Matt Jones' Random Acts of Verbiage

Tonight I watched Field of Dreams. I had forgotten what a great movie it was with some classic lines. I really enjoy baseball quite a bit and memories of playing catch with my dad are some of my fondest, this movie is one that I will always come back to.

You know we just don’t recognize the most significant moments of our lives while they’re happening.

This statement from “Moonlight” Graham (Burt Lancaster) can sometimes seem cliche, but coming from him, it seemed to have more impact (not sure why). And just because something is cliche, doesn’t mean it isn’t full of truth.

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.

“Shoeless” Joe (Ray Liotta) really knows how to say it (If you like baseball of course)!

There are a lot of good lines in this movie. One of the funniest I think is when Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) is trying to kidnap Mann (James Earl Jones):

Mann: I’m going to beat your head in with a crowbar until leave.
Kinsella: You can’t do that.
Mann: There are rules here? No, there are no rules here. [Mann comes at Kinsella with a crowbar]
Kinsella: You’re a pacifist!
Mann [stops before he strikes and pauses]: Shit.

Come on now, that is funny (sorry if you are offended by profanity).

Go out and watch the movie again, really, you know you want to.
I will leave you with Mann’s final (and moving) monologue.
Shalom

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.