Quotes
 Ray Kinsella: It`s okay, honey. I... I was just talking to the cornfield. Annie Kinsella: Hey, what if the Voice calls while you`re gone?
Ray Kinsella: Take a message.
Terence Mann: I`m going to beat you with a crowbar until you leave.
Ray Kinsella: You can`t do that.
Terence Mann: There are rules here? No, there are no rules here.
[advances with crowbar]
Ray Kinsella: You`re a pacifist!
Terence Mann: [stops] Shit.
Ray Kinsella: Don`t we need a catcher?
Shoeless Joe Jackson: Not if you get it near the plate we don`t.
Ray Kinsella: [being rushed out of Mann`s loft] You`ve changed - you know that?
Terence Mann: Yes - I suppose I have! How about this: "Peace, love, *dope*"? Now get the *hell* out of here!
The Voice: If you build it, he will come.
Ray Kinsella: What are you grinning at, you ghost?
Shoeless Joe Jackson: If you build it...
[nods toward John Kinsella]
Shoeless Joe Jackson: ... HE will come.
[the "Black Sox" warm up on the field. Shoeless Joe catches a fly ball hit by Buck Weaver]
Chick Gandil: [to Shoeless Joe] Show-off!
Buck Weaver: Stick it in your ear, Gandil.
Eddie Cicotte: Yeah, Gandil. If you`d have run like that against Detroit, I`d have won 20 games that year!
Chick Gandil: For Pete`s sake, Cicotte, that was 68 years ago! Give it up, will ya?
Swede Risberg: Hey, hey! You guys wanna play ball, or what?
Chick Gandil: Musclebound jerk.
Eddie Cicotte: Oh, yeah? At least I got muscles.
Chick Gandil: No! At most you got muscles!
[Weaver returns to home plate]
Buck Weaver: [to Cicotte] Come on, asshole! Pitch!
Swede Risberg: [motioning to Ray and Karin, who are in the stands] Weaver... Be nice.
Buck Weaver: [embarrassed, to Karin] Sorry, kid.
Karin Kinsella: It`s okay. I don`t mind.
[on who the Voice meant by "Ease his pain."]
Ray Kinsella: It was you...
Shoeless Joe Jackson: No, Ray. It was YOU.
Annie Kinsella: If you build what, who will come?
Ray Kinsella: He didn`t say.
Terence Mann: Ray, people will come Ray. They`ll come to Iowa for reasons they can`t even fathom. They`ll turn up your driveway not knowing for sure why they`re doing it. They`ll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past. Of course, we won`t mind if you look around, you`ll say. It`s only $20 per person. They`ll pass over the money without even thinking about it: for it is money they have and peace they lack. And they`ll walk out to the bleachers; sit in shirtsleeves on a perfect afternoon. They`ll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they`ll watch the game and it`ll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick they`ll have to brush them away from their faces. People will come Ray. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it`s a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh... people will come Ray. People will most definitely come.
Dr. Archibald "Moonlight" Graham: This is my most special place in all the world, Ray. Once a place touches you like this, the wind nevers blows so cold again. You feel for it, like it was your child.
Ray Kinsella: This is my corn. You people are guests in my corn.
Terence Mann: Oh, my God.
Ray Kinsella: What?
Terence Mann: You`re from the sixties.
Ray Kinsella: [bashfully] Well, yeah, actually...
Terence Mann: [spraying at Ray with a insecticide sprayer] Out! Back to the sixties! Back! There`s no place for you here in the future! Get back while you still can!
[Archie`s at bat and is almost hit by the pitcher`s throws, twice]
Archie Graham: Hey ump, how `bout a warning?
Clean-shaven Umpire: Sure, kid. Watch out you don`t get killed.
Mark: Admit it, Ray. You`ve never liked farming.
Ray Kinsella: That`s not true.
Mark: It is true. You don`t know the first thing about farming.
Ray Kinsella: Yes I do. I know a lot about farming. I know more than you think I know.
Mark: Then how could you plow under your major crop?
Ray Kinsella: [feigning puzzlement at this word] What`s a crop?
