What “Field of Dreams” reminds us about storytelling

I remember watching the movie Field of Dreams at the WGA theater in Beverly Hills amidst a room full of writers. Having seen dozens of movies with the same crowd before, I knew the general aura of the shared experience: A highly critical eye with an instinct toward cynicism.

In other words, a tough crowd.

So as I sat through the final sequence of the Field of Dreams, leading up to the Protagonist Ray asking the ghostly specter of his father, “You wanna have a catch,” then seeing the two toss a baseball back and forth, I was shocked to hear sniffles… then gasping breaths… and finally out and out weeping. In fact, I think it may be the only movie I’ve attended in which audience members cried through the entire ending credit crawl.

Clearly the movie touched a nerve, especially among all those writers and their complex relationships with their father.

With that in mind, I read with interest a NYT article about the actual Iowa farm where they shot the baseball field scenes for the movie.

The movie so touched a chord that since its 1989 release, hundreds of thousands of fans have come to this corner of Iowa to run the bases, walk in the cornfields and soak up the feel of the place, which looks much as it did in the film. Retired major leaguers like George Brett, Lou Brock, Catfish Hunter and Kirby Puckett have been here. Politicians on the campaign trail have stopped by. Kevin Costner, a star of the film, returned with his band in 2006.

In essence, Universal Studios built it and they came.

But on Sunday, Don and Becky Lansing, the owners of the 193-acre farm that includes the field, are to announce that they are selling their property to an investment group led by a couple from the Chicago area. The group plans to keep the field as it is but also to build a dozen other fields and an indoor center for youth baseball and softball tournaments.

The movie came out in 1989. Here it is 22 years later, and people are still making a pilgrimage to the farm.

Why? I think it goes right back to the experience that audiences felt, just like the crowd at the WGA theater: They found a powerful emotional connection to the story.

After considering many offers and even inviting Costner to bid on the property, the Lansings settled on Mike and Denise Stillman, who assembled a group called Go the Distance Baseball L.L.C., borrowing a line from the movie. The parties did not disclose the sale price.

The Stillmans plan to leave the field much as it was when Ray Liotta portrayed Shoeless Joe Jackson there. The bleachers erected by Ray Kinsella, Costner’s character, will continue to stand near first base. The white house with the wraparound porch and the white picket fence will still overlook the field.

— —

The Stillmans, who will not live on the property, have been talking to the Lansings since July 2010. Mike, who grew up on Chicago’s South Side, is a lawyer and a White Sox season-ticket holder. Denise is a business consultant who specializes in marketing. They met while attending Bradley University in Peoria, Ill., and one of the first movies they saw together was “Field of Dreams.”

“It has this sort of bucolic, magical sense to it,” Denise said of the film, which was nominated for the Academy Award for best picture. “It seems to transport you. It has a certain sensibility about it that we’d like to raise more.”

— —

The Field of Dreams has become a tourist attraction in the most unassuming way. Other than its Web site and a few brochures, it is barely promoted. No billboards alert drivers to turn off the highway; only a few signs point the way to the farm. The Lansings placed a donation box near the guest book at the backstop. Shirts and other souvenirs are for sale, but there are no neon signs or corporate come-ons.

— —

Within weeks of the movie’s release the next spring, people started arriving. One stranger traveling cross-country gave Don Lansing an old New York Giants cap, which he has kept. When he left for work in the morning, he would leave some buttons that the filmmakers had made for the extras, and they were gone when he returned. He offered T-shirts, with a coffee can and a sign asking for $5. The shirts sold out.

— —

About 7,000 people showed up the first year, so Al Ameskamp restored his section of the outfield. The next year, twice as many people came to take in the site. Some brought their fathers’ old gloves and left them in the cornfield. Others exchanged wedding vows or scattered ashes of deceased relatives.

The Monday On Writing quote from Sinclair Lewis was this: “People read fiction for emotion… not for information.” What Field of Dreams reminds us about storytelling is precisely that: Whatever we do, we need to find a point of strong emotional connection with a script reader, then a movie viewer.

Sure, sometimes that emotion elicits tears like Field of Dreams. But by emotion, I don’t mean ‘emotional,’ at least in the way that term is often used (“You don’t have to get all emotional about it”).

What I mean is something about your story — and that is almost always some combination of the Protagonist and their particular circumstances (the plot) — should create a resonance with the reader, so they identify with the Protagonist. In effect, that shrinks the distance between the reader and the story, ideally using the Protagonist as a conduit to go into the story. Once you achieve that, then…

If you are writing a comedy, you want to find funny emotions.

If you are writing a drama, you want to find dramatic emotions.

If you are writing a thriller, you want to find thrilling emotions.

If you are writing action, you want to find action emotions.

Indeed while your story may focus the emotions on the nature of its primary genre, a good screenplay will have multiple types of emotional layers at work — humor, drama, thrills, action.

So take this opportunity to look at that script you’re writing now. Ask yourself: What are the parts of this story with which a reader will find a strong emotional connection?

If you do that, and if you have a strong story concept, and you write the hell out of your story… well, I guess you can say, “If you write it, they will come.”

For more of the New York Times article, go here.

Comment Archive