Sport has been a significant part of society for centuries. In part, sport is a recreational activity, a social activity, and a means of competing. However, sport also holds greater significance for many people. It represents something that goes beyond just competing or just winning and says something about the way people interact and work together to achieve their dreams. At the same time though, the meaning of sport has been lost over the years. Winning has become so important to some that the joy of sport has been lost. For others, sport has become so intertwined with making money that the meaning has eroded. In today's society, the joy and meaning in sport has begun to be lost. Two films that deal with these issues are Any Given Sunday and Field of Dreams. Both films offer a view of sport that attempts to remind the viewer of the meaning inherent in sport, showing the viewer that sport is something scared and suggesting that people need to remember what sport once was and not allow it to erode further. While this overall message is shared by the two films, there are significant differences in the details of the messages provided and in the way they are communicated. This will now be considered in detail by comparing various aspects of the two films. This will show that the two films present slightly different views and present these views in different ways, while sharing an overall message about the meaning inherent in sport and how important it is to hold on to this meaning.

             One of the first ways that the two films are similar is that they both tell the story largely via an individual who is involved in the sport, but is not actually playing the sport. In Any Given Sunday, the main character driving the story is Tony D'Amato, the coach of the Miami Sharks. Tony is clearly passionate about the game and his team, yet is not involved in actually playing the sport. In Field of Dreams, the main character is Ray Kinsella.