Daily Dialogue — September 27, 2019

Terence Mann: Ray, there was a reason they chose me, just as there was a reason they chose you and this field.
Ray Kinsella: Why?
Terence Mann: I gave an interview.
Ray Kinsella: What interview? What are you talking about?
Terence Mann: The one about Ebbets Field. The one that charged you up and sent you all the way out to Boston to find me.
Ray Kinsella: You lied to me.
Terence Mann: You were kidnapping me at the time, you big jerk!
Ray Kinsella: You lied to me!
Terence Mann: You said your finger was a gun!
Ray Kinsella: That’s a good point.
Terence Mann: Ray. Ray. Listen to me, Ray. Listen to me. There is something out there, Ray, and if I have the courage to go through with this, what a story it’ll make: “Shoeless Joe Jackson Comes to Iowa”.
Ray Kinsella: Are you gonna write about it?
Terence Mann: You bet I’ll write about it. That’s what I do.

— Field of Dreams (1989), screenplay by Phil Alden Robinson, novel by W.P. Kinsella

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Farm.

Trivia: After the movie was completed, test audiences didn’t like the name “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, because they said it sounded like a movie about a bum or hobo. Universal called director and screenwriter Phil Alden Robinson to tell him that “Shoeless Joe” didn’t work, and the studio changed the title of the film to “Field of Dreams”. When Robinson heard the news of the change, he called W.P. Kinsella, the author of the book, and told him the “bad” news, but apparently he didn’t care, saying that “Shoeless Joe” was the title the publishing company gave the book. Kinsella’s original title was “Dream Field”.

Dialogue On Dialogue: This movie is a great example of a Protagonist’s fate at work in the story. Several characters are destined to do what they end up doing in Act Three and this scene sets the cliffhanger for Ray: Why does he have to stay?