“Build it and they will come.” That is the commonly remembered paraphrase of the most famous line from the 1989 movie “A Field of Dreams.” An Iowa farmer hears a voice telling him to build a baseball field in the corn. He does and they come. Shoeless Joe Jackson and other great players of the past arrive to do again what they did so well for so many. Then, the rest of us, waiting in long lines to find our seats, arrive to watch the show.

I know I said we probably we wouldn’t do it, be we did. We ventured forth to watch an Oscar nominee. We didn’t even know it was opening weekend. Finding two seats too far up front, we sat and wondered why the theatre was so crowded. It was packed.

At the end, the theatre was so quiet. No recorded sound followed the scrolling credits. No one spoke. We lingered, wiped a tear, stood and walked back to the real world and its sounds.

“American Sniper” is a movie of sounds and sights, the scopes of two rifles and two worlds.

One sniper is American. The other is not. They both have families. They both do their jobs. One dies doing his. The other dies later, doing his.

Hollywood was surprised.

They came and waited and filled the theaters.

They came to watch a young man who believed what he was doing was right.

They came to see a man whose life was torn and broken by conflict.

They came to find a soldier who was not destroyed by war.

They came to see a man able to come home and start a new life.

They came to watch a young man who gave his life for what he believed.

Hollywood was surprised.

They came and waited and filled the theaters.

With them, we were there, standing beside the road, waving and wiping a tear.

Grandpa Jim