Field Of Dreams (HD-DVD)

 

Picture: B-     Sound: B-     Extras: C     Film: C

 

 

People just love Phil Alden Robinson’s Field Of Dreams, the 1989 Kevin Costner hit that became one of the few feel-good films that seems to have made anyone feel good.  Made in the Jimmy Stewart/Frank Capra mode, this critic thought it was also awfully overrated and more about feeling warm and fuzzy than involving anything about baseball.  Kevin Costner is Ray Kinsella, a man who loves the game and is unhappy with his life.  Like Richard Dreyfus in Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, he becomes obsessed with building.  Instead of Devil’s Tower, he wants to take part of his farm and build an old-styled baseball field.  It even becomes more supernatural that the Spielberg film when Shoeless Joe Jackson (Ray Liotta) and members of the disgraced White Sox show up.

 

Robinson adapted the W.P. Kinsella book Shoeless Joe, though he has not made any claims that the supernatural part (or any other?) really happened.  The film is sometimes strange and even silly in its attempts to tell its story.  James Earl Jones is essentially cast to inoculate us and the audience against the ugly truth of how the Negro Leagues were illegally put out of business, while Burt Lancaster offers its core as the mysterious doctor from the past who becomes the arbiter of then and now.  He gave up his baseball dreams to save people, while the “Black Sox” are haunted by their sin against innocence, baseball and the kind of promise of sportsmanship broken by their scandal.

 

In an edgier film, would it not have been more interesting if the men who destroyed the Negro Leagues also showed up?  Could the storyline have survived that?  Sure, if ambitious enough, but the film is about suburban white America trying to turn back the clock.  No wonder it was a hit in the middle of the first Bush Administration.  Why politicize it?  Well, all films have a political stance of some kind and though it is not radically neo-conservative or otherwise, but it is too safe (no pun intended) for its own good and any patriotism or love of baseball is easily hijacked.

 

Maybe naïve is a good word, though another way of thinking of it is that it is an America that is now much further because of 9/11 and the betrayal of its good will than anyone could have ever suspected in 1989.  That makes seeing it again a somewhat bizarre experience.  With Amy Madigan as the retro-1950s wife (not as misogynistic as Teri Garr’s wife in Close Encounters), the semi-plastic portrait is complete.  At this point, Field Of Dreams is for the curious and fans only.

 

The 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image was shot by cinematographer John Lindey and it is a bit grainer than usual, but that is from the kind of stock it was shot on.  The redness can be an issue, as can shots that might be softer than they should be for this format, though the idea of agriculture and the farm is not always supposed to be vivid.  I was never the biggest fan of the look of this film either, though the cornfield part is its signature image.  At least in those cases, they seemed clearer in 35mm, so it is barely getting the letter grade it has received.  Color is fairly good and this is still a bit better than the previous DVDs.  Lindey will finally reunite with Costner for the first time since the 1989 release of this film for a thriller called Mr. Brooks.

 

The Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 mix is not bad, but shows its age.  This was a Dolby analog release, possibly intended as the older A-type, but finally arriving (at least in some print, perhaps?) in the better SR system.  This edition has no DTS track like the previous DVD set, but in this case, only the James Horner music really benefited from the DTS and this Dolby Plus mix is fine.  I don’t remember the DTS being so towards the front speakers, though, but the sound shows its age.

 

Extras repeat those of the 2-DVD set, including feature length audio commentary by: director Phil Alden Robinson and director of photography John Lindley, From Father To Son: Passing Along The Pastime – father/son baseball moments discussed by the director, star & baseball players, deleted scenes, The Diamond in the Husks looks at the baseball set that existed as of the DVD set, Galena, Illinois Pinch Hits For Chisholm, Minnesota shows how one substituted for the other, the 90-minutes A Look Inside Field Of Dreams documentary, Bravo Network's "From Page To Screen: Field Of Dreams installment, a Field Of Dreams Roundtable with Costner and former baseball players talking about the film & the sport and America's stadium trivia that is a bit dated but still is enjoyable.  Maybe the same can be said about the film for some, though I always will prefer Bull Durham.

 

Costner revisited Baseball again with For The Love Of The Game, but it did not work out as well as his previous hits, though he did much worse later.  For Costner, this was a personal triumph and more was to come for a time.  Ironically, that too makes this feel more like nostalgia, but Costner is trying to comeback.  All he needs to do is build the better film.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo