Week 6: Sports Films

TERENCE
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.

—James Earl Jones as Terence Mann
in Field of Dreams (Robinson, 1989 USA)

M 3.8/W 3.10: Sports Films
In-class: “An Introduction to Sports on Film, Pt. II”
Screening: The Wrestler (Aronofsky, 2008 USA)
Due: OSR 3 (1960-1979)

Upcoming:

M 3.15/W 3.17: Musicals
In-class: “Musicals—An Overview, Pt. I”
Screening: Moulin Rouge! (Luhrmann, 2001 USA/Australia)