Kevin Costner has been watching grown men cry for 25 years, because 'Field of Dreams'

By Mike Bertha

April 28, 2014

On April 21, 1989, the pinnacle of mankind's artistic evolution was released in theaters nationwide. It was called Field of Dreams and it ~~was~~ is the only morsel of tangible proof that human consciousness has a purpose. It's also been reducing grown men to sobbing shells of themselves for 25 years.

To mark the anniversary, actors Kevin Costner and Dwier Brown (he plays Ray's father) got together and spoke with The New York Daily News about how their roles in the iconic baseball film effectively altered their lives.

"Every day I'm out in public, people will mention that movie. I was at The Grove with my children, and a guy came over to me in a very emotional way," Costner says of a recent trip he took to a Los Angeles open shopping market. "And he just said it allowed him to reconnect with his father, and to get some things said that had not been said. Happens all the time."

Brown, who has acted steadily over the past three decades since beginning his career in the early '80s, says no other movie, TV or theater project he's been involved with has had the impact of "Field of Dreams" on his life and career. It usually starts with a stranger, most often male, giving Brown the "Did I go to high school with you?" look.

"I'm like, 'Uh, no, I went to high school in Ohio.' All of the sudden, you just see their face kind of change, and sometimes tears come into their eyes like some sort of knee-jerk reaction," Brown says. "It's usually the biggest, macho guys who look at me with that look on their face. If they don't guess it, I'll say, 'I was in that movie,' and then that usually gets them going."

Though the actual anniversary has already passed, it did so without much ceremony because the real celebration is planned for, of course, Father's Day weekend in Iowa. Because, really, how are American fathers supposed to communicate with their sons without mention of Moonlight Graham and flopping face-first into third?

The festivities will take place at the actual Field of Dreams, where most of the movie was filmed and will feature appearances by the cast and crew, a Q&A hosted by Matt Lauer (cue: "oooooh"), a Father's Day brunch, interviews with the cast conducted by Bob Costas, and some actual baseball.

Check out the full piece over at the Daily News to learn more about some of the intimate details of the casting process and the effort that went into taking W.P. Kinsella's book Shoeless Joe into one of American cinema's timeless classics.

[h/t New York Daily News]