ALL-TIME CLASSIC MOVIE FAVOURITES – FIELD OF DREAMS (1989)

 

“Field of Dreams” is a sports drama, screenplay by Phil Alden Robinson based on the novel by W.P.Kinsella and Directed by Phil Alden Robinson

In the extraordinary story, Iowa corn farmer Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) hears a voice in his corn field telling him, “If you build it, he will come” and he interpreted this message as an instruction to build a baseball diamond on his farm, with the support of his wife Annie (Amy Madigan) and daughter Karin (Gaby Hoffmann).

Upon completion of the diamond players appear from the corn, the ghosts of Shoeless Joe Jackson (Ray Liotta) and the other seven Chicago White Sox players who were banned from the game for throwing the 1919 World Series.

When the voices continue, Ray goes on the road to seek out a reclusive author Terence Mann (James Earl Jones) to help him understand the meaning of the messages and the purpose for his field.

Before they can head back to the farm they are directed to seek out Dr. Archibald 'Moonlight' Graham (Burt Lancaster) and find his ghost, and then on the way home they pick up a hitch hiker who turns out to be to young wannabee ball player, Archie Graham (Frank Whaley) and Kinsella has his ball team, but there is one more surprise for Ray when his father John (Dwier Brown) appears on the diamond.

Field Of Dreams is a Timeless Classic and a perfect example of a movie that finds meaning, not in aspects of the story, but rather in the underlying emotional core and heart that defines the story.

WHEN SATURDAY COMES

 

I support them as they’re from my hometown

I’ve supported them for years it would seem

Before the start of every single game at home

They announce the crowd changes to the team

 

Come next year the team may well be in Europe

But that would only happen if there is a war I fear

If you ask them “what time does the match start?”

They just reply “well what time can you get here”

 

The team does a lap of honor if they win the toss

This does at least get the meager crowd humming

To take the pressure off and to help our keeper

We put a Bell in the ball so he can hear it coming

 

We have the strongest team in the football league

From the bottom we have to hold the rest up

We're always the bookie's favorite for the drop

For we’ve never won a title a trophy or a cup

 

My father exposed me to this when I was a boy

Since, Saturday afternoons are spent in torture 

I now expose my children to sad match days

And their children will also suffer in the future

IF YOUR TEAM IS DOING WELL

 

If your team is doing well

You can carry a player with flare

But if they’re doing badly

He’s no more than a waste of air

WE HAVE A GREAT SCOTTISH INTERNATIONAL

 

We have a great Scottish international

By the name of Jim McKee

Well, when I say he’s a Scottish

His parents once went to Dundee

ALL-TIME CLASSIC MOVIE FAVOURITES – THE NATURAL (1984)

 

 “The Natural” is a sports drama, based on the novel by Bernard Malamud and Directed by Barry Levinson.

The story is about an unknown middle-aged batter named Roy Hobbs (Robert Redford) with a mysterious past, who appears out of nowhere to join a struggling team as a rookie in the 1930’s, much to the disgust of coach Pop Fisher (Wilford Brimley) who thinks the teams owner The Judge (Robert Prosky) is deliberately trying to scupper the team, so he refuses to play Hobbs on principle.

But he does have an ally in assistant coach Red Blow (Richard Farnsworth) and eventually Pop relents and Hobbs takes a losing baseball team to the top of the league with the aid of a bat cut from a lightning struck tree.

But it soon becomes apparent that it’s more important to the Judge that the team fail and when bribes don’t work, femme fatal Memo Paris (Kim Basinger) tries to distract him, and it appears to be working until his childhood sweetheart Iris Gaines (Glenn Close) appears one day in the stands and gets him back on track.

It takes reporter Max Mercy (Robert Duvall) to uncover the story of Roy Hobbs mysterious past as he begins to bask in the fame he should have had earlier in his life when, as a rising pitcher, he was inexplicably shot by a young woman, Harriet Bird (Barbara Hershey) in a hotel room.

 

OUR TEAM PLAY AT AN HISTORIC GROUND

 

Our team play at an historic ground

We on the terraces all proudly roar

All the visiting fans shout in reply

That it’s an old run-down eye sore

IT'S ONLY A GAME

 

"It's only a game,” they might say

It’s not a life and death thing

No one ever says, "It's only a game"

When their team is winning.

THAT’S NOT CRICKET

 

Cricket is not my sport, that I have to say

But the game appears to be in the doldrums

For me, the most exciting part of the match

Are the barmy army beating their drums

The event is spread over five full days

In an effort to make it appear more fun

But if they want to make it more exciting

They should make them play tip and run

CAN’T PLAY AWAY

 

The eternal problems for all football teams

Was keeping players fit to fulfil their dreams

As with unfit players they were bound to fail

But today the problem is keeping them out of jail

BRIDGE ANYONE?

 

A game of Bridge is just like sex

As I recall

If you have a good hand

You don't need a partner at all

WE HAVE A GREAT IRISH INTERNATIONAL

 

We have a great Irish international

By the name of Kevin O’Rourke

Well, when I say he’s Irish

His parents once went to Cork