Field of Dreams (1989)

I did not think Amy was miscast.

It doesn't hold up well.

Straight dude approved

Why do you say so R2?

I had such a crush on Kevin Costner.

Kevin Costner would be the local farmer stud, and would cheat on Amy Madigan relentlessly.

I enjoyed it. Ray Liotta did a great job.

Burt Lancaster addressed Timothy Busfield (redhead who played Amy Madigan's brother) on set as though he were a gofer. He spoke up: "No, Mr. Lancaster, I'm in the movie." Lancaster patted him on the shoulder, said"Sure, you are, kid," and walked past him.

I used to stare at the video cover in the supermarket as a gayling. This was when you could rent movies and video games from the grocery store. It entranced me. At the time, I didn’t know why.

Now I do.

A cooler actress should have played the wife, like Meg Ryan, Demi Moore or Geena Davis.

It's Beaches for straight guys.

Amy Madigan sucks in everything.

Ray Liotta looks the best he ever looked, and gives an understated performance.

Amy Madigan was offered a job as a bartender at a local bar during filming. The owner did not know she was an actress.

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon were extras in the Fenway park scenes.

My family is from Mass. and we have an affinity toward this movie. We always applauded the Boston/Fenway Park scenes, because we were familiar with the locations. We first watched this on a ferry from Bar Harbor, Maine, to Nova Scotia when my family vacationed in the summer of 1990. TURNER & HOOCH also played as a double bill. Good times.

Don't come for Amy Madigan. Great actress. Kevin Costner was so handsome and a star at this time. Too bad his ego got the best of him.

R15 - Agree about Amy. Have you seen Carnivale?

This movie was BIG at the time. One of those movies that everybody talked about and went to see.

Most of it seems corny now, but the ending is great with, "Wanna have a catch?" and the long line of headlights in the fields.

Just because she's a good actress doesn't mean she's good in everything.

R17 it was also nominated for Best Picture which was difficult for a film of that genre to accomplish when there were only 5 slots available. And it was released in April!

R14 you and me both, my family might have been on that ferry too.

Karen Allen, Kim Basinger, Jamie Lee Curtis, Geena Davis, Jodie Foster, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Demi Moore, Michelle Pfeiffer, Meg Ryan, Molly Ringwald, Rene Russo, Susan Sarandon, Ally Sheedy, Madeleine Stowe, Emma Thompson and Sigourney Weaver were considered for Annie Kinsella.

Ally Sherry was about 25. Molly was about 20. You are full of shit R21

Sheedy, I meant.

It's from the imdb link R21 under trivia

R24 IMDb can be edited by anyone, like Wikipedia. It's not a reliable source.

If anyone would have been nominated for acting it would have been James Earl Jones.

FUN FACT: JEJ's character "Terence Mann" was supposed to be JD Salinger (like in the book), but he threatened to sue if his name or likeness was used in the film.

Ally Sheedy would have been a good choice. She and Kevin Costner both have an awkward, shoegaze quality.

She was 25 and looked 20.

Madigan was a recent Oscar-nominee when FIELD OF DREAMS was made. That's probably why she got it.

I was in college at the time. It is corny, but it did strike a chord with a lot of guys I knew as well as myself, because we were at the age when you are st the transitition of having the teenage clashes with your Dad to having an adult relationship. I think it captured the friction young men often have with there Dad while showing it can be worked through.

I believe I also appreciated Costner and his 501s. There was about a five year stretch where every film he made was a hit.

R19, so many great films didn’t get nominated that year.

Kevin Costner was thirty-four at the time. A movie wife nine years younger is not unusual.

They had a school aged daughter. Ally Sheedy was too young for the role.

Ally Sheedy didn't appear youthful at all in St. Elmo's Fire, which was released four years before Field of Dreams. She could easily have portrayed a Midwestern soccer mom.

I saw the movie with my family one of the first weekends it was out and as soon as we got home my mom called Barnes & Noble and asked if they had in stock “The Boatrocker” by Terrence Mann. The guy on the phone said “you just saw Field of Dreams didn’t you? You know it’s a not a real book.”

The Untouchables came out in 1987. Costner was hot as an actor. Baseball was a lot more popular then. It was an ambitious movie. It’s not something I’d want to watch again.

My father died suddenly when I was 17, leaving much unsaid. So when I first saw it in 1989, the last 10 minutes had me bawling uncontrollably in the theater.

[quote]Ally Sheedy was too young for the role.

Is there really such thing as "too young" for a role? I don't think so!

It's "The Wizard of Oz" for straight guys.

Costner looked great in those tight jeans. His basket was really something.

You're a bunch of perverts.

