Field of Dreams

Field of Dreams (1989)

11 corrected entries

(5 votes)

Corrected entry: Ray goes to Chisholm, MN in the present day, and finds out that Dob Graham has died. Later that evening he leaves his hotel room, and finds himself "transported" back to 1972 (which is clear thanks to the license plate and "Godfather" film) to chat with the elder Doc Graham. He should be transported to 1965 or earlier to have this conversation. Later on he meets the younger Archie Graham on the road. Why would Ray be transported to 1972 if not to meet the elder Doc Graham when he was still alive? It makes no sense.

Correction: No, you've missed the point of this part of the movie. First, Archie Graham is NOT alive. The Archie Graham that Terrance and Ray pick up on the road is a ghost of Doc Graham, of his younger self when he was playing baseball. Ray and Terrance even look at each other when Archie introduces himself in the car, because he shouldn't be there in the first place. Ray even remarks that Archie's mentioning of teams being all around the midwest is a tradition that has not been done for years. Archie's younger self simply allows Doc Graham to have a chance to be at bat and run the bases (i.e., his dream) in a baseball game, a game played on Ray's field. Second, Doc Graham was alive in 1972. Ray was transported back in time to 1972. So, Ray and Doc Graham could have spoken with each other then. So, transporting him back to 1972 is perfectly acceptable for having their conversation, by the rules of the film.

Correction: The filmmakers admitted they deliberately changed the year of Moonlight Graham's death to 1972, rather than 1965 which was the year he died in real life. The reason is so they could have the Richard Nixon reelection poster in the scene when Ray is transported back in time to meet Dr. Graham.

Corrected entry: After Ray (and Terrance) see the "Moonlight Graham" message on the scoreboard, the scoreboard goes completely blank. At Major League Baseball games, there is always something on the scoreboard.

Matty Blast

Correction: The scoreboard wasn't completely blank prior to Ray receiving the message. When Ray received the message, he saw something on the scoreboard that no one else saw. After receiving the message, he could have seen a blank scoreboard, which may not have been what everyone else saw. In the movie, we see the scoreboard from Ray's point of view ... not from everyone else's.

Corrected entry: Moonlight Graham had to cross the foul line in order to help save Karin, and according to the plot, anyone who crosses the line can't return to the game. But shortly thereafter, when he begins walking back toward the ballplayers, you can see that some of the other ballplayers have also crossed the foul line.

Correction: It isn't the foul line they can't cross, it's the outer threshold of the entire field. Moonlight Graham is the only one who walks out too far.

Corrected entry: At the end of the film, while Ray is contemplating signing away his farm, Terrence Mann gives this big show-stopping speech about why he shouldn't saying, among other things: "...The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again..." Great speech, but why would Mann feel all that sentimental about that era, when baseball was still a good quarter of a century away from Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier.

Correction: Terrance Mann was a writer in the 60's the film didn't take place in the 60's. The film was a current story circa 1988. So what is the point?

Correction: She's eating a hot dog too. It's in her right hand when she says "People will come" and when she falls.

Corrected entry: In the scene where Kevin Costner and James Earl Jones first arrive at Fenway Park, you can see sunlight entering the area where they are about to order 'a dog and a beer.' But they are supposedly attending a night game. (The scoreboard clock reads 10:32).

Correction: If you ever go to a game at Fenway it starts at 7:30, and since they were just entering the stadium, that would still be daylight. AND if they were sitting on the First Base side the sun would be directly over their shoulders as they ordered the beer and a dog. If you sit in the Bleachers at Fenway (Right Field) during a night game you have sun directly in your eyes for two innings. So this entry is wrong. However, the time is wrong wrong in this scene, the clock on the field says 10:32 and it was only the second inning. Unless they had a HUGE rain delay this wouldn't work out.

Correction: At Fenway they also stop serving beer 2 hours and 30 minutes after the game starts. Not necessarily the 7th.

Corrected entry: A baseball field is roughly 400 x 400, or around 160,000 square feet. An acre of land is just over 40,000 square feet, so a baseball diamond is roughly 4 acres. No farmer is in jeopardy of losing his farm for plowing under 4 acres. Most farms in Iowa are in thousands of acres.

Correction: According to the Iowa State Agriculture website, the average farm in Iowa is about 400 acres, not thousands of acres. And that means there are a lot of small ones, such as currently listed for sale in the 20-50 acres range. Plowing under 10-20% of your land in a business with small margins can definitely jeopardize the farm.

jimba

Corrected entry: Early on, one of the ballplayers quotes a line from the 1939 movie script of "The Wizard of Oz" ("I'm melting"). These ballplayers are from 1919. This version of "The Wizard of Oz" was not released until 1939. In the book, the witch says "In a minute I shall melt away."

