Field of Dreams (Anniversary Edition)
July 2004 Reviewed by: Rad Bennett Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

Some people consider this great film to be about baseball, others think it concerns the relationship between fathers and sons, while another group thinks it is about Iowa. After all, one of the most famous lines in the movie, which occurs twice, is the response given when a character asks, "Is this Heaven?" "No, it’s Iowa." Everyone is right. The movie’s script is concerned with all of these things, but, overall, it is about forgiveness, redemption, and faith.

Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) is a baseball fan and wannabe farmer who became estranged from his father. His dad died soon after, leaving a festering rift still between them. One night, as Ray is walking in his cornfield, he hears a voice that says, "If you build it, he will come." Ray figures out that what he has to build is a baseball field, so he plows under his corn to put up a traditional diamond, complete with outdoor lighting. Another mysterious message, "Ease his pain," sends Ray off to Boston to find a socially influential author, Terence Mann (James Earl Jones), who accompanies him on a search for Doc "Moonlight" Graham after he receives a third message, "Go the distance." In the meantime, Ray’s field has attracted the player for whom it was originally intended, Shoeless Joe Jackson, as well as two full teams of celestial baseball legends.

The fantasy elements of the story are handled in such a natural way that they never seem ridiculous. Director Phil Alden Robinson’s script walks a tightrope between sentiment and sentimentality without ever veering too much one way of the other. And the performances are spot-on all the way. Costner, fresh from his stint in Bull Durham, was the ideal actor to play Kinsella, while James Earl Jones turns in the best performance of a distinguished career as Mann, who was patterned after author J.D. Salinger. His important speech about baseball near the end of the film is as appealing as it is arresting. And, in his last film role, Burt Lancaster bid a fitting farewell to movies, playing the kind, strong and dignified Doc Graham, a real-life hero who played but one inning of professional baseball. Graham went on to become a doctor who was noted for helping children who could not afford medical services.

Universal had a good special edition of this movie in its catalog already, and that release has one feature this one lacks, though it was something of a secret. If you let the music for one of the menus play, it would play the entire 40-some-minute soundtrack recording rather than looping. I found nothing like that here, but there are quite a few good documentaries and featurettes. There’s a tour of the set, which still exists today as a tourist place; a tour of Galena, Illinois, which pinch hits for Chisholm, Minnesota; a roundtable discussion with Costner and three baseball greats; and two good documentaries on the making of the film. In addition, there is an intelligent and friendly commentary track with director Robinson and director of photography John Linden, as well as a dandy series of deleted scenes.

The biggest difference between this release and the previous one is that it has anamorphic video. The previous release was merely letterboxed widescreen. This will not matter that much to people who do not have widescreen sets, but they are becoming more the norm than the exception. I do not think the image has been improved beyond what anamorphic reproduction will naturally effect. It is still on the dark side and still a little grainy in places. On the plus side, the colors are rich, and the detail is slightly greater. The sound is quite good, as well. But the surround could have been more imaginatively used for atmospheric effects, and no effort seems to have been made toward an extensive remix.

This is probably the fifth or sixth time I have seen this movie, and every time I view it, I receive something new and enriching from it. It is an instructive fantasy fable that deserves to be in everyone’s library, one that will live up to repeated viewings and can be passed along from generation to generation. It is one of the great ones.

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