The 6 Best Ghost Stories Ever Told On Film

Field Of Dreams (1989)

A beloved entry into the ‘ghost stories don’t have to be terrifying’ oeuvre, Field Of Dreams is a glorious, heartfelt tale of a man who misses his dead Dad so much that unseen forces conspire to have him build a magical baseball diamond on his Iowa cornfield. The intimate tale of parental estrangement, regret and loss plays out against the backdrop of a reach for redemption for ‘Shoeless’ Joe Jackson and the Chicago White Sox players, who were banned from the game after accusations of ‘throwing’ the 1919 World Series.

Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) begins to hear a voice while out in his cornfield, on his Iowa farm. The voice insists, “If you build it, he will come.” This occurrence initiates a chain of events that sends Ray first, ploughing into his cornfield, and secondly, across the country in search of answers. He builds the baseball field and the ghost of ‘Shoeless’ Joe Jackson arrives, asking to bring his friends to play. Ray recognizes Joe, because Ray’s late father idolized him and was devastated when the player was banned from his favourite game.

The voice then gives Ray a second message: “Ease his pain.” At a school meeting, the debate turns to the banning of books by radical author Terence Mann (James Earl Jones). Ray becomes convinced that it is Terence Mann that needs his pain easing – and he sets off to find him. While at a Fenway Park ball game with Mann, the two men share a vision that highlights a ball player from the 1920s – Archibald “Moonlight” Graham, who played a single game for the New York Giants, then became a doctor. Ray hears the voice urge him to “Go the distance,” so he and Terence seek Graham out – only to meet his ghost (Burt Lancaster) instead. Graham explains that, while he loved his brief moment as a ball player, the real tragedy would have been if he had never moved on to become a doctor.

Ray returns home with Terence Mann, picking up a hitchhiker along the way. In conversation, the two discover that the hitchhiker is the younger ghost of Archibald Graham, and he wants to play on the magical baseball field. As the family and friends gather to watch the assembled ghosts play ball, Shoeless Joe Jackson reveals that the true purpose of the baseball field was to allow Ray to play catch with his Dad’s ghost – for it was his pain he needed to ease all along.