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54 What We Do Is Secret
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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Field of Dreams
Universal Pictures


9.3

based on 17 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 12 votes
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Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: PG

Starring Kevin Costner, Amy Madigan, Gaby Hoffmann, Ray Liotta, Timothy Busfield, James Earl Jones, and Burt Lancaster

"If you build it, he will come." With thes words, Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella (Costner) is inspired by a voice he can't ignore to pursue a dream he can hardly believe. Supported by his wife Annie (Madigan), Ray begins the quest by turning his ordinary cornfield into a place where dreams can come true. Along the way he meets reclusive activist Terence Mann (Jones), the mysterious "Doc" Graham (Lancaster), and even the legendary "Shoeless Joe" Jackson (Liotta). (Universal)

GENRE(S):	Fantasy
WRITTEN BY:	Phil Alden Robinson W.P. Kinsella (book)
DIRECTED BY:	Phil Alden Robinson
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: April 28, 1998 Video: August 15, 2000 Theatrical: April 21, 1989
RUNNING TIME:	107 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

The film picked up 3 Academy Award Nominations in 1990 including one for Best Picture

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

This is the kind of movie Frank Capra might have directed, and James Stewart might have starred in - a movie about dreams.

100

Empire Staff (Not Credited)

What it's really about is taking a second chance to make good on old regrets and dead hopes. Never mind the baseball, this is one for the heart, made beautifully.

The New York Times Caryn James

A work so smartly written, so beautifully filmed, so perfectly acted, that it does the almost impossible trick of turning sentimentality into true emotion.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

Despite a few wrong turns early on, the movie gathers graceful momentum and heads straight to the warm heart of the book - that fond spot located just on the safe side of sentimentality, a feel- good place that doesn't leave any feel-stupid fallout.

Chicago Tribune Dave Kehr

As shrewd and accomplished as the movie is, there's still something uncomfortably manipulative about it... It doesn't explore its primal theme as much as it exploits it, tapping into the automatic, nearly universal power of guilt and regret. [21 Apr 1989, Friday, p.A]

USA Today Mike Clark

Imagine: a pseudo-intellectual baseball fantasy loaded up, like a spitter, with seductive sentiment. You can distrust the mix, but still like the movie - and I do. [21 Apr 1989, Life, p.D1]

Los Angeles Times Michael Wilmington

But there's something missing, something tentative and uncertain. In order to pull off a magic trick, you often have to distract the audience with smooth patter, clever detail or indirection. And this movie tries to play it so pure and unabashed that we can see right up its sleeves. [21 Apr 1989, Calendar, p.6-1]

TV Guide Staff (Non Credited)

Ultimately, the film relies too heavily on consensual acceptance of baseball iconography as some kind of symbolic shorthand for all kinds of American values. These days, most of us prefer the NBA.

Washington Post Rita Kempley

Everything from time travel to melodrama figures in this whimsically daft story, a romanticization that tries your patience even as your tear ducts well.

Film Threat Brad Laidman

If you're in the right mood this movie will bring a tear to your eye. If you're not you're probably already watching "Reservoir Dogs".

Variety Staff (Not Credited)

In spite of a script hobbled with cloying aphorisms and shameless sentimentality, Field of Dreams sustains a dreamy mood in which the idea of baseball is distilled to its purest essence.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

The movie may steal a base here and there, but there are no homers.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Well-made treacle.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The picture almost overwhelms you with sheer niceness. Unfortunately, this effect doesn't last; eventually the movie goes too far and overdoses on its own saccharine. [2 May 1989, Arts, p.11]

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Stack

This movie reverie has an almost laughable '80s tone - a yuppified style and even language - that practically buries Costner. [21 Apr 1989, Daily Datebook, p.E1]

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

The tenuous conclusion is that all this metaphysical hugger-mugger was divinely ordered to reconcile Costner and his father. All those dead players were summoned from that Great Locker Room in the Sky in a painfully false move. [9 May 1989, p.26]

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

To be honest, I started hearing things, too. Just when Jones was delivering an inexcusably sappy speech about baseball being "a symbol of all that was once good in America," I heard the words "If he keeps talking, I'm walking."

The average user rating for this movie is 9.3 (out of 10) based on 12 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Astrid F. gave it a10:
Love it, love it, love it!! It is so moving, and so clever, I must have seen it 100 times. I know, it sounds a little weird, but it really is that good.

Reid F. gave it a10:
One of the most beautiful films ever made, I find this movie to be a litmus test. Those who don't like it (and there are many) are generally people with little or no imagination. Overall, there are so many touching and superb aspects and scenes in this movie that it requires multiple viewings. It is a great film about the fragile relationship between father and son.

Wes W. gave it a10:
Great movie about the relationship, or lack of same, between a son & a father. I won't spoil the ending. A movie for all ages.

Martin A. gave it a10:
I'm not a baseball fan, but this movie is one of my favourites. It goes beyond baseball, it's more about dad-son relationship.

Trevor G. gave it a10:
This is the best movie i have ever seen. I dont know what the **** you people are thinking by giving it an 8.2!!!!!

John L. gave it a10:
Yes! You have to suspend belief! I didn't quite the first viewing but did for all since - helped along by the lushly evocative James Horner score. Don't ask a lot of questions. Just let it wash over you. If you were a kid whose dad tried like heck to interest you in baseball but could not - and he's gone now, you will think of him differently - when the last of several plot resolutions plays out in the final 5 minutes of the film.

Zachary F. gave it a 10:
In my mind, this is the best baseball movie ever made. Everything about this movie is pitch perfect, from the acting to the production design to the editing and music. Anyone who isn't moved by the end is a Grinch.

Field of Dreams Universal Pictures

Field of Dreams
Universal Pictures