Directed by: Phil Alden Robinson
Starring: Kevin Costner, Ray Liotta, Burt Lancaster, James Earl Jones, Amy Madigan
Visible crew/equipment: On some shots which look back at Ray when he's driving his pickup, it can be clearly seen at the bottom of the picture that the front wheels of the pickup are sitting on a trailer, which is itself being towed by the camera vehicle.
Visible crew/equipment: Ray and Annie are talking about going to Boston and the camera is tracking through their home. The camera is reflected in a picture hanging on a wall in the kitchen as the shot passes it.
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)
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.
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).
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?
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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