Ray Kinsella: I think I know what "If you build it, he will come" means.
Annie Kinsella: Ooh... why do I not think this is such a good thing?
Ray Kinsella: I think it means that if I build a baseball field out there that Shoeless Joe Jackson will get to come back and play ball again.
Annie Kinsella: [staring in disbelief] You`re kidding.
Ray Kinsella: Huh-uh.
Annie Kinsella: Wow.
Ray Kinsella: Yeah.
Annie Kinsella: Ha. You`re kidding.
Annie Kinsella: [trying to understand the situation] I mean, Shoeless Joe...
Ray Kinsella: He`s dead. Died in `51; he`s dead.
Annie Kinsella: He`s the one they suspended, right?
Ray Kinsella: Right.
Annie Kinsella: He`s still dead?
Ray Kinsella: Far as I know.
Ray Kinsella: The Voice is back.
Annie Kinsella: Oh, Lord. You`re supposed to build a football field now?
Ray Kinsella: Don`t you miss being involved?
Terence Mann: I was the East Coast distributor of "involved." I ate it, drank it, and breathed it... Then they killed Martin, Bobby, and they elected Tricky Dick twice, and people like you must think I`m miserable because I`m not involved anymore. Well, I`ve got news for you. I spent all my misery years ago. I have no more pain for anything. I gave at the office.
Ray Kinsella: So what do you want?
Terence Mann: I want them to stop looking to me for answers, begging me to speak again, write again, be a leader. I want them to start thinking for themselves. I want my privacy.
Ray Kinsella: No, I mean, what do you WANT?
[Gestures to the concession stand they`re in front of]
Terence Mann: Oh. Dog and a beer.
Ray Kinsella: Are you Moonlight Graham?
Dr. Archibald "Moonlight" Graham: No one`s called me Moonlight Graham in fifty years.
Dr. Archibald "Moonlight" Graham: Well, you know I... I never got to bat in the major leagues. I would have liked to have had that chance. Just once. To stare down a big league pitcher. To stare him down, and just as he goes into his windup, wink. Make him think you know something he doesn`t. That`s what I wish for. Chance to squint at a sky so blue that it hurts your eyes just to look at it. To feel the tingling in your arm as you connect with the ball. To run the bases - stretch a double into a triple, and flop face-first into third, wrap your arms around the bag. That`s my wish, Ray Kinsella. That`s my wish. And is there enough magic out there in the moonlight to make this dream come true?
Ray Kinsella: Fifty years ago, for five minutes you came within... y-you came this close. It would KILL some men to get so close to their dream and not touch it. God, they`d consider it a tragedy.
Dr. Archibald "Moonlight" Graham: Son, if I`d only gotten to be a doctor for five minutes... now that would have been a tragedy.
Ray Kinsella: By the time I was ten, playing baseball got to be like eating vegetables or taking out the garbage. So when I was 14, I started to refuse. Could you believe that? An American boy refusing to play catch with his father.
Terence Mann: Why 14?
Ray Kinsella: That`s when I read "The Boat Rocker" by Terence Mann.
Terence Mann: [rolling his eyes] Oh, God.
Ray Kinsella: Never played catch with him again.
Terence Mann: You see? That`s the sort of crap people are always trying to lay on me. It`s not my fault you wouldn`t play catch with your father.
Ray Kinsella: Where`d they come from?
Shoeless Joe Jackson: Where did WE come from? You wouldn`t believe how many guys wanted to play here. We had to beat `em off with a stick.
Archie Graham: Hey, that`s Smokey Joe Wood. And Mel Ott. And Gil Hodges!
Shoeless Joe Jackson: Ty Cobb wanted to play, but none of us could stand the son-of-a-bitch when we were alive, so we told him to stick it!
Shoeless Joe Jackson: The first two were high and tight, so where do you think the next one`s gonna be?
Archie Graham: Well, either low and away, or in my ear.
Shoeless Joe Jackson: He`s not gonna wanna load the bases, so look low and away.
Archie Graham: Right.
Shoeless Joe Jackson: But watch out for in your ear.
