Sunday, August 13, 2000

Field of Dreams is made for both fathers and sons

Long before my son had his first Little League base hit, and long before he was taught the proper way to swing at a summer hitting camp, we had the backyard.
  There, over by the hammock and past the barbecue grill, my son and I sometimes play a simple game of catch.
   And, for a few minutes while we are throwing to each other, nothing else matters.
  As I compiled my list of personal favorites on our sports movies poll, I tried to understand why, for me, "Field of Dreams" ranks higher than all the other movies that have moved me in my life. Why not the sweet underdog classic "Hoosiers," or the magic of "The Natural"?
  For me, it all came back to that simple game of backyard catch between a father and his son.
  Toward the end of "Field of Dreams," Kevin Costner watches as the catcher slowly removes his gear. Costner’s character, Ray Kinsella, realizes finally that it is his father, the man he knew and, in many ways, never knew.
   "Hey Dad?" Costner asks wistfully. "You want to have a catch?"
   "I’d like that," his father says.
   And that is how the movie ends: father and son, tossing the ball to each other, nothing but a glove and baseball between them, as the sun sets and day turns to night. It could easily be me and my son this weekend. Or you and yours.
   Before that night, I wasn’t a particularly big Costner fan. I avoided "Field of Dreams" in the theaters, and only saw it because I needed a study break one night in college. I turned on the television and caught the movie on CBS.
   When I saw it, I cried. If you are a father, how can you not? If you are a son, how can you not?
  
  The power of movies
   And that is the beauty of sports movies. They make you laugh, they make you cry and they make you cheer. Do you have to be a sports fan to love a sports movie?
  Maybe.
   But at its best, the sports movie takes us to another world, another time, when we can circle the track along with Steve Prefontaine at the Olympic Games, wax on and wax off with Mr. Miyagi, stand at the plate with Roy Hobbs or cry along with Gayle Sayers at the bedside of Brian Piccolo.
   Competition. Passion. Sacrifice. These are the things that make sports movies great.
  
  Memorable moments
   The two oldest sports movies I can remember seeing - "Victory" (soccer meets World War II) and "The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh" (a motley crew of basketball players) - won’t make it on anyone’s Top 10 list. But I know that I must have cheered Stallone and company on in "Victory" at least 10 times when it aired on HBO.
   You will have your own favorites. You will look at our list and disagree. One person’s all-time great is another person’s cinematic dud.
   For me, sports and movies aren’t necessarily about the best script or the best performance or the greatest acting job. What I remember is how I felt when I first watched it, how it moved me or inspired me, made me laugh or made me cheer. That’s why I look back with fondness on flicks like "Heaven Can Wait," "Fast Break," "Jerry Maguire," "The Natural" and "Field of Dreams."
  
  Powerful images
   There are images from sports movies that I likely will never forget: the Olympic runners splashing up water on an English beach in "Chariots of Fire," the New York Knights surrounded by falling sparks that looked like glowing embers in "The Natural," Sylvester Stallone racing up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art in "Rocky," and the quick film cut from Jimmy Chitwood’s winning jumpshot back to Shooter, leaping for joy from his hospital bed in "Hoosiers."
   In the movies, anything can happen. You can win the gold medal, hit the game winning home run or even become heavyweight champion of the world.
   "Ain’t gonna be no rematch," a bloodied and swollen Apollo Creed tells a battered and bruised Rocky Balboa at the end of "Rocky" as a wave of photographers and fans swarm the ring.
   "Don’t want one," the Italian Stallion shoots back.
   Of course he did.
   We all did.
  
  
  
  

 
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