I once saw a quote on a movie
poster for this film that I think sums it up quite nicely. It said, “All his life, Ray Kinsella was
searching for his dreams. Then one day,
his dreams came searching for him.”
A simple whisper in the night with
almost no sound accompanying it is how the film gets under way after the
setting is established via a montage of photos.
Kinsella looks around in confusion as he hears it while walking through
his field. This was meant to be awkward
to the audience, as strange as it seems to the protagonist himself. We heard a cue prior to it, a slightly
jarring screech that only the audience hears, a sign that something is amiss
and giving the following voice an initial ominous feel. Other than that, silence is golden. Then something changes, and a light-hearted
air of chiming bells precede the voice as Kinsella hears them over and over as
he attempts to understand them. Then he
finally sees a vision that shows him that he must build a baseball diamond, and
another thing changes. The stunned
silence that follows is replaced by a few soft notes of piano music that eventually
increase into a full melody that represents the reflection and subsequent
understanding by Kinsella. The Iowa
farmer hears the voice again and again throughout the movie, and from here on
in, the sequence of sounds surrounding the voice will remain the same. Composer Clint Mansell mentioned such a repetitious
soundtrack in one of his movies in the article “Music and Mood”. He claimed not to be discouraged by having
such repetition, as his synthetic accompaniments helped create the overall feel
for the film that was desired by producer and audience alike (Kroll 1). The same thing seems to apply here, as they
overlying music maintains the aura of magic and the otherworldly feel that give
Field of Dreams its identity. The songs
that take up whole sections of films might leave a temporary impression, but perhaps
it’s the single notes that give the movie a truly lasting one.
After a while, the sequence of
sounds surrounding the voice does more than just evoke emotion in the audience;
it creates a sense of logic through its repetition. We know that something very important is
going to happen simply because we hear the bells start ever so slightly while
all other sounds gradually fade away.
For example, Kinsella is sitting in the stands at Fenway Park in Boston
when he sees a message on the scoreboard that he thinks might be a clue. We pay attention to everything that stirs our
senses in any way at that moment, and, through logos, when we hear the chime of
a bell, we know the voice is about to speak.
And sure enough, the atmosphere of the ballgame fades away, and Kinsella
hears, “go the distance”. Arguably the
best moment for logos is late in the movie, when Kinsella has somehow gone back
in time to meet a ballplayer from half a century ago and picks up a random
hitchhiker who turns out to be exactly who he’s looking for. We do not know initially who the hitchhiker
is, but when Kinsella asks him what he does and the man replies, “I play
baseball,” we hear three piano keys, as if being told to focus on this man and
take a guess as to who he is. Sure
enough, Kinsella asks him what his name is and he replies, “Archie Graham,” the
name of the ballplayer Kinsella had been searching for. We knew what was coming, if only for a split
second, as the music told us what to listen for. We inadvertently use logic every day, and in
movies, our ears are as powerful a tool as our eyes in regards to learning
about the plot and figuring out what will come next.
The movie soundtrack is
comprised mainly of background music and individual notes designed to add drama,
but there are a few exceptions, most notably when time and space are being
crossed. Upon hearing the voice tell him
to “ease his pain” Kinsella embarks on a long-distance drive to Massachusetts,
which is accompanied by some fast-paced rock music by the Doobie Brothers. This does something more for me than just
give us something fast-paced to match the images we are seeing. This is a break from the drama, a relief from
this cross between reality and assumption.
Shakespeare used buffoonery in the midst of his tragedies to take the
edge off his audiences, and that’s what this does. We get a break from thinking and are treated
to rock music and a few laughs as Kinsella stumbles over what he plans to say
when he meets the author whose pain he was told to ease. The movie came back down to earth in many
ways. We no longer feel isolated from a
main character who seems to be “above us”, and we are more readily in tune with
what will come next, undoubtedly something important. I think that this scene fits in with the
section on pathos in Everything’s an
Argument by Andrea A. Lunsford. One’s
audience needs to identify with them if an argument is to be made or if such a
character is to keep his audience behind him (Lunsford 34). This music is mainstream; the audience has
heard it before, just as many of its members have also probably driven long
distances. This connects them in an additional
way with Kinsella. We would never leave
his side throughout the film, but now we have one less reason to anyway. Music is often pure emotion made tangible
through words, and I would say that this change-of-pace scene does wonders for
the well-being of the audience in this very emotionally-charged film.
You do not need to be a sports fan to love this movie and appreciate the fine sounds associated with it. I will give Field of Dreams three tickets in a heartbeat. Just remember that, sometimes, those voices we think aren’t real just might be more so than we can ever imagine. And also that, when we least expect it, they will come.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ay5GqJwHF8&noredirect=1
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