This is not the first time, and probably won't be the last, that I post about this wonderful film "Field of Dreams." I just watched it for the umpteeumph time and, as usual, it moves me to philosophize and look back upon life.

I cannot believe that one must be a baseball fan to appreciate this movie, tho' it likely adds immeasurably to the enjoyment of it. Somehow Kevin Costner reached up into the air and plucked the very essence of baseball's enduring nostalgia out of the whirling, feverish membrane of all that is hope, disappointment, and remembrance of a simpler time in this country.

I always get choked up at three different places in this film. First, when Archie Graham gets to the field and recognizes the players and starts naming them off one after the other. As soon as he says "Gil Hodges at first" I get teary. I think it is partly because Gil was my favorite player on my favorite team when I was a kid, but also because--recalling him--brings back a whole flood of memories of those wonderful times.

The second time is when the little girl falls off the bleacher seat and Archie Graham has to cross the baseline to become Doc Graham and save her life. Then he can't go back. Burt Lancaster is perfect in the role as the old Doc Graham and the scene is one of the most touching I've ever witnessed in a movie. But then, I'm a softie when it comes to stuff like this.

Third, of course, is when he realizes that one of the players is his dad. My parents were divorced when I was nine and I never had much of a relationship with my father. I can't even tell you what year he died. But the idea of a rapprochement like the one portrayed in this film is enough to tighten one's throat.

The movie is filled with touching scenes: when Costner somehow finds himself back in time and meets Doc Graham; when they pick up the kid hitchhiking and it turns out to be the young Archie Graham; when James Earl Jones--he's so good!!-- is invited by Shoeless Joe Jackson to come back with them and he subsequently walks off chuckling into the field of corn.

I will never tire of watching "Field of Dreams." Call me sappy but, hey, I gotta be sappy about something. Of course, I admit to liking most of Kevin Costner's films, including "The Postman," which did not get rave reviews; "Dances With Wolves" of course; and "Waterworld," another film the critics panned but I liked a lot.

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