I grew up a fan of Kevin Costner’s films. My dad loved them and it, in turn, made me a fan of his work. And while he’s a talented director and actor, there is one genre of film he does better than anyone else: The baseball movie.
Starting with Bull Durham in 1988, Costner did two baseball movies back to back. One, he was a catcher for a minor league team who had a pitcher that needed trained. The other, an exploration of grief through a man’s determination to build a magical baseball field to see his dad play. To be clear, it is the ghost of his father but still. That is Field of Dreams and was released in 1989.
Both of these were staples in my home. It is why I love a good baseball movie and it is definitely why Everybody Wants Some is one of my favorite Richard Linklater movies. The “genre” is exciting to me and, as a baseball girlie, I just always connected with films about the sport. It helps that, for a while, the one who was great at it was Costner.
It would take almost 10 years for Costner to return to the sport though. Well, cinematically speaking. In 1999, Costner teamed up with Sam Raimi for the film For Love of the Game about a pitcher in the midst of pitching the perfect game. My father used to watch it constantly and I still hear “Clear the mechanism” from time to time.
These movies are less about the films themselves and more about my connection to them. And that is also a theme within the Costner baseball universe.
Baseball is about sharing the love with others and Kevin Costner’s movies are the same
What is great about each of Costner’s baseball movies is that they’re all different genres within themselves. Bull Durham is a romantic comedy, Field of Dreams is a drama about grief, and For Love of the Game is a character piece. They’re all so different from one another and each feels unique and fresh even with Costner at the center of them all.
Yes, my own love of these movies is entirely tied to my father but I think that anyone can really find something to love in these movies. My dad loved them because of his own love of baseball and he shared them with his daughter, who loved movies. That’s a special bond and I think that’s what makes movies and baseball so special.
Your favorite baseball team is probably something you found through your family or where you’re from or someone else and you share that love. The same can be said about movies and that’s why, to me, the Kevin Costner baseball movies are something so incredibly special. They are all different and fun and whenever I watch them again I feel connected to my dad.
To me, that makes these the best baseball movies out there and so thank you, Costner. No one is doing the baseball genre like you.
(featured image: Universal Pictures)
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