Interesting thing about Costner in his heyday - he often had older actresses being cast as his spouses/love interests - Madigan, Sissy Spacek in JFK, Mary McDonnell in Dances with Wolves and Sarandon in Bull Durham (in which his is the older, seasoned man vying for her attention). He even had an affair with G in The Big Chill, for God's sake! (ok, it was left on the cutting room floor, but still). Even the other, younger actresses paired with him in the late '80s/early '90s were his contemporaries, only slightly younger than him (Sean Young, Madeleine Stowe, M E Mastrantonio, Patricia Clarkson). I always liked this about him.

Remembering Field Of Dreams makes me appreciate Waterworld. If not for Waterworld being such an expensive flop, he'd probably still be subjecting us to these bland, pale Boomer flicks.

Loved this movie when I was an adolescent....saw it in the theater multiple times. Just watched it again on tv after many many years and....it's embarrassing. Like just so shamelessly maudlin. Beaches for straight guys is totally correct, as a previous poster put it. But....Ray Liotta was FUCKING HOT. He burns up the screen.

[Quote] If not for Waterworld being such an expensive flop,

They should've known it was going to flop the second they decided to write a scene where Kevin drinks his own piss.

James Earl Jones was robbed of an Oscar.

For ‘Field Of Dreams’, r47? No.

Kevin was sex on a stick.

Dwier Brown - the actor playing the dad. Why didn’t he have a bigger career?

....

....

Contrary to popular belief, WATERWORLD didn't flop that badly. It was actually the 8th highest grossing film of 1995. But it was the most expensive movie ever made at the time and barely recouped its astronomical budget. However, it did eventually make a profit when it went to video.

This is definitely more of a straight guy film. It's kind of like 'The Shawshank Redemption', another film that straight guys in particular seem to go nuts for.

haha - r17 calls it corny - and it had the baseball diamond in a corn field.

I liked the film. When I was driving cross country a few summers ago, I stopped in the town in Iowa where it was shot. The diamond is still there, in the middle of a cornfield.

Ooh, yes, sweet Dwier Brown! He wrote a book about his experience making the film, and toured at baseball games etc.

I liked this movie a lot. Don't see how it's a straight guy movie. One of the few instances where the movie is better than the book.

It's a tribute to the lost longing of paternal connection, using baseball as a substitute for true affection.

It's every straight guy's fantasy to have a sports field in his back yard.

It's about paternal redemption, a claiming of one's masculine yet empathetic identity.

If you can't understand that, R58, then you're a bit obdurate.

R59 yeah, well, you have a big behind.

I wish!

Great soundtrack...

[quote] Is there really such thing as "too young" for a role? I don't think so!

No! Never!

I love this movie. I can't even talk about it without getting choked up. Burt Lancaster is amazing, James Earl Jones is genius, Ray Liotta is wonderful, Frank Whaley is adorable, Dwier Brown is dreamy, and Amy Madigan is perfect.

(And, yes, it is much better than the book.)

It's one of my earnest Americana guilty pleasures. If you allow yourself to feel emotion without caring if anyone thinks it's cool, every once in a while, it's actually pretty moving.

It's also something I never "got" until fairly recently because I was always too young to appreciate it. I used to roll my eyes over these kind of movies but now I miss them. They were pretty brave in the human vulnerability they laid bare. You very rarely see that in movies anymore. Now everything is about being harder, colder than most people really are at their core.

Culturally, I think this has lead to lots of people who don't know how to express these vulnerabilities in healthy ways because these things used to be examined in film and music. Now everyone puts on a dead front, aches and stews inside and blows up at random times. The only film I've recently film that made me think of this genre was "I can Only Imagine" which per DL, would be classified as "cheese fest". But when the son was nursing his dying, abusive father and choosing to forgive him, it was the first time I've gotten teary eyed in a theater.

r66 "...I've recently [found]..."

"The Glass Castle" that was also another one that was pretty moving in this raw way. It was perfect but most of it felt honest.

R68 "...[wasn't]..."

I feel that way about the much maligned MILLION DOLLAR BABY, r68. I saw it just after my mother had received a cancer diagnosis, and sat there in the cinema, wiping away tears, during the closing credits. About 4 other people were as well.

You know Kevin Costner is from Compton? He needs a gangsta role, a la Denzel Washington in TRAINING DAY, all braids and gold jewelry.

R71 If you presumed I'd be uninterested in seeing Costner in Guido-gear, you're more wrong than you know!

R59, Guess what? I'm gay and that movie spoke to me more than any Judy Garland schmaltz fest. Go back to your Beaches-Steel Magnolias- Fried Green Tomatoes marathon.

[quote]ames Earl Jones was robbed of an Oscar.—Anonymous..... For ‘Field Of Dreams’, [R47]? No.

Ahh yes, he was wonderful in it.