Mark: You build a baseball field, and you sit here, and stare at NOTHING.
John Kinsella: Is this heaven?
Ray Kinsella: It`s Iowa.
John Kinsella: Iowa? I could have sworn this was heaven.
[John starts to walk away]
Ray Kinsella: Is there a heaven?
John Kinsella: Oh yeah. It`s the place where dreams come true.
[Ray looks around, seeing his wife playing with their daughter on the porch]
Ray Kinsella: Maybe this is heaven.
Ray Kinsella: The only thing we had in common was that she was from Iowa, and I had once heard of Iowa.
[Mark goes out to the field, where Ray and Karin are watching the players]
Mark: So, I thought you were going to watch some game?
Ray Kinsella: Well, it`s more of a practice since there`s only eight of them.
Mark: Eight of what?
Ray Kinsella: [motioning toward the players] Them.
Mark: [looking around at the field, unable to see the players] Who them?
Ray Kinsella: [emphatically, not realizing that Mark can`t see the players] Them them.
[as the players disappear into the cornfield]
Eddie Cicotte: I`m melting. I`m melting.
[fades away laughing]
Ray Kinsella: That is so cool.
John Kinsella: Well, good night Ray.
Ray Kinsella: Good night, John.
[They shake hands and John begins to walk away]
Ray Kinsella: Hey... Dad?
[John turns]
Ray Kinsella: [choked up] "You wanna have a catch?"
John Kinsella: I`d like that.
Ray Kinsella: [about the reclusive Terence Mann] OK, the last interview he ever gave was in 1973. Guess what it`s about.
Annie Kinsella: Some kind of team sport.
Ray Kinsella: What you grinning at, you ghost?
Ray Kinsella: I`m 36 years old, I love my family, I love baseball and I`m about to become a farmer. But until I heard the voice, I`d never done a crazy thing in my whole life.
Annie Kinsella: At least he is not a book burner, you Nazi cow.
[Shoeless Joe Jackson walks into the cornfield and disappears. Ray turns to his wife]
Ray Kinsella: We`re keeping this field.
Annie Kinsella: All right, Beulah, do you want to step outside?
Ray Kinsella: I bet it`s good to be playing again, huh?
Shoeless Joe Jackson: Getting thrown out of baseball was like having part of me amputated. I`ve heard that old men wake up and scratch itchy legs that been dust for over fifty years. That was me. I`d wake up at night with the smell of the ball park in my nose, the cool of the grass on my feet... The thrill of the grass.
[Ray winds up on the mound]
Ray Kinsella: I`m pitching to Shoeless Joe Jackson...
Ray Kinsella: See if you can hit my curve.
[Shoeless Joe lines the next pitch back through the box, knocking Ray off the mound]
Ray Kinsella: Yeah. Yeah, you can hit the curve ball.
Shoeless Joe Jackson: Man, I did love this game. I`d have played for food money. It was the game... The sounds, the smells. Did you ever hold a ball or a glove to your face?
Ray Kinsella: Yeah.
Shoeless Joe Jackson: I used to love travelling on the trains from town to town. The hotels... brass spittoons in the lobbies, brass beds in the rooms. It was the crowd, rising to their feet when the ball was hit deep. Shoot, I`d play for nothing!
Shoeless Joe Jackson: What`s with the lights?
Ray Kinsella: Oh, all the stadiums have them now. Even Wrigley Field.
Shoeless Joe Jackson: Makes it harder to see the ball.
Ray Kinsella: Yeah, well, the owners found that more people can attend night games.
Shoeless Joe Jackson: [Shakes his head] Owners.
[Ray explains Terence Mann`s "pain" to Annie]
Ray Kinsella: The man wrote the best books of his generation. And he was a pioneer of the Civil Rights and the anti-war movement. I mean, he made the cover of Newsweek. He knew everybody. He did everything. And he helped shape his time. I mean, the guy hung out with The Beatles! But in the end, it wasn`t enough. What he missed was baseball.
[Annie looks at Ray`s notes]
Annie Kinsella: Oh, my God!
