Field of Dreams

Factual error: Joe Jackson batted left-handed in real life, not right-handed as Ray Liotta portrayed. He also threw right-handed and not left-handed like it shows when Kevin Costner is hitting him fly balls to left field.

Visible crew/equipment: On some shots which look back at Ray when he's driving his pickup, it can be clearly seen at the bottom of the picture that the front wheels of the pickup are sitting on a trailer, which is itself being towed by the camera vehicle.

Continuity mistake: When Annie and Ray are laying in the newly completed ball field, and Annie is drinking a glass of wine, it is sunset. The sun has gone down and the sky is just the faintest of pink on the horizon, the rest of the sky is a strong blue tone. Yet, when the camera cuts to a long shot, same angle of Ray and Annie, the horizon is now a brilliant red-orange taking up nearly a third of the sky. (00:16:20)

OneHappyHusky

Continuity mistake: In the scene where Ray has a catch with his father, Ray's brother-in-law's Jeep can be seen parked near the light pole along the third base line. In the next shot, the Jeep isn't there. When the shot again changes and the camera pans back, the Jeep is back by the pole.

Continuity mistake: When Ray and Annie are at the PTA meeting, it is night when they go inside, but when they come out after Annie gets into the argument with the other woman, it is day (there is sunlight coming through the windows).

Continuity mistake: While Ray and Terence Mann are at the Red Sox game, they receive a message on the scoreboard - but the time and score don't reflect what Ray has written on the scorecard on his lap. Before Ray hears the voice it is 8:41, but right after it is 10:30.

Continuity mistake: When Ray and Joe Jackson first take batting practice in the field there are five bats against the backstop. To their left is the bag with the remaining bats, the bag at first has the appearance that there is the strong outline of a bat or a bat behind the bag, yet when Joe goes to retrieve another bat the bag is loose and in an entirely different shape. (00:22:00)

OneHappyHusky

Continuity mistake: The grocery bag in back of the truck shows a red and white milk carton sticking out of bag. In a following shot the grocery bag no longer has the milk carton sticking out of the top. Then upon entering the house, the same grocery bag now has a blue and white milk carton sticking out, plus other items not seen before. (00:41:15 - 00:42:35)

Continuity mistake: In the scene Costner is chopping up his corn crop with a flail hopper, the PTO that drives the machine is not rotating.

Continuity mistake: At the end of the film, when Ray is saying "Good-night" to John, the sun has set and the sky is cloudless and pink just along the horizon. In the next shot, when Ray asks, "Dad" for "a catch" the sky is much brighter and there are many clouds reflecting the now setting sun. (01:37:40)

OneHappyHusky

Continuity mistake: When Ray first comes down for breakfast and "Harvey" is on TV, the Wonder Bread is next to the TV. But in the next shot the bread is farther to the right with the milk now between the TV and the bread, although Annie was not in the vicinity to have moved them. (00:07:40)

OneHappyHusky

Character mistake: Chick Gandil mispronounces Eddie Cicotte's name, calling him "Si-coty" instead of "See-cot."

Factual error: When Ray is walking around the Chisholm Minn, he wipes the dirt off a license plate to reveal a sticker showing the year '72. While Minnesota began using stickers in 1972, they only started putting them in the lower right starting in 1975, with all plates before 1975 containing an embossed year in the lower right.

Factual error: When Ray is in the feed store, he picks up a bag of seeds from the counter and casually walks out. These bags of seeds weigh 50 pounds, so to lift it in the manner he did would require a great deal of strength.

Revealing mistake: At Fenway, when Ray sees the scoreboard cycling through images, watch the crowd below the scoreboard. They jump as if the scene cuts or is looped.

manthabeat

Revealing mistake: The time on the scoreboard clock when Ray hears the "go the distance" message changes from 10:30 to 10:32 in a matter of seconds.

jbrbbt

Continuity mistake: The sun changes constantly during the "people will come" sequence. Particularly, long shots of Shoeless Joe and Ray. The sun is overhead and deeper in the west in the space of seconds.

manthabeat

Visible crew/equipment: Ray and Annie are talking about going to Boston and the camera is tracking through their home. The camera is reflected in a picture hanging on a wall in the kitchen as the shot passes it.

manthabeat

Continuity mistake: During Terrance Mann's "people will come" speech, the sun moves around quite a bit. The scenes of the baseball players have long shadows. The scene with Ray has the sun overhead. When Karen falls it is late afternoon again. When Doc leaves it is early evening. From Shoeless Joe's angle it is late morning.

manthabeat

Continuity mistake: Near the beginning, as Ray has a vision of the baseball field, look at the difference of the angle of the sun. During the beginning of this sequence it's near noon. When Ray sees the field materialize the sun is obviously further west in the sky. Then, at the end of the sequence it is noon again.

manthabeat

Terence Mann: Ray, people will come Ray. They'll come to Iowa for reasons they can't even fathom. They'll turn up your driveway not knowing for sure why they're doing it. They'll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past. Of course, we won't mind if you look around, you'll say. It's only $20 per person. They'll pass over the money without even thinking about it: for it is money they have and peace they lack. And they'll walk out to the bleachers; sit in shirtsleeves on a perfect afternoon. They'll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they'll watch the game and it'll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick they'll have to brush them away from their faces. People will come Ray. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh... People will come Ray. People will most definitely come.

More quotes from Field of Dreams

Trivia: During the filming of the cornfield scenes where Ray first hears the voice, the filmmakers had problems with the corn growing. When they initially wanted to film the scenes the corn was too short, so they waited a couple of weeks. When they were ready to shoot, the corn was too tall. Kevin Costner had to walk on wooden planks, so he could be seen in the cornfield (Director Phil Alden Robinson discussed this in the 10th anniversary edition of the film).

More trivia for Field of Dreams

Question: At the end of the movie, Ray realises that the messages he had been receiving were about his dad. "If you build it, he will come." Ray built the ball field and his dad appeared. "Ease his pain." Ray played a game of catch with his dad. How does the message "Go the distance" refer to his dad?

Answer: Ray's mission was not confined to easing the pain of his deceased father. Ray himself had a lot of pain and regret over arguing with his father about baseball. Ray was also supernaturally guided to seek out the angry writer Terence Mann (who had always dreamed of playing professional baseball, but never did). When he travels to Boston looking for Terence Mann, Ray and Terence both hear the words "Go the distance," convincing them to travel to Chisholm, Minnesota, looking for an ex-ballplayer named "Moonlight" Graham (who never actually got to bat in the big league, either). As it turned out, Graham was long-since deceased, but Ray and Terence meet Graham's young ghost who returns with them to join the cornfield team. So, "Ease his pain," applied not only to Ray's father, but also to Ray himself and to writer Terence Mann and to Moonlight Graham. "Go the distance" was about traveling to bring both Terence Mann and Moonlight Graham into this magical place where all of their lost dreams could be fulfilled, as well.

Charles Austin Miller

I think "go the distance" has a metaphorical connotation of seeing your choices through in life, and finding the beauty in them. It also implies doing the work you need to do confront your past, resolve your past hurts, and find the strength to move forward.

Michael Albert

Well, in that sense, "Go the distance" is just a generic platitude. What we know is that each of the supernatural messages carried an urgent instructional connotation, calling for Ray to be proactive toward a specific goal: Bringing together these anguished souls (both dead and living) to live out their lost dreams and finally find peace.

Charles Austin Miller

More questions & answers from Field of Dreams

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