McFarland USA, Movie Review

Rating: 4.25 out of 5 Stars

Sport movies seem to be a dime a dozen, and both Disney and Kevin Costner, who helm this new underdog true story, are familiar faces in the sports genre. We've seen baseball and football stories done over and over again.  Hockey with Mighty Ducks and Miracle.  Ice Skating in Ice Castles and Blades of Glory.  Horse racing in Secretariat and Seabiscuit. A delightful movie about rugby in Forever Strong.  Etc.  And now, in McFarland USA, we have a sports movie about a cross country running team.  (Side note, do you ever think they'll be a movie about Curling?  That would make a fantastic comedy.)

There's nothing wrong with having a new sports movie.  It's hard to complain when we're constantly receiving book-to-screen adaptations, romantic comedies, action, and the ongoing Marvel vs. D.C. battle.  The problem with sport pics is that they are typically based on true stories about winning teams, because no one is going to do a movie based on a sports team who fails.  In short, sport movies tend to be incredibly formulaic and predictable.  These two traits are hard to avoid.

In McFarland USA, despite the formulaic sports plot, there's still new material drawn upon that is seldom shown on the big screen: the sport of Cross Country running and agricultural life in southern Central California.

It shows the side of California most people outside of California don't think about or realize, unless you've lived there.

McFarland CA is located between Bakersfield and Visalia, 1 1/2 hours south of Fresno, and 33 miles from Porterville, where I grew up.  A town nestled amongst orange groves, cotton fields, and walnut groves.

It's the Fall of 1987 when recently fired football coach Jim White, Costner, suddenly finds himself moving his family to McFarland, an impoverished Hispanic community.  When they first drive through the town White's younger daughter asks "Are we in Mexico?"  McFarland is nothing like Boise Idaho, where they are from, and suddenly the White's are in culture shock.

Circumstances don't improve when Jim White, as assistant football coach, clashes with the coach, and suddenly White is without a team, teaching only life science and physical education at the High School.  During P.E. class White discovers some of his students running really fast, and the idea of coaching cross country, of which he has no experience, is born.

It's through coaching these students that White begins to appreciate McFarland.  These students work hard, picking crops morning and night between school and training, running all the way.

Sure, McFarland USA is a cookie cutter Disney family film which comfortably stays within its PG rating.  (For the record we need more family friendly PG flicks).  Many of the conflicts and resolutions are predictable.  But this movie has heart, and if a movie can make me feel something, then I can forgive the formula.  I was totally crying at the end.

The legacy of Jim White is quite remarkable. 


MPAA: PG for thematic material, some violence and language.