Movies reflect the changing roles of men in the 21st century. Here is what our community says about a classic one.
—
This post is the second in our new series on “Movies and Manhood.” The series gives our regular writers a voice to share how specific movies have impacted their thinking about men. Our objective is to find the intersection between these films and the themes and topics we address here at The Good Men Project. Be sure to check out the first post on Dead Poets Society.
In addition to Dead Poets Society, 1989 gave us another classic movie: Field of Dreams. On the surface, it’s a simple story about a farmer who hears a voice telling him to build a baseball diamond in this middle of his cornfield. But anyone who’s seen it knows it’s really about the relationship between fathers and sons, a topic that is important to many Good Men Project writers and readers.
The comments from our writers reflect the diversity of thinking about Field of Dreams, but one thing is clear: in the past twenty-six years the film has had a significant impact on our cultural ideas about manhood, the American Dream, and the profound meaning of a game of catch between father and son.
Read the comments from our panel of writers after you watch the clip from this classic film. Please share your comments, too. We may feature some of them in a follow-up post!
Here are the GMP Perspectives:
“Baseball and dreams. The perfect combination. As I kid growing up, I wanted to be a professional baseball player. Without the support from those around me, I went to college, got my degree and jumped on the treadmill. Each day, I heard those voices calling to me, not only the baseball gods, but the voices of dreamer gods, urging me to follow my heart. Although it took me twenty-five years to take my big leap, and the possibility of a career playing baseball was gone, it didn’t stop me from following my heart and becoming an entrepreneur whose mission is to help men open up and communicate more often and more effectively. Especially about their dreams.
My own father had dreams about becoming an artist, but he had to go to work to earn money and he died with his dreams still inside him. That wasn’t going to be me.
At times, Ray’s journey makes no sense, a feeling I still feel most days, but he goes for it anyway. Perhaps this is the truest definition of faith: going after it especially when it makes no sense. He is even able to get old Terrence back out on the road, serving as a message that with enough belief, we can build it whether anyone comes or not.
My family and I love this movie and we watch it at least once every year. We sit glued to the TV feeling and crying into all those moments when dreams do become reality. I can’t think of any better way to spend my days. We’ve chosen to put our dreams first. Now when I hear those voices, they say thank you.”
Rick Gabrielly, The Good Men Project Author
◊♦◊
“Field of Dreams has a quote to live by, “If you build it they will come.” Don’t allow the doubts to stop you. Just move forward in faith and you’ll find that the dreams you have will come to fruition when you act on your inner voice.”
Keola Birano, The Good Men Project Author
◊♦◊
”Field of Dreams is to boys what princess movies are to girls. Each sets an ideal through fantasy that the young viewer can assimilate towards and align their actions, hopes and, as the title says, dreams. For girls, it is the “someday your prince shall come and solve everything” concept. Many grown women have found freeing themselves from that misguided ideal to be vital to their self development. Field of Dreams sets forth a more ambitious premise for boys, but one that also may end up being a detrimental fallacy when life and reality intercede.
The concept of Field of Dreams, set in a fantasy baseball milieu, is ‘Build it and they will come.’ While it does not discourage boys to subjugate themselves behind another person, it sets the expectation that if one builds towards his dream that success will immediately follow. These may be great movie plots, but in most cases they don’t reflect the reality of life.
Princes are not the saviors of little girls, and locking one’s self into a single obsession is not the savior for boys. Life is just more complicated than either.”
Rob Watson, Lead Editor Dads and Families, The Good Men Project
◊♦◊
Field of Dreams shows you how far some dudes will go to bury their feelings in sports.
Feelings Detective, The Good Men Project Author
◊♦◊
“This movie was beautifully done, I remember it so dream-like. But what I found most fascinating is how quickly ‘If you build it, he will come’ got out there into popular culture and became a cliché. As I recall, it was right about the time the internet took off* and people were building websites all over the place (remember life before websites? Naw, couldn’t be!). But that was the mantra for every website builder out there—“If you build it, they will come.” The economy boomed, and I remember working three jobs and people were trying to convince me to work a fourth. Everyone was trying to put a stake in the gold rush that was the internet. Progress was made. Men dreamt a little bigger. The American Dream seemed momentarily achievable. Art became life.
*Field of Dreams came out in 1989. The year of massive internet growth was 1994, when the “www” (world wide web) was made available for free.”
Lisa Hickey, CEO of Good Men Media, Inc. and publisher of the Good Men Project
◊♦◊
“The subtext of Field of Dreams seems to be that men need sports, because talking is too hard without a distraction infused with masculine imagery. I know it’s unpopular to criticize the film because macho conventions will insist on ridiculous rules for masculinity dictating that crying is unacceptable for men—unless it is in response to Field of Dreams; but that is ridiculous.
Any value this flick might have had as an emotional outlet for men seems compromised by its devotion to the idea that Sports Are More Than Sports (so stop telling us to turn off the television!) and that men bond best when the optics allow them to continue to posture as masculine archetypes, emotions be damned. When the characters from Interstellar managed to connect and communicate against all odds and across the reaches of space and time, they wept openly and let the tender moment be what is was. When the characters of Field of Dreams do the same, it was thanks to America’s favorite pastime. Cathartic, maybe; but hardly progressive or inspiring.”
Edgar Wilson, The Good Men Project Author
◊♦◊
“Field of Dreams is as perfect a mainstream commercial movie as any I have seen, definitely in my top twenty-five of all time. It is also either the best or the second best baseball movie I have ever seen (depending on my frame of mine, trading off with Bull Durham, somewhat coincidentally sharing the same star), and that makes it one of the five best sports movies in my tracking.
Writer/Director Phil Alden Robinson literally hits the ball out of the park with this one, and Kevin Costner demonstrates with immense confidence how an epic Everyman portrayal can catapult an actor into stardom in lockstep with a generational treasure chest. A picturesque Iowa corn field launched into pop culture history, the mystic calling ‘If you build it he will come’ forever added to our cultural memory, a modern farmer presumably gone mad, a retelling of the 1919 World Series Black Sox Scandal through the eyes of a credible and sympathetic Shoeless Joe Jackson … and yet, none of that is what most rips into your soul.
This is a poignant, tear-inducing, poetic tale of fatherhood told in a way that is so imaginative you never see it coming until your heartbeat lifts with the swelling soundtrack. You want to see what real writing is? See how Robinson makes having a catch with your dad the one moment in your life that lasts forever. Speechless, breathless, magnificent, iconic, forever.”
Ken Goldstein, Board Member and The Good Men Project Author
◊♦◊
“This movie has walked itself from the screen and into the startup work space were I find that its magic is way off base. I have heard ‘Field of Dreams’ customer acquisition plans umpteen times. ‘If we build it they will come’ may work for baseball pitches but not for marketing pitches.”
Anna Palmer, The Good Men Project Author
◊♦◊
“I didn’t see Field of Dreams in 1989 when it came out. As a matter of fact it wasn’t until my wife made me sit down and watch it with her on a date night in the late 90’s, and I bawled my eyes out at the end. As a man who realizes that he has indeed not had the closest relationship with his father, it made me reflect on my priorities in my own family. The voices that drove Ray, whether they be the voice of his father Joe or even his own, knew that they must move past the adversity of a troubled parental relationship, or the financial loss of the farm. Ray led himself on a path, and it brought him to the game of catch that mattered the most.”
Sean Ackerman, The Good Men Project Author
—
Photo: Universal Pictures
Would you like to help us shatter stereotypes about men?
Receive stories from The Good Men Project, delivered to your inbox daily or weekly.