Kevin Costner's Career-Defining '80s Fantasy Movie Is Streaming On Netflix

Few movies can reduce grown men to tears quite like Phil Alden Robinson's 1989 sports fantasy drama "Field of Dreams." The heartwarming tearjerker is based on W. P. Kinsella's 1982 novel "Shoeless Joe" and stars Kevin Costner as Ray, a farmer who builds a baseball diamond in his cornfield that attracts the ghosts of famous baseball players. It's one of the very best baseball movies ever made, and it was a major surprise sleeper hit of 1989, going on to become an all-time classic Dad Movie. Not only is it a movie about farming and baseball starring Kevin Costner, but Ray's original inspiration for building the field is because the only connection he ever had to his estranged father was through baseball, which is going to hit home for quite a few fathers out there with daddy issues of their own. 

Now "Field of Dreams" can find a new audience through the magic of streaming, as this beloved baseball fairy tale is now available to stream on Netflix. There's a whole lot to love about the movie — even if you're not a big fan of baseball (or even sentimental dramas) — and "Field of Dreams" helped shape Costner's baseball-laden filmography going forward. Watch it to find out where the "if you build it, he will come" joke in "Wayne's World 2" comes from, and discover a beautiful story about love, loss, and redemption.

It's not just guys with daddy issues who get teary-eyed watching "Field of Dreams," honestly; it's just about everyone. Heck, even star James Earl Jones started crying the first time he saw the finished version! The movie's brilliant ending manages to tug at the heartstrings without being too schmaltzy, and the truly incredible performances from a number of beloved actors who have since passed, like Jones, Ray Liotta, and Burt Lancaster, make it all the more bittersweet. Young viewers might be impressed to see Academy Award-winning director Kevin Costner at such an early point in his career, or even more impressed to see Academy Award-winning "Weapons" star Amy Madigan as Annie Kinsella, Costner's character's wife. 

I don't want to give away the whole story of "Field of Dreams," honestly, even though it's a nearly 40-year-old movie. It deserves to be seen with truly fresh eyes, and now that it's on Netflix, the next generation of dads can sit down and push their kids to watch it on a Sunday afternoon. It's an American cinematic tradition.