Ray Kinsella: What?
Annie Kinsella: As a small boy, he had a bat named Rosebud.
Ray Kinsella: My name`s Ray Kinsella. You used my father`s name in one of your stories: John Kinsella.
Terence Mann: You`re seeing a whole team of psychiatrists, aren`t you?
[Ray and Annie are talking on the phone]
Ray Kinsella: Hey, Annie. Guess what? I`m with Terence Mann!
Annie Kinsella: Oh, my God! You kidnapped him!
Terence Mann: Ray, there was a reason they chose me, just as there was a reason they chose you and this field.
Ray Kinsella: Why?
Terence Mann: I gave an interview.
Ray Kinsella: What interview? What are you talking about?
Terence Mann: The one about Ebbets Field. The one that charged you up and sent you all the way out to Boston to find me.
Ray Kinsella: You lied to me.
Terence Mann: Well, you were kidnapping me at the time, you big jerk!
Ray Kinsella: Well, you lied to me!
Terence Mann: You said your finger was a gun!
Ray Kinsella: That`s a good point.
Terence Mann: Ray. Ray. Listen to me, Ray. Listen to me. There is something out there, Ray, and if I have the courage to go through with this, what a story it`ll make: "Shoeless Joe Jackson Comes to Iowa".
Ray Kinsella: I did it all. I listened to the voices, I did what they told me, and not once did I ask what`s in it for me.
Shoeless Joe Jackson: What are you saying, Ray?
Ray Kinsella: I`m saying? what`s in it for me?
Mark: You`re going to lose your farm, pal.
Ray Kinsella: Come on, it`s so big - I mean, how can you lose something so big?
Annie Kinsella: He misplaced the house once.
Ray Kinsella: Yeah, but it turned up two days later, didn`t it?
Annie Kinsella: Terence Mann was a voice of reason during a time of great madness. Where others were chanting, "Burn, baby burn", he was talking about love and peace and prosperity. He coined the phrase, "Make love, not war". I cherished every one of his books, and I dearly wish he had written some more. And if you experienced even a little bit of the sixties, you would feel the same way, too.
Beulah: [indignantly] I *experienced* the sixties.
Annie Kinsella: No, I think you had two fifties and moved right into the seventies.
Annie Kinsella: They`re talking about banning books again! Really subversive books, like "The Wizard of Oz"...”the Diary of Anne Frank"...
Dr. Archibald "Moonlight" Graham: You know we just don`t recognize the most significant moments of our lives while they`re happening. Back then I thought, well, there`ll be other days. I didn`t realize that that was the only day.
Shoeless Joe Jackson: [as "Moonlight" Graham walks off the field for the last time] Hey rookie! You were good.
The Voice: Ease his pain.
The Voice: Go the Distance.
Terence Mann: I wish I had your passion, Ray... Misdirected though it might be, it is still a passion. I used to feel that way about things, but...
Karin Kinsella: Daddy, there is a man on your lawn.
Mark: When did these ballplayers get here?
[Terence Mann is about to call his concerned father about his "disappearance"]
Terence Mann: [chuckling to himself in disbelief] What do I tell him?
Mark: And who is this?
Ray Kinsella: That`s Terrence Mann.
Mark: Hi. How`re you doing? I`m the Easter Bunny.
[after Dr. Graham crosses the foul line to help save Karin]
Mark: [suddenly able to see the White Sox players] Where did all of these baseball players come from?
Trivia
# The studio built the baseball diamond on an actual farm in Dyersville, Iowa. After the filming was completed, the family owning the farm kept the field, and added a small hut where you could buy inexpensive souvenirs. As of 1990, visitors were free to come to the field and play baseball as they please.
In the novel, instead of seeking fictional author Terrance Mann, Ray Kinsella seeks real-life 60`s author J.D. Salinger. In 1947, Salinger wrote a story called "A Young Girl In 1941 With No Waist At All" featuring a character named Ray Kinsella.
In W.P. Kinsella`s novel, protagonist Ray Kinsella is reunited with his identical twin brother, Richard Kinsella (a subplot that was discarded for the movie).
