classic. The characters and those who play them are among the main elements that make it so.

1. THE SIXTH SENSE (1999)

sixth sense

The big reveal of M. Night Shyamalan’s THE SIXTH SENSE is that Dr. Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) is in fact one of the ghosts that little Haley Joel Osment sees. This was not only a huge kick in the gut for audiences, but also cemented the fact that the film was one of the best modern ghost stories, period. Willis’ performance might be one of the strongest and most emotionally resonant of his career. While the ending is memorable, the ghostly leading man in THE SIXTH SENSE is what makes the picture enduring, even after you’re in on the twist.