Correction: The ball players PLAYED in 1919. That would mean that many of them were still alive in 1939 - thus were around when the movie was popular.

Corrected entry: About half way through the movie, when Ray Kinsella goes to Boston to find Terrance Mann, he stops at a gas station for directions to Mann's apartment. The gas station attendant tells him it is in the building without chickens in the window two blocks down the street on the right. When Kinsella is approaching Mann's apartment building, he is looking at buildings on his left, and in fact goes into a building on his left.

Correction: The gas station attendant tells Ray that Terrance's place is down the street on the right. In other words, the street was on the right side of where they were. This doesn't imply that Terrance's home is on the right side of that street. In other words, Terrance's home was obviously on the left side of the street that was to the right of where they were.

Corrected entry: In the scene where Annie calls Ray to tell him dinner is ready, after Ray goes inside, Annie is putting some frozen French Fries on a cookie sheet, so dinner is obviously not ready.

Correction: Calling someone for dinner can also mean it is time for them to come "help" with dinner.

Corrected entry: When young Moonlight Graham first arrives at the field, he recognises Gil Hodges. Graham had his stint in the majors in 1905, and would not have recognised Hodges, who played in the 1950s.

Correction: Perhaps Archie "remembered" Gil Hodges from when he was the doctor, practicing medicine in Minnesota, and hearing news of Gil Hodges on the radio.

Correction: The movie seems to suggest that the ghosts are aware that they are dead and remember versions of their older selves (one Black Sox pitcher acknowledges to Ray the year he died). This would indicate that "old Doc Graham" is inside "young Archie Graham", thus being aware of who Gil Hodges was. Interesting side note, Gil Hodges died unexpectedly in 1972, the year Doc Graham passed.

Continuity mistake: When Annie and Ray are laying in the newly completed ball field, and Annie is drinking a glass of wine, it is sunset. The sun has gone down and the sky is just the faintest of pink on the horizon, the rest of the sky is a strong blue tone. Yet, when the camera cuts to a long shot, same angle of Ray and Annie, the horizon is now a brilliant red-orange taking up nearly a third of the sky. (00:16:20)

OneHappyHusky

More mistakes in Field of Dreams

Terence Mann: Ray, people will come Ray. They'll come to Iowa for reasons they can't even fathom. They'll turn up your driveway not knowing for sure why they're doing it. They'll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past. Of course, we won't mind if you look around, you'll say. It's only $20 per person. They'll pass over the money without even thinking about it: for it is money they have and peace they lack. And they'll walk out to the bleachers; sit in shirtsleeves on a perfect afternoon. They'll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they'll watch the game and it'll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick they'll have to brush them away from their faces. People will come Ray. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh... People will come Ray. People will most definitely come.

More quotes from Field of Dreams

Trivia: During the filming of the cornfield scenes where Ray first hears the voice, the filmmakers had problems with the corn growing. When they initially wanted to film the scenes the corn was too short, so they waited a couple of weeks. When they were ready to shoot, the corn was too tall. Kevin Costner had to walk on wooden planks, so he could be seen in the cornfield (Director Phil Alden Robinson discussed this in the 10th anniversary edition of the film).

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Question: At the end of the movie, Ray realises that the messages he had been receiving were about his dad. "If you build it, he will come." Ray built the ball field and his dad appeared. "Ease his pain." Ray played a game of catch with his dad. How does the message "Go the distance" refer to his dad?

Answer: Ray's mission was not confined to easing the pain of his deceased father. Ray himself had a lot of pain and regret over arguing with his father about baseball. Ray was also supernaturally guided to seek out the angry writer Terence Mann (who had always dreamed of playing professional baseball, but never did). When he travels to Boston looking for Terence Mann, Ray and Terence both hear the words "Go the distance," convincing them to travel to Chisholm, Minnesota, looking for an ex-ballplayer named "Moonlight" Graham (who never actually got to bat in the big league, either). As it turned out, Graham was long-since deceased, but Ray and Terence meet Graham's young ghost who returns with them to join the cornfield team. So, "Ease his pain," applied not only to Ray's father, but also to Ray himself and to writer Terence Mann and to Moonlight Graham. "Go the distance" was about traveling to bring both Terence Mann and Moonlight Graham into this magical place where all of their lost dreams could be fulfilled, as well.

Charles Austin Miller

I think "go the distance" has a metaphorical connotation of seeing your choices through in life, and finding the beauty in them. It also implies doing the work you need to do confront your past, resolve your past hurts, and find the strength to move forward.

Michael Albert

Well, in that sense, "Go the distance" is just a generic platitude. What we know is that each of the supernatural messages carried an urgent instructional connotation, calling for Ray to be proactive toward a specific goal: Bringing together these anguished souls (both dead and living) to live out their lost dreams and finally find peace.

Charles Austin Miller

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