The article the Chisolm[sic] newspaper publisher shows to Ray and Terrance is written by Veda Ponikvar. Ms. Ponikvar was a long-time writer (and eventually editor-in-chief) for the Chisholm Free Press.
W.P. Kinsella, author of the original novel, was asked to write a review of the movie for a Canadian periodical. He gave it four stars out of five for two reasons: he didn`t think the character of Mark was villainous enough, and he didn`t think that Gaby Hoffmann (Karin) looked like she could be Kevin Costner and Amy Madigan`s child.
During filming, Iowa was in the middle of a drought, and the cornfields surrounding the diamond had to be given lots of extra water in order to grow tall enough for the actors to disappear into the stalks. As a result, the corn grew too fast for the Costner shots. In the one scene where corn is above his shoulders, he is walking on an elevated plank.
Thousands of pallets of green grass were brought in to make the baseball field, but due to the haste in planting because of the shooting schedule, the grass was not able to grow appropriately and died. In order to keep the grass green, the production crew painted the grass.
Then unknown, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are among the thousands of extras in the Fenway Park scene, and are uncredited. Over a decade later, when Phil Alden Robinson welcomed Affleck to the set of The Sum of All Fears (2002), Affleck said, "Nice working with you again." Robinson asked, "What do you mean `again`?" and Affleck explained the connection.
When Ray visits 1972 Chisholm, Minnesota in search of Moonlight Graham, The Godfather (1972) is playing at the local movie theater.
After the movie was completed test audiences didn`t like the name "Shoeless" Joe Jackson because they said it sounded like a movie about a bum or hobo. Universal called director-screenwriter Phil Alden Robinson to tell him that "Shoeless Joe" didn`t work, and the studio changed the title of the film to "Field of Dreams". When Robinson heard the news of the change, he called W.P. Kinsella, the author of the book, and told him the "bad" news, but apparently he didn`t care, saying that "Shoeless Joe" was the title the publishing company gave the book. Kinsella`s original title was Field of Dreams (1989).
When Ray asks "Shoeless" Joe Jackson what he likes about about playing baseball, Shoeless Joe responds "the thrill of the grass", the title of W.P. Kinsella`s 1985 book of short stories about baseball.
Tom Hanks was originally offered the role of Ray Kinsella but turned it down.
Archibald "Moonlight" Wright Graham was a real baseball player. On 29 June 1905, with the New York Giants, he played one Major League Baseball game. Five days later, he quit his dream of being a pro ball player to become a doctor.
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# In 1991, Hawaii`s House of Representatives filed House Resolution 95 to plead the case for "Shoeless" Joe Jackson`s reinstatement. Among the reasons given was a quote given by James Earl Jones`s character in the movie that "grasps the essence of an American tradition, baseball." Among those receiving a copy of the House Resolution were Phil Alden Robinson (Field of Dreams writer-director), Charles Gordon and Lawrence Gordon (Field of Dreams producers), and cast members Kevin Costner, Amy Madigan, and James Earl Jones.
Burt Lancaster starred in three made-for-TV films after this movie, but this was his final role in a motion picture released theatrically.
The shot of the line-drive knocking over the bag of baseballs next to Kevin Costner was sheer luck off the bat of Ray Liotta.
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# The first day of shooting was the town hall scene. Amy Madigan was nervous about screaming in front of such a large group of people the first day.
Fenway Park wanted too much money for additional shots, so the moment where Terrence orders his hot dog and a beer was actually shot in Iowa.
Several deleted scenes include Ray getting his hearing checked; Ray buying baseball equipment; Ray getting lost on the way to Fenway with Terrence; and Ray and Terrence watching batting practice.
Burt Lancaster was unaware that Timothy Busfield was part of the cast, and had him fetching water and chairs before realizing Busfield was going to be in the scene with him.
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# The line, "Hey, Dad, you wanna have a catch," originally didn`t include "Dad". Audiences were disappointed in the lack of acknowledgement of father and son, and the word "Dad" was looped in during post-production.
