Historical Connections
Joe Jackson batted left and threw right, while in the movie Ray Liotta bats right and throws left. The DVD special feature section explains that Liotta would not have been able to hit the ball batting left. Also, Jackson was from South Carolina and had a thick Southern accent, but Liotta, a New Jersey native, uses his own accent.
The character played by Burt Lancaster and Frank Whaley, Archibald "Moonlight" Graham, is based on the baseball player of the same name. The character is largely true to life, excepting a few factual liberties taken for artistic reasons. The real Graham's lone major league game occurred in June 1905, rather than the final day of the 1922 season. The DVD special points out that the facts about Doc Graham, mentioned by various citizens interviewed by the Terrence Mann character, were taken from articles written about the real man.
Terrence Mann is fictional but inspired by reclusive author J. D. Salinger, the author sought by the main character in the novel. In 1947, Salinger wrote a story called "A Young Girl in 1941 with No Waist at All," featuring a character named Ray Kinsella. Later, Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye features a minor character named Richard Kinsella, a classmate of Holden Caulfield. Richard is the name of Ray's twin brother in the novel.
Read more about this topic: Field Of Dreams
Famous quotes containing the words historical and/or connections:
“It is hard to believe that England is so near as from your letters it appears; and that this identical piece of paper has lately come all the way from there hither, begrimed with the English dust which made you hesitate to use it; from England, which is only historical fairyland to me, to America, which I have put my spade into, and about which there is no doubt.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The quickness with which all the “stuff” from childhood can reduce adult siblings to kids again underscores the strong and complex connections between brothers and sisters.... It doesn’t seem to matter how much time has elapsed or how far we’ve traveled. Our brothers and sisters bring us face to face with our former selves and remind us how intricately bound up we are in each other’s lives.”
—Jane Mersky Leder (20th century)