Directed by: Niki Caro
Starring: Kevin Costner, Maria Bello, Carlos Pratts, Johnny Ortiz, Morgan Saylor, Ramiro Rodriguez
McFarland USA blindsided me with its intricate insight. It is about a newly formed high school cross country team circa 1987 that breathes life and pride into McFarland, CA, a downtrodden small town of mostly Latino population. The students are not given much to look forward to after high school. They will likely return to the fields as "pickers", only they will do so full-time instead of just the morning hours prior to school and then the remaining daylight hours afterward. There is little hope for a future that does not contain backbreaking 14-hour workdays for minimal pay.
The film opens with hotheaded football coach Jim White (Costner) throwing a cleat at a smart aleck player during halftime. In the next scene, we see he and his family packing up the car and heading to McFarland, home of the only high school that would give him a job. Jim has a history of His weary wife Cheryl (Bello) and two daughters have seemingly made this trip many times before. They are appalled at the house they live in, which is tiny and does not have a garden, and are even more alarmed at the neighborhood. Jim does not envision his family having to live there for long.
Jim is hired by a desperate principal who needs a gym teacher and an assistant football coach. Jim does not last long as the assistant to an undersized football squad, but he recognizes some players and students who can run very fast with amazing stamina. He pitches the idea of forming a cross-country team and is able to recruit seven students who wake at the crack of dawn to work the fields, go to school, and then go back to working the fields after school. They somehow fit in team practice which requires miles of running. Their endurance and strength are extraordinary.
Based on this information, you can predict the obligatory scenes: Jim will at first alienate his team with his harsh coaching style, only to form a guarded truce and then bring the team together. The team will be blown out in its first meet against superior competition, then hit their stride, and qualify for the state championship. Do they win? I won't say, but you know the odds are 50-50. You check off these scenes as they happen, but what you do not expect are the warm and gentle scenes in which Jim and his family become part of the community. They embrace the "blancos" as one of their own. Oh and naturally Jim catches the eye of a rival school that wants him to become their new cross country coach. Will he accept it?
McFarland USA takes great care to show how Jim becomes one with these hard-working people and helps instill hope that there is life beyond working the fields. The students have a chance to actually go to college, while none of the previous members of their families attended school past 9th grade. For the first time in forever, the families of the runners have something to be proud of. McFarland USA succeeds because while it covers the clichés we have seen in such previous movies, it also takes a moment to let us see inside. The big race is just a small portion of these people's lives. Life goes on before and after.
Kevin Costner relies on his ability to be the everyman which was the cornerstone of some of his best performances. He is a bit more world-weary in McFarland than in other sports-related films like Bull Durham, Tin Cup, and Field of Dreams, but he projects determination and caring. He is willing to learn from his previous mistakes as a coach, parent, and husband. The runners themselves make us care by having distinctive stories and personalities. They are not just a faceless group. Because of this, when the entire town of McFarland shuts down to witness the big race, we know the human stakes are high. I didn't care who won as much as I cared about how the race positively affected the town. The sports movie clichés are all there, but it doesn't matter. McFarland USA creates genuine warmth.
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