Moments in Field of Dreams

Moments I treasure.

— When James Earl Jones first sees the field with the ballgame going on. He just stares. He states, “Un … believable.” Shoeless Joe walks over: “Hey, Ray!!” He shakes hands with Ray. But watch James Earl Jones over to the side, STARING at Shoeless Joe. He’s just STARING at this legend. He is dumbfounded. Ray says, “This is Terrance. Terrence, this is Shoeless Joe Jackson.” Jackson holds out his hand. And watch James Earl Jones’ body language in how he responds. He cannot believe that he is in the presence of Shoeless joe. He leans forward, staring directly at Ray Liotta – just STARING – until finally he says, holding out his hand, “Nice to meet you.” The whole moment though is just so charged – and it’s all in James Earl Jones’ body language.

— I love how unsentimentalized all the ball players are. They’re big pudgy semi-cross-eyed in some cases yahoos – trash-talking, unintellectual BALL PLAYERS. Yes, they are ghosts – and they “symbolize” all that is great about dreaming big, and America, and the “one constant” – but the players don’t PLAY any of that. They don’t act like symbols. They act like ball players. I LOVE that touch. The movie could have gone so wrong if it had suffused the ball players with a halo glow. No. They’re ATHLETES, dying to get out on the field again. They’re gruff, rough, macho – they make fun of Ray when his wife calls him in to dinner – they’re living breathing people who happen to be ghosts. Gorgeous.

— Ray Liotta’s acting is deceptively simple. It is an incredibly complex portrait, in actuality. He’s a baseball player, he’s Shoeless Joe … watch the way he picks up the bats when he first emerges from the corn field. Watch his body language when he first catches a ball out in the field. He catches it, but then he lingers, reveling in the moment. But he’s also a ghost. He is the one, ultimately, who knows why the field was built. To bring Ray and his father together again. He knows it all. Ray is in the dark, but Shoeless Joe knows. Ray Liotta’s performance is perfectly calibrated: between hungry athlete and omniscent angel. It’s an amazing balancing act. Any other actor who had a line like, “No, Ray. It was you” would have tipped the film over into maudlin sentimental land. Ray Liotta NEVER goes there. He plays it straight up. It’s a miraculous performance and, like I said, deceptively simple. He makes it look easy. But if you imagine how that role COULD have been played, and how the movie COULD have gone wrong … you realize how beautifully he walks that balance.

— On that same note: I love love LOVE the moment when Ray is being berated by the brother (I always think of him as Eliot in 30something) about how he will lose the farm. The scene right before the little girl falls. And slowly … during James Earl Jones’ amazing speech, you can see in the background that all of the players have stopped playing, and are staring over at the action on the sidelines. It’s subtle. It’s not dwelled on. There are no closeups of them stopping … No, you suddenly realize it: Wow. The action has stopped. As James Earl Jones keeps talking, the ballplayers start to move closer, you see them slowly approaching. It is an absolutely magical moment. Eliot from 30something is saying, “You’re gonna lose the farm, Ray. YOU WILL BE EVICTED!” Now it’s decision time. Ray must make a choice. He looks out at the field. There’s a long slow pan of all the ballplayers, standing there, simply, just watching. None of them overplay it. None of them are pleading with their eyes, or begging internally … No. They all just stand there, watching. Waiting. Then Ray’s eyes move outward … you can see them shift … and they fall on Shoeless Joe, who is not in the crowd of ballplayers … but way out in the field. He’s a solitary figure out there, with the corn as a backdrop. The music is phenomenal in this moment. It literally brings goosebumps to my arms. And then … as Ray stares out there … Shoeless Joe, instead of standing out there staring over at the action in a passive way … gets into the stance. The outfield stance. Hands on the knees. Waiting to see which way the ball will go. Now that’s the beauty: it’s a metaphor: He is “waiting to see which way the ball will go”, in terms of whether or not Ray will cave and sign the eviction notice. But the way Ray Liotta plays it is straight up and quite quite literal: He is actually waiting for the pitch to be thrown, and waiting to see which way the ball will go. He is a ball player, man. That’s what this movie does: it’s so SYMBOLIC, but none of the actors PLAY that symbolism. Shoeless Joe, in this moment of decision, gets into the ready outfield stance.