Commentary On The Film Field Of Dreams

In Field of Dreams, the film based on W.P. Kinsella's story "Shoeless Joe Jackson Comes to Iowa" a farmer by the name of Ray Kinsella hears voices that tell him to build a baseball field in his cornfield. The command "If you build it, he will come" provides the initial incident that sets the conflict in motion. While some people think it's an absurd idea, he builds his baseball park while knowing he's risking a lot. But soon after the field is finished, his vision comes true when Shoeless Joe comes to play baseball in his field. This shows hard work will direct you towards your goals. After watching Ray build in this movie, I realize that only if you have the courage to take chances, the determination to overcome obstacles and a strong belief of your dreams, can you accomplish your goals. Ray had to use all of these in the process of making his dream come true.
The first virtue that I think Ray processed is his courage to be not afraid of taking risks.
After he had heard the voice telling him "If you build it, he will come", he was first afraid to listen to it, but he finally decided to take the opportunity. He built the field even though he knew he was jeopardizing the stability of his farm; risking losing his farm and the life he had built. He had torn down most of his cornfield just because a voice inside his head told him to. If he was afraid to obey the voice and never built his farm, his wish might never have come true. We must not be fearful to take chances, we need to make all that we can out of life…because we will never know what could happen if we don't give it a
shot. The second quality one must have to be able to do anything great is to have the determination and will to conquer obstacles. For example, when Ray tried to persuade Terrance Man to go to a baseball game with him, if he had given up when Terrance told him he didn't want to, they would never have became friends. Ray even had to threaten him with a fake gun to get him to go. But in the end, Mr. Man gave up and went with Ray; probably because he saw that Ray would never give up if he didn't go. If you let something simple stop your way, then you can never reach your aspiration. Therefore, going that extra mile will pay off in the end. The third characteristic to a good dream achiever is having a strong faith in your desires. In the movie, people told Ray he was stupid for building a baseball field. They thought he had gone psycho spending most of his savings to build a field in the middle of nowhere. Mark even tried to make Ray sell his field, but Ray kept his confidence and in the end, people also began to see and believe too. If Ray had let those people get through to him and had sold the field, he would never see his Dad, Shoeless Joe and his team ever play again. Having a dream is practically meaningless if we don't have faith in it. In conclusion, trusting your guts, having perseverance and keeping on believing are the key ingredients that will make fantasy into reality. Hard work will help you end up in the right destination in the end. It's a good thing Ray knew what it took to achieve his goals. But imagine Ray having none of these features, where would he have ended up?