Field of Dreams Fenway… Ambience

Uncommon Ambience: At the Movies; Field of Dreams (1989) ambience — Field of Dreams fits in well with the other weird baseball fantasies we love. Casey at the Bat, the figment of Doubleday field, and the wonderfully strange the Natural. The book version has zero redemption by way of smashed outfield lights. Just a baseball Superman shackled by fate, circumstance, and stupidity. Only, Roy Hobbs strikes out. And then he punches a dude.

Field of Dreams is baseball magic and forced Americana (hot dogs, small-town book banning, farming, failed finance) — what's not to love? Aside from the most grating-ass whisper in all of cinema.

The movie wants to be great.

It is occasionally silly, as when Ray asks Terence what he wants. Forcing Terence into his own mind to search for an answer amongst his pain and dead civil rights leaders. "…I want my privacy."

The film then cuts to the two standing before a concession stand. Ray wants to know Terence's snack order. "Oh, a dog and a beer," says Terence, bemused.

It's a cute scene, but also, rimshot. The joke is on us future people, where the "seven bucks" in the movie is the total for two orders of "a dog and a beer."

Whatever — Ray and Terence sit in the stands and watch a pedestrian putout — and then Ray starts hearing the annoying whisper; "Go the distance." Ray freezes, and the scoreboard chyron starts flickering. Fortunately, Ray was bored enough with the game to keep score in his program. So his pencil was ready to write down a name from the haywire Jumbotron; "Moonlight Graham."

Did the ghost force an illusion or hack the Jumbotron?

Who cares... we need to ignore the movie's narrative from here on out. This podcast episode focuses on the uninspiring game at Fenway, not the fever dream that follows.

We'll let Ray and Terence leave early in search of Moonlight Graham. Who astral projects his younger self on a highway with his thumb outstretched to hitch a ride. Weird stuff.

In this podcast, we will chill, at this boring baseball game where the Red Sox host the Oakland Athletics.

PS: While I feel baseball has been fantasized and weirded out in American fiction better than any other sport — I would suggest checking out Vanilla Dunk, a short story by Jonathan Lethem. It is exciting and so weird.