Thoughts about 'McFarland, USA'

