50 Best Sports Movies Ever

12. Field of Dreams

Year: 1989
Sport: Baseball
Starring: Kevin Costner, Amy Madigan, James Earl Jones, Ray Liotta, Burt Lancaster
Director: Phil Aiden Robinson

“If you build it, he will come.”

Field of Dreams is one of the most prolific and decorated sports films ever made. Directed by Phil Aiden Robinson and starring a long list of globally recognizable actors, this baseball masterpiece was nominated for three Academy Awards.

Those prestigious appearances were for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Original Score—something that also earned Field of Dreams a nomination at the Grammy Awards.

Kevin Costner stars as Ray Kinsella, a corn farmer in Iowa who hears voices that tell him to build a baseball field. Upon obliging with these commands, Kinsella and his family are stunned when they see baseball legend “Shoeless” Joe Jackson standing on the diamond.

What follows is the return of a number of banned players from the 1919 Black Sox scandal—a remarkable story, unto itself.

The rest of the film takes viewers on a journey through baseball history as Costner’s Kinsella searches for answers as to why he was instructed to build a field.

There are undeniable issues with the Academy Awards, but the fact that this film was nominated for Best Picture is a testament to its greatness. The acting was superb, the story was riveting, and the directorial execution was borderline impeccable.

Field of Dreams is the type of film that you can watch repeatedly and still enjoy from beginning to end.

Next: 11. Major League