All Movie Guide

Phil Robinson's 1989 masterpiece is the definitive modern-day baseball film. Adapting a W.P. Kinsella story, Robinson magically combines baseball history and folklore with whimsical fantasy, and makes great use of all-American actor Kevin Costner. Costner is right at home playing the Iowa farmer whose backyard becomes a playground for unfulfilled wishes to come to fruition, and is ably supported by Burt Lancaster, James Earl Jones, and Ray Liotta as Shoeless Joe Jackson, whose performances are vital to the spirit of the film. An imaginative, intricately woven fairy tale that works on the spiritual level as well as on the practical, Field of Dreams benefits from Robinson's ability to effortlessly milk both America's love of baseball and the more poignant aspects of American mythology. As another mark of its enduring appeal, the film also permanently wedged the catch phrase, "If you build it, he will come" into the American lexicon, a lofty feat for a baseball movie.