Classic of the Week, Double Feature. Posters courtesy of Orion Pictures and Universal Studios. (CU Independent/Beth Schonberger)
The Rockies are fighting to hold onto their Wild Card spot and the Yankees look like they’re going to steamroll their way to a yet another World Series championship. October is clearly upon us, and with October comes the baseball postseason and the best time to watch some movies about baseball. “Bull Durham” (1988) and “Field of Dreams” (1989) offer two of the best cinematic looks at America’s game and what it means to fans and players alike.
“Bull Durham” is the more conventional of the two films, though it has several unique elements that set it apart from and above most sports movies. The movie follows three people who are somehow involved with the Durham Bulls, a real-life minor league team based in Durham, N.C. The film is an examination of baseball as a career and sheds a lot of light on what it’s like for the up-and-coming stars and fading veterans who wind up in the backwoods of the minors.
The first character introduced is Annie Savoy, played by Susan Sarandon. This is one of Sarandon’s best roles, as she takes the stereotypical team groupie role and invests it with real passion and sincerity. It’s no joke to say Sarandon is genuinely hot in the film, primarily because she brings a great deal of sophisticated charm to the role.
“I believe in the Church of Baseball,” Savoy says in a monologue at the film’s opening. “I’ve tried all the major religions and most of the minor ones…and the only church that truly feeds the soul, day in, day out, is the Church of Baseball.”
Savoy is a lifelong fan of the Bulls, but shows her affection in a rather unique manner: She picks one player each year to have a relationship with and helps them get to the majors. She does this by offering advice and helping the players “expand their minds” by reading them poetry and literature. It sounds corny, but Sarandon pulls it off because she makes it seem like Savoy has a genuine interest in the future of “her” players.
The hotshot player at the beginning of the film is Ebby Calvin “Nuke” LaLoosh (Tim Robbins). Robbins has a lot of fun playing Nuke, a hothead fireballer who throws fastballs in the upper 90s but has no control over his location or his big mouth. To settle him down, the organization brings in veteran catcher Crash Davis (Kevin Costner) to get the young gun’s arm and head straight.
If Nuke is the cocky newcomer, Davis is the cynical and world-weary veteran. Costner gets some good quips in as he shows Nuke how to be a professional. The exchanges between Davis and Nuke are the film’s comedic highlights, but one gets the sense that Crash is looking for something more.
Inevitably, the two players end up competing for Savoy’s affections. The love triangle is deftly handled in the film and does have some genuine surprises, but the best moments of “Bull Durham” happen on the field.
This is a movie that gets the details right: the look of the stadium, the uniforms, the attitudes of the managers and the way the players trudge along through one game after another. There’s no big game and with the exception of Nuke, none of the Bulls have any expectations of going anywhere; they’re playing out of love. As a former minor leaguer himself, writer and director Ron Shelton shows his deep experience with the trials and tribulations of those players without superstar contracts.
If “Bull Durham” is a look at baseball as life, “Field of Dreams” is about baseball as myth. “Field of Dreams” is much less of a sports movie than it is a fable on baseball, its place in the American psyche and the profound impact the game can have on our lives.
It’s somewhat ironic that Costner is the star of both movies, especially considering how different they are and how different Costner’s roles are. In “Field of Dreams,” Costner is an Iowa farmer named Ray Kinsella, who is happily married with a young daughter. The family has only recently relocated to Iowa at the film’s opening and Kinsella is having a little trouble adjusting to the farming life. That’s when he hears the voice utter one of cinema’s best-known quotes:
“If you build it, he will come,” the voice says quietly. Kinsella is of course terribly confused by the voice, especially since he doesn’t know what “it” is or who “he” is. The voice eventually supplies Kinsella with a vision of a baseball diamond in the middle of his corn field. After some initial hesitation, Kinsella builds the field and someone does indeed show up: “Shoeless Joe” Jackson (Ray Liotta), one of the eight members of the Chicago White Sox who were banned from baseball after throwing the 1919 World Series. Kinsella’s field gives Shoeless Joe and the rest of the so-called “Black Sox” a chance to play again.
From there, the story progresses and we’re introduced to other characters who have missed out on life somehow, and Kinsella’s field gives them another shot. The film wisely doesn’t offer any reason as to how these events happen; having an explanation for the voice and field would have dampened their mystery and awe. The other key to the movie’s success is the performances of Costner and Amy Madigan, who plays Ray’s wife, Annie. Both Costner and Madigan keep their characters firmly grounded in reality, yet both are clearly wrapped up in wonder as the narrative unfolds. They’re perfect surrogates for the audience as we wonder what’s next.
There was a time when baseball wasn’t as extravagant as it is today, and “Field of Dreams” aims to recapture that era by showing the game at its most fundamental level: a team in a field enjoying themselves as the familiar pattern of pitching, hitting and running repeats itself. As one character puts it later in the film, one of the few constants throughout the years has been baseball. It’s been a part of our lives and our national consciousness since its inception.
The movie’s final shot is an aerial view of Kinsella’s farm at night, lovingly bathed in the glow of stadium lights. It’s a dream-like shot, a fitting end to a film that dares to be different and look at the dream of baseball. Will “Field of Dreams” appeal to everyone? Probably not. But I would challenge the strict realist to watch “Field of Dreams” and not feel moved to nostalgia. And if nothing else, baseball will always be good for that.
Contact CU Independent Entertainment Editor Rob Ryan at Rryan@colorado.edu.
1 comment
Irronically, both of these films have connections to North Carolina. With “Bull Durham” it is obivous; however, with “Field of Dreams”, little people know that the Dr Archie “Moonlight” Graham (played in the movie by Burt Lancaster) was born in Fayetteville, NC. His brother was Dr Frank Portor Graham a teacher at UNC. Costner, seems to do well in the Tar Heel state. In “Tin Cup” (another sports film) he returns to NC to play at historic Pinehurst #2. He also made “Message in a Bottle” on our Outer Banks. And when Costner couldn’t complete “The Guardian” in hurricane hit Lousianna, he returns to NC to shoot the final footage. He’s done some of his best work here!