Mann's Memorable Speech
By Illana Sroka
[1] Terrence Mann gives an unforgettable speech in Field of Dreams (1:24:21). To set the scene before I analyze it, let me take you to where all the action is. Ray Kinsella and his wife Annie as well as his daughter Karen are sitting on the bleachers on the baseline of the Kinsella's newly built baseball field. Terrence Mann is sitting there also, and he is thumbing through the pages of The Baseball Encyclopedia. Mark, Annie's brother, who also happens to be the Kinsella's mortgage broker, is trying to tell Ray that he has to sell the farm because he has no money left and a baseball field certainly will not make any money just by sitting there. The problem with Mark is that he just doesn't believe that the baseball field means anything, therefore he is unable to see the players who are busily playing baseball right behind him. During all of this commotion, Mann is sitting quietly yet listening intently to Ray and his brother-in-law argue about whether or not to sell the baseball field. Mann then gets up and makes his memorable baseball speech.
[2] Mann explains in his speech that "people will come" to this field. "They'll come to Iowa for reasons they cannot even fathom." Mann is saying that people will be flocking to Iowa for purposes that they never thought they would in order to seek out this particular baseball field. People will be attracted to the field as if it were a Disney Land theme park. Their eyes will be wandering over the green grass that is backed up by the bright blue sky. The sun shines down right in the center of the diamond, emanating its everlasting beams of light that carries on the American pastime of baseball.
[3] Mann goes on to explain that when these people come to the field, they will not even think twice about handing over a freshly minted twenty-dollar bill each for entry. This is quite an ironic statement, because in the 1980's, while Ronald Reagan was President of the United States of America, people were very greedy. The late 1980's were the age of the "yuppies," the Wall Street rookies. People may have been handing money over left and right, but selfishly, not for a baseball field in the middle of Iowa.
[4] These people, who come to see this exhibition baseball field, will be entering a world of imagination. By walking the baselines, stepping on the glowing grass, brushing the dust-ridden dirt off of their shoes, they will be brought back in time to when they were young children. They will remember the very smell of the leather on a baseball glove, the weight of the wooden bat, as they reminisce about the cheering of their favorite baseball heroes. The afternoon that these people come to the field will be a perfect one, Mann insists in his speech: "It will be as if they've dipped themselves in magic waters." He is referring to the metamorphosis of going from the real world in which these people are in to the dream world, which they will enter in the presence of the baseball field.
[5] When these people step onto the holy dirt in the "emerald" diamond, their memories will come flooding back so fast that they will not even be able to see straight. "The memories would be so thick they'll have to brush them away from their faces." Since these people were so overcome with the depression and the uneasiness from the past two decades (1960's and 1970's-Vietnam and depression), they will bask themselves in their unforgettable memories of childhood pastimes.
[6] Mann then goes on to talk about what a significant and important role baseball has played in America. "America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It's been erased like a black board, rebuilt, and erased again. Baseball has marked the time." What Mann is saying is that through all of the ups and downs that the country of America has encountered throughout time, there was one thing that held this country together. That one thing, the very glue of this nation, is baseball. Baseball has and will always remain a pride and joy of America. It is the one thing that has remained a perpetual object of desire. It has healed many relationships between fathers and sons. It has made children and adults able to have a role model and a hero that they are able to cherish and love for life. In essence, baseball is a permanent memory marker; "it reminds us of all that once was good and it could be good again." Baseball is a sport and a continuing memory that everyone can turn to when they want to find good in this country as well as good in their hearts.
[7] This scene, in its entirety, is an essential part of the movie. It is the climactic point in which people see the real meaning of baseball. It is not just a sport: it is and will continue to be a legend, and America's favorite and most cherishable pastime. It is a great scene, perhaps the most important in Field of Dreams.
