This is getting tougher. Picking the all-time Ady film five is starting to feel like pulling off a plaster....do it quickly before you change your mind!! (Having said that, I have just now changed my mind and put a different film in the subject line......that's it now....totally decided.......I think.....).
There will be honorable mentions later on, but Field of Dreams has just got to go on the list. The to-ing and fro-ing as to whether it should be there is down to the fact that I haven't watched it for quite a while; and shouldn't a nominee for the best film award be one that never strays too far from the DVD player? Weeeeeeeeeeell..........maybe; but this is one which you need to really make time for, and in my defence there hasn't been much of that flying around lately!
Known by the uninitiated as 'that film about baseball'; Field of Dreams can be summed up for me in a word....magic! Granted, baseball is involved in the movie; but rather than being all about the sport - which I am sure turns most people off before they even start - it serves as the vehicle to tell what is a lovely story.
I distinctly remember the first time I watched it. It was at Mum's and Dad's house over the weekend of a family gathering (don't know which one....okay, I can't remember THAT part so distinctly). A brother (Paul, if you're keeping track) who had seen it before, rented it on video (aaah video, remember that?!) and virtually forced us to sit round and watch it (now I know why). We were all a bit quiet at the end, asides from the sobbing that is! The following day another brother arrived, and at about 6pm he sat down to watch it while the rest of us were playing a board game. We warned him that he wouldn't have time to finish it as it had to be back at the video library by seven. Dismissively we were told 'don't worry, I just want to have a little look at what all the fuss is about'........
.....at quarter to seven he popped his head round the door and asked how much it would be to extend the rental to another night!
As I've said before; I am loathed to give too much away about the movie, and in the case of Field of Dreams there is just so much happening it would take too long anyway. It is a film about ghosts, about hearing voices, about heaven, about redemption, and it is a film about unending belief and limitless faith (are you starting to detect a pattern emerging in these films?....yep.....me too!). Belief that - regardless of how weird it might seem to everyone - what you are doing is right, and faith that if you stick to your guns and 'go the distance' the world will be a better place, and you will be a better you. Now that doesn't seem like a bad way to spend a couple of hours does it?!
Since achieving pride of place in the DVD rack, Field of Dreams has become more than just a movie; it now serves as a personality barometer (I could leave you there, but I really have to explain myself don't I?!). If someone doesn't like Star Wars, I can understand that; they are just not into science-fiction. If City Lights (see previous) is not your cup of tea I can live with 'don't like black and white movies' or 'not too keen on Charlie Chaplin'; but I have to be honest, if someone fails to be moved by Field of Dreams it affects my opinion of them. I'm not saying I will instantly despise them or anything; of course not, but I can't help feeling that it is an indication of something missing in them; a something which I prize greatly. No idea what I would call it; depth? freedom? or perhaps a belief that there is something more in the universe than what we can see, hear, touch and smell.
All the psychobabble aside.......bottom line.......it's a flippin' good film!
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