"The Final Shot" was a big community event, enlisting 1,500 volunteers to drive for the last scene. For only a brief time could the headlights and also the blue of the sky be shown in one shot. The first take was too bright. On the second shot the lighting was perfect, but the camera f-stop was messed up. Just before the third and final shot, the director realized that as with any heavy traffic, most of the cars weren`t moving. They would just look like lights on posts. He relayed a quick instruction through the local radio station: flash your high beams on and off. Though the cars are not moving, this simulated the appearance of lights passing behind obstructions to perfect effect.
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# W.P. Kinsella and J.D. Salinger, on whom the character Terence Mann is based, were friends. In fact, Salinger accompanied Kinsella to Chisolm, Minn. in 1975 in search of Moonlight Graham, who had died 10 years earlier. Kinsella said he chose Graham`s character for his book "Shoeless" Joe Jackson because he was intrigued by his nickname when he came across it while thumbing through the Baseball Encyclopedia.
The movie`s line "If you build it, he will come." was voted as the #39 movie quote by the American Film Institute (out of 100).
Sheila McCarthy and Reba McEntire both auditioned for the part of Annie.
The Cracker Jack baseball cards shown in the beginning of the film are based on real baseball cards produced in 1914 and 1915. However, the actual set does not include cards of Babe Ruth or obviously Lou Gehrig. There is, however, a "Shoeless" Joe Jackson card very similar to the Jackson card shown in the film, which has become very popular with collectors since the film`s release.
According to supplementary material on the DVD edition of this film, shortly before shooting began, the actor who played Ray Kinsella`s father, Dwier Brown, was notified that his father unfortunately pass away. Immediately after the funeral, he traveled directly from the funeral to filming in Iowa for the scene. He stated that although the emotion was too fresh and painful, it had an effect on how he eventually played his scene with Kevin Costner.
Final film of Anne Seymour.
When "Shoeless" Joe Jackson is giving young Archie "Moonlight Graham" advice on hitting we can see that the bat Graham is using is a "Louisville Slugger" Jack Clark model. Jack Clark was a fairly prominent player from the 1970`s and 80`s.
The movie was named as one of "The 20 Most Overrated Movies of All Time" by Premiere.
Gaby Hoffmann`s first film.
When they hold up the Terence Mann book that is going to be banned in the school auditorium, it has the same cover design as the first edition of Jack Kerouac`s 1957 novel "On the Road" (the novel thought by many to have spawned the 60s).
Ranked #6 on the American Film Institute`s list of the 10 greatest films in the genre "Fantasy" in June 2008.
According to an AFI top 100 quotes list, `The Voice` is that of Ray Liotta.
The director has said that his greatest regret about this film is that he never used any African-American baseball players. The use of African-American players might have compromised the historical accuracy of the film since no African-American players were known to have played Major League baseball until until 1947 - the year Jackie Robinson broke in with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
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# Ray Liotta spent months learning how to throw and hit as a left-handed player (he is naturally right-handed). But when it came time for his baseball scenes, the director told him that since he was playing a `ghost` anyhow, accuracy was not important. So he played right-handed even though "Shoeless" Joe Jackson was known to be a lefty. When the film came out, baseball historians cried foul. He has since said in interviews that his biggest regret about the breakthrough role was that he didn`t stand up for himself and demand to play left-handed.
#
# "Shoeless" Joe Jackson remarks about Ty Cobb`s desire to play at the Field of Dreams (1989), "None of could stand the son of a bitch when he was alive, so, we told him to stick it." However, towards the end of the real Shoeless Joe`s life, Ty Cobb came into his liquor store in South Carolina and asked Jackson whether or not he knew him.
The owners of the site of the baseball field in Iowa canceled their 20th anniversary event due to the economic turn down and donated the money raised for it to a local food bank (2009).
During the "search for Terry" scene, Ray can be seen driving up Huntington Avenue in Boston, and in fact at one point, he`s just a matter of a few blocks from the very site where the very first World Series was played between the Boston Red Sox and Pittsburgh Pirates in 1903, which were played on what they at that time referred to as the "Huntington Avenue Grounds."
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