Field of Dreams: film analysis and thematic interpretation

¶ … film Field of Dreams

Executive review: The objective of this paper is to provide an in-depth analysis of the film 'Field of Dreams' [1989], taking into consideration such intrinsic aspects of the film as the plot; characterizations; contextualization and storyline; moods and particularly evident ideological perspectives.

The plot within Field of Dreams begins to take shape when, due to instruction given unto him by a mysterious, heavenly voice one day, Ray Kinsella [Costner], a struggling Iowa farmer, begins to turn one of his cornfields [virtually the exclusive source of his income] into a baseball diamond. The characters he meets and the experiences he subsequently has, the eventual result of his accomplishment (s) and the ultimately reconciling and redeeming conclusion collectively converge to make for a movie that, in spite of having various fictional and illogical inclinations, depicts a pot that is fundamentally logical moralistic.

The film, directed by Phil Alden Robinson and released in 1989 [and with Kevin Costner [playing Ray Kinsella], Amy Madigan [playing Anni Kinsella] and Ray Liotta [playing Shoeless Joe Jackson] in lead roles] revolves around a plot that, in spite of having uncharacteristically simplistic tenets, happens to come forth in as much as a rather touching movie that draws the emotionally draws viewer (s) into the particularly respective characterization (s) of various sentiments.

Primarily focusing upon baseball as ideological firmament for the plot, the movie depicts a message that is far more intricate than the apparent straightforwardness that is evident within the introductory scenes, especially when Kinsella [Costner], begins to hear the strangely overpowering estranged voice asserting that 'If you build it, he will come'. The most forthright perspective that typically springs forth as a result of this message is that of a farmer who might be being granted heavenly salvation from his financial woes.

The conspicuousness of calm assertion, moreover, when Kinsella recounts the incident to his wife [Anni Kinsella: If you build what, who will come? Kevin Costner (Ray Kinsella): He didn't say] further builds upon the possibility of this being a movie built upon religiously constructed preconceptions. It is only after Kinsella has a vision of baseball field and realizes that he is meant to build a baseball field, that the ideological depth of the plot is partially unveiled, and this building of expectation [within the viewer (s)] tends to be one of the stronger points of the movie.

The subsequently recurrent appearance of the apparition of Shoeless Joe Jackson [a legendary, long-dead baseball player played by Ray Liotta] and his ghostly team mates, and the later message to 'Heal his Pain' that sends Kinsella on the journey that changes his life [as well as prevalent perspective (s), mood (s) and setting (s) within the movie] both tend to be instrumentally relevant transitions [within the movie] in regarding to putting the plot in perspective.

Kinsella, particularly in as much as eventually asserting that 'sometimes you have to take a chance in life', in addition to incepting a proverbial platform of second changes and repentances, serves as the idealistic protagonist with his strengths as well as flaws and weaknesses made clearly apparent. The mood within the entire movie, which is predominantly of a pensive and dreamlike sort, is one of the prime reasons due to which most viewers will find it enticing and moving; it tends to grant each of the characters with an essence of realistic sentiment and emotion due to which most audiences will tend to connect to the characters on a rather deep level.

The portrayal of such things as the significance and implications of Kinsella's woes; his inexplicable obsession with following the instructions of the 'voice' and the portrayal of love [between Kinsella and his wife] as fundamentally meaning the sharing of your loved one's dreams (Ebert, 1989) all contribute to this feeling of realistic characterization. Even the inherent relevance of baseball passion [as one of the central points of the story] and the quest through which Kinsella comes across such characters as the doctor [played by Burt Lancaster] who gave up his baseball career for the ostensibly higher respectability within a doctors career and the writer who has grown to despise society [James Earl Jones] further accentuate the moralistic significance of the story in a subtly realistic manner.