Field of Dreams

If you build it, he will come.

That's the ethereal message that inspires Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) to construct a baseball diamond in the middle of his cornfield. At first, "he" seems to be the ghost of disgraced ballplayer Shoeless Joe Jackson (Ray Liotta), who materializes on the ballfield and plays a few games with the awestruck Ray. But as the weeks go by, Ray receives several other messages from a disembodied voice, one of which is "Ease his pain." He realizes that his ballfield has been divinely ordained to give a second chance to people who have sacrificed certain valuable aspects of their lives. One of these folks is Salingeresque writer Terence Mann (James Earl Jones), whom Ray kidnaps and takes to a ball game and then to his farm. Another is Doc Graham (Burt Lancaster), a beloved general practitioner who gave up a burgeoning baseball career in favor of medicine. The final "second-chancer" turns out to be much closer to Ray. That "magical" field in Dyersville, Iowa still draws thousands of baseball-happy tourists each year. — Hal Erickson

AMG ReviewPhil 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. — Mike DiBella