The 3-Act Paradigm at Work: Field of Dreams

written by W.P. Kinsella and Phil Alden Robinson


Field of Dreams, which is based on the novel Shoeless Joe, is driven by a heart-warming concept: that the best values in life come from our dreams, from those irrational opportunities when we are driven by gut feelings to do things that don't really seem to make much sense at the time.

In this case, a mediocre farmer hears voices in a corn field that lead him to plow under part of his crop in order to build a baseball diamond, in which ballplayers from the past come to play. Finally, in this magical arena, the farmer and his ex-ballplayer young father are able to find a closeness they never experienced in "real life."

Structural Analysis

  1. Hook (2 min.)
    • "If you build it, he will come," a mysterious, invisible voice tells Ray in his corn field. Is he losing it? The voice keeps repeating itself.
  2. Complication (8 min.)
    • Then Ray has a vision of a baseball field in his cornfield. Is this what he should build?
  3. Call to Action (12 min.)
    • Ray embraces the mystery and plows under part of his crop, despite his marginal financial status, in order to build the diamond. "I never did one spontaneous thing in my life," he tells his wife.
  4. Act One Plot Point (27-30 min.)
    • He builds it - and they come (17 min.) Although his brother-in-law advises Ray to sell the farm before it's too late, he won't - he is protecting his magical ballpark. But, as it turns out, only his family can see the oldtime players who play on it. They seem to be in this alone. Step outline of Act One.
  5. Midpoint Plot Point (42 min., 56 min.)
    • Voices return. "Ease his pain," is the message, and when Ray and his wife attend a school board meeting where the books of sixties writer Terrance Mann are threatened to be banned, Ray decides that the message means he must go find the secluded writer. His wife, who has had an identical dream about this as her husband, urges him on. Mann, however, is a reluctant participant, but goes to a ballgame with Ray where Ray sees a scoreboard message about "Moonlight" Graham, a past player with only one at bat, and hears another message, "Go the distance." Now Mann also is hearing voices, and together they travel to find Moonlight. (Note how the midpoint here is stretched over a sequence that expands the puzzle and redefines the quest, reminiscent of the false-goal paradigm).
  6. Act Two Plot Point (83-89 min.)
    • Although Graham refuses to go along with Ray and Mann (67 min.), on their way back to the farm (Mann coming along) they pick up a young ballplayer who identifies himself as Graham - the old doctor as a young man with dreams of playing ball (70 min.). But at home, the farm is now ready to be foreclosed - and Ray has one last chance to sell and save the house at least. He refuses. All appears lost. Then Ray's daughter falls from the bleachers, Graham leaves the magical world of the baseball diamond to step across the line into reality, now a doctor, and saves her. Suddenly the brother-in-law can now see the players: "Don't sell this, Ray!" Then Graham is invited to go back with Shoeless Joe to the other side, to see what this nether world is like. Ray is infuriated - he should be the one who gets to go! He built the diamond! Stay with your family, Ray is told.
  7. Resolution (93-100 min.)
    • But finally everything becomes clear, the true meaning behind "If you build it, he will come"; "Ease his pain"; "Go the distance." A young catcher comes onto the field - Ray's father as a young man. Father and son get to talk as friends for the first time. And they also get to do something else: play catch. This is the image that closes the movie, father and son playing catch, the young father before he became worn out with life, and Ray gains a new understanding of his father, of aging, and of himself.

Notes

Field of Dreams is full of magic and suspense. The voice Ray hears drives the action into mysterious territory, almost a wild goose chase except we know there will be eventual meaning to the journey. And the journey takes place against the threat of foreclosure of the farm, a ticking clock.

Along the way, bits and pieces of backstory are dropped, of Ray's troubled relationship with his father and his wish that certain things could have been done differently. Early in Act Three (73 min.), Mann recognizes that the journey is "penance for insulting your father." Final penance happens at journey's end, with the young father and the older son playing catch in a magical ballpark.


MODULE 4: SCREENWRIGHT: the craft of screenwriting

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