The scene with Timothy Busfield yelling at the daughter and her falling off the stands would be deleted today.

R75 why?

I don't care what anyone says, I loved it when Kevin Costner was an A-List star. He really is one of the last stars that came out of the system.

No Way Out, The Untouchables, Bull Durham, Field of Dreams and Dances with Wolves are all great films that have stood the test of time. Unpopular opinion but I still love The Bodyguard, Revenge (both cuts) and A Perfect World.

I'm amazed that DANCES WITH WOLVES was the 3rd highest-grossing film of 1990, after HOME ALONE and PRETTY WOMAN and ahead of TOTAL RECALL, BACK TO THE FUTURE III, and DIE HARD 2. Can you imagine a slow-moving, 3-hour epic even making a profit today? Of course, nowadays, there would be cries and protests about 'cultural appropriation.' *sigh*

Following No Way Out with Field of Dreams was a two-movie career catapult for Kevin Costner.

He was hot in every way from the late 80s through the early 90s.

I decorated my first apartment in Hollywood with that photo of him, laying down, shirt open revealing hairy chest, staring at the camera.

Soon after moving there, I worked at a theater in LA and was so jealous when a co-worker of mine, a wannabe actor, walked out of the theater alongside Kevin Costner one night. He said he told Kevin Costner about his dream of being an actor and Kevin walked to the parking lot with him, asking questions and offering encouragement.

Gorgeous AND nice.

I thought Dwier Brown was 10 times hotter.

Kevin Costner is often a pleasure to watch when he turns up in supporting roles like in HIDDEN FIGURES and MAN OF STEEL.

Apparently his TV show sucks, though.

I used to dream of Kevin plowing me in that field.

I generally do not care for mustaches but thought Costner was sexy as fuck in “American Flyers”. Also his most homoerotic film to date.

I'm not sure "Fandango" can be classified as homoerotic, but this scene sure worked its magic on me.

R79 he was actually quite good in No Way out or any role that allowed him to have a bit of an edge. But in this, Dances with Wolves and especially the Untouchables, he was bland as fuck.

Yeah, r86, the occasional times Costner branches out into different roles like A Perfect World or Mr. Brooks, he is really good.

[Quote] The only film I've recently film that made me think of this genre was "I can Only Imagine" which per DL, would be classified as "cheese fest".

My parents choke up every time they talk about that movie. It's fucking awkward.

[Quote] Apparently his TV show sucks, though.

Reminds me of Longmire.

[Quote] A Perfect World or Mr. Brooks, he is really good.

The only good movie Dane Cook was in.

His nipple in the No Way Out poster was homoerotic

This movie popularized the name Kevin around the world

I loved this film when it came out. It dealt with hope, redemption, and encouraged folks to follow their dreams. Feel good. Believe in Santa Claus. Maybe it doesn't hold up over time, I don't know since I haven't seen it in years. But at the time it was released, it touched something good in folks that had been missing in films for awhile. Sometimes that is all that is needed in a movie....allow the audience to feel good at the end. The horrendous climate in this country right now probably wouldn't allow a film like this to be successful today. Sad statement. Oh, and it certainly did not hurt that Costner was at his hunkiest during these years.

I rewatched it a few years ago. Some of it has not aged well and some of it might be a little emotionally manipulative, but when all was said and done, I was still a little choked up at the end.

I love this movie!!

R78 and R80, great posts!

Dances with Wolves was the 4th highest grossing film of 1990. (Ghost was #1, then Home Alone and Pretty Woman.) Still an impressive feat, though.

"Dances With Wolves" would be a mini series on the History Channel nowadays.

I'm surprised GOODFELLAS was not in the Top 10, or Top 20, or even on the list. Was it a flop? No wonder WOLVES won Best Picture and Director.

I don't think Goodfellas was a flop, but I think it was one of those moves that gained more of a following after it was on video and on the movie channels. I don't remember it being a huge box office hit while in the theaters.

I still see bumper stickers that say, "Is this heaven? No, it's Iowa."

I just watched it again. It’s still manipulative hokum. I can’t believe it was nominated for Best Picture when sex, lies, and videotape and Do the Right Thing weren’t.

Bonnie Franklin wanted the role of Annie Kinsella. There is a great opportunity for a tap dance followed by ballad when the bank guy shows up

Lancaster got really lucky to be in several great movies when he was old. The little known Atlantic City is still one of my favorites. Gritty gangster drama, amazingly directed by Louis Malle.

(and yes Lancaster didn't like Susan Sarandon, although she was great in the movie)

Bonnie Franklin could have done a better job than the hack acting of Amy Madigan, specifically when she comes out of the Nazi cow meeting and is overacting throwing punches in the hallway.

“Damn it, Shoeless Joe!”