25 best sports movies, ranked by the dust in your eye

5. Field of Dreams (1989)

Directed by Phil Alden Robinson
Starring Kevin Costner, Amy Madigan, and James Earl Jones

Field of Dreams’ status as one of the best sports movies of all time is kind of ironic. Though the sport of baseball is central to the film’s plot, it is not about baseball. Rather, it’s about the love of baseball and how fandom for the quintessential American sport is something that can bridge generations. For that reason, the film is more relatable than other movies that are set in the exclusive realm of Major League Baseball. While only a small group of people now know what it’s really like to step up to the plate in a stadium, most of us know how it feels to watch a game with our loved ones.

For Ray Kinsella (Costner), baseball was not just a mere pastime. It was an important bonding activity shared between him and his now-deceased father. However, in his teen years, Ray disavowed the sport and caused a rift in his paternal relationship that didn’t heal by the time the older man passed. Now a struggling Iowa farmer, Ray comes to reconsider his views after a disembodied voice tells him to construct a baseball field on his land. Inexplicably, he follows the voice’s instructions and has an interaction with the supernatural that allows him to salve his oldest wounds and rediscover his passion for life.

Although the big game between all the old forgotten baseball stars is Field of Dreams’ most iconic scene, it’s most emotionally impactful moment comes later. It happens when Ray is finally allowed to reconcile the spirit of his father and finally experiences catharsis. And for almost 30 years now, the film has given audiences the chance to share Ray’s tear-inducing sense of completion.