Many people thought John Mulaney hit it out of the park when he went on a tangent about Field Of Dreams while serving as presenter at the 96th Academy Awards.
It turns out his funny synopsis of the classic sports fantasy drama impressed the film’s leading man, Kevin Costner.
‘Not a bad summary, @johnmulaney,’ Costner, 69, wrote in an Instagram Story post on Tuesday, alongside a clip from the ABC broadcast. ‘Congrats to all the nominees and winners at @theacademy Awards Sunday night.’
He concluded by adding, ‘So many great performances to celebrate this year.’
Mulaney, 41, was one of more than 40 stars who took to the stage during the awards ceremony to help present the awards, where he was tasked with handing out the Oscar for Best Sound.
‘You know, for years movies didn’t have sound and then they figured it out,’ he joked, which got laughs from the live audience. ‘Some people would say the silent era was the Golden Era of film; these people are difficult and insane.’
He continued, ‘Without sound, we wouldn’t have been able to hear such classic lines as “You’re going to need a bigger boat,” “I’ll have what she’s having” and “He was in the Amazon with my mother when she was researching spiders just before she died.”‘
After making references to Jaws, When Harry Met Sally and Madame Web, respectively, Mulaney, who’s known for detailing his favorite movies in his standup comedy act, proceeded to highlight the classic and enduring line from Field Of Dreams.
‘Or what about that moment in Field of Dreams where we hear “If you build it, he will come,” and then Costner does it, he builds a baseball field,’ Mulaney explains, before reeling off the rest of the premise of the movie without a stumble or hitch.
‘Or I guess he doesn’t build it he mows down corn, and then there is a field and he’s like, “I’m going to watch ghosts play baseball,” and the bank is like, “You wanna pay your mortgage?” And he’s like, “Nah, I’m gonna watch ghosts play baseball.”‘
Mulaney then mentions several of Costner’s co-stars in the film in his near spot-on summary of the plot, as reported by People.
‘And then he finds James Earl Jones, who wrote The Boat Rocker, which I thought was a real book deep into my 20s, and he’s like, “People will come, Ray,” he’s the only one with a financial plan,’ Mulaney said, while decked out in an all-black tuxedo.
He adds, ‘But what’s weird is Timothy Busfield pushes little Gaby Hoffmann off the bleachers and she falls down and she’s unconscious. He comes up and he pats her on the back a couple of times and he’s like, “Hot dog, stuck in the throat,” and then he can’t go back in the game because I guess there’s a rule in ghost baseball that if you leave the field at any point to become an elderly ghost and do the Heimlich maneuver, you can’t return to the field.’
The comedian ends the lengthy spiel: ‘I love Field Of Dreams. That should win Best Picture, though they’ll will probably go with one of this years.’
The former Saturday Night Live writer then presented the award for Best Sound, which recognizes the finest or most euphonic sound mixing, recording, sound design, and sound editing, to Tarn Willersand Johnnie Burn for The Zone Of Interest.
Mulaney’s words would prove to be prophetic as the Best Picture Oscar did in fact go to one this years 10 nominees, Oppenheimer, which was one of its seven overall wins during the ceremony.
While Costner and Field Of Dreams weren’t up for any awards during Sunday’s ceremony, the longtime Hollywood leading man has been nominated for three Oscars during his illustrious career, winning Best Picture and Best Director for his epic Western Dances With Wolves (1990).
Released in May 1989 to generally positive reviews from critics, Field Of Dreams starred Costner with Amy Madigan, James Earl Jones, Ray Liotta, Burt Lancaster, Gaby Hoffmann, Timothy Busfield, Kelly Coffield Park, Dwier Brown, Lee Garlington, Michael Milhoan, Steve Eastin, Charles Hoyes and Art LaFleur.
In the now classic film, Costner plays farmer Ray Kinsella, who builds a baseball field in his Iowa cornfield that attracts the ghosts of baseball legends, including Shoeless Joe Jackson and some of his co-called Chicago Black Sox teammates.
Written and directed by Phil Alden Robinson, and based on the novel Shoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella, Field Of Dreams (1989) received three nominations: Best Picture, Best Original Score, Best Adapted Screenplay.
Ultimately, it went on to be a hit with moviegoers, grossing $84.4 million at the worldwide box office against just a $15 million budget.
And in a testament to its artistic relevance, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library Of Congress in 2017.