MovieChat Forums > Field of Dreams (1989) Discussion > Doesn't live up to the hype

Doesn't live up to the hype


I grew up in the midwest and we had these yuppie farmer types but none so impractical as to create a baseball field with flood lights, landscaping, and stands. The sheer cost of that alone should have put the farm under.

The attitudes of the characters and their 60's romantic nostalgia doesn't make up for the fact that they're annoying people with equally as atrocious behavior as the ultra religious book burning peoole (Never witnessed that group.. even from the overly religious in our area).

The idea that this is about a guy's relationship with his father is fine, but the movie slogs through with a pathetic enthusiasm post 60's failed hippy POV. Sorry, but the guys i know who were obsessed with the 60's were generally useless until the bills needed to be paid. Then you'd get some work out of them. The average leftwing 60's hippie gave that crap up by the 80's and never looked back. Those who didn't were usually criminals, homeless, and welfare abusers.

Sorry, but I could care less about an idiot farmer destroying his business to see ghosts so he could see his dad again. The guy actively treated his dad like dirt even up to the end and the audience us supposed to forget that he was a selfish prick. He treated everyone else like secondary concerns for his own "dreams." He destroyed his business, lied to his family, invaded other peoples privacy, and talked about how awful his dad was up to the last scene. Then he squirts a tear because he can play catch with a guy he actively defamed the whole movie.

This movie sucks.

reply

You're utterly missing both the poetry & the point of the film, I'm afraid.

reply


I'm sure he was either being sarcastic or just trolling. It was a hilarious read even if the humor was unintentional.

reply

That possibility occurred to me as well, but you never know ... :)

reply

Nope. I saw it. The movie, characters, and plot are bad. Especially the sappy end.

reply

Well, if that's how it strikes you, then I can't & won't try to argue you out of your valid personal opinion. For me, and for many others, it strikes a deeply resonant chord. But I won't insist that you have to like it just because I do.

reply

That's absolutely fair. I'm glad you like it. Me, Not my thing.

reply

I couldn’t imagine being this much of a buzzkill. 😂

reply


Believe it or not, he's actually on youtube!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Y63B-5CWRU


reply

😂

reply

That's me all over.

reply

Don't worry about it. I got you covered. It's a bad movie that gets too much credit.

reply

It’s good that you are the final authority of what is a good or bad movie. That would be a lot of pressure for me. I personally love Field of Dreams, and think it’s a wonderful and uplifting film, but I guess I’m dead wrong...because you say so. 😂

Have a great day Buzz Killington.

reply

Yep your wrong. Can't have an opinion differing from others. Now go watch your sappy trash with bad characters.

reply

OP is totally right and really gets this movie, unlike the saps who shed tears over its cloying nonsense.

reply

... and talked about how awful his dad was up to the last scene. Then he squirts a tear because he can play catch with a guy he actively defamed the whole movie.


It's like you were watching a different movie.

Ray was awful to his dad, he never once said his dad was awful.

Ray was expressing his regrets of how badly he treated his father to Terry. When Terry asked him why he said such hurtful things to his dad, Ray replied he read The Boat Rocker by Terrence Mann when he was a kid, and his dad died before he could take it back. He "squirted" the tear when he realized he was given another chance.

reply

A chance he never earned. While on his quest, he still treated his family like they didn't matter (leaving his wife to deal with the financial problems he created etc..), he intruded on others privacy, and he was completely irresponsible. Put the sappy ghost story aside and you have as selfish jerk who doesn't deserve the squirt.

Ray is a terrible person and the movie is s cheap manipulation of the audience.

reply


Again, different movie?

It's not like Ray went off on a pipe dream. He built a field that actually brought back long-dead baseball players, he got Doc Graham to live out his one unfulfilled dream, he brought the great reclusive writer out of his personal banishment, and he provided his family with wealth (I don't know if you stayed till the end or bailed).

reply

I finished the movie and it's all happy clap trap which is no different than a Hallmark Christmas Movie. You may like it all you want. I see a bad movie that manipulated its audience to ignore the way Ray misuses everyone around him. The way he manipulated his family, friends, and acquaintances. Just to make you feel good, they added two one dimensional antagonists, the PTA and his brother in law. That didn't change the movie.

Sorry, but I hated it and I won't agree with you. That's okay because it doesn't make the movie any less important to you. If my opinion did, then it isn't as good as you initially thought.

reply

Sorry, but I hated it and I won't agree with you.


No one here will deny you your opinion, nor is it my intention to change yours. There hasn't been a movie filmed that someone didn't detest on some level. It's just your misinterpretations of this movie that needed to be addressed. I see you liked Fred Claus. That's fine. I think it sucked (although I agree with you it's better than Elf), but I won't state things about the movie that aren't correct, nor will anyone convince me to like it.

Sure, Field of Dreams "happy claptrap" (the name kind of gives that away...), but that's what the fans of this movie like, myself included. I'll even sit through a Hallmark movie when my wife is watching one. Nothing wrong with a movie with a happy ending.





reply

And there we can agree. I hate the movie and my interpretation isn't because I didn't watch it, its because I actually paid attention to it differently than you. I see a bad character, with an annoying wife, being a childish yuppie. It needed actual baseball to be better, but that was aside for Ray and his lame story and awful personality.

reply

This is some of the finest trolling I've seen in a long time. Well done. Well done, indeed!

reply

I kind of agree. I'm a baseball fan and this movie was boring.
For Love of the Game was a much better baseball movie.

reply

Except that Field of Dreams isn't just a baseball movie, it's about so much more than that.

reply

OP is not a troll. He's just very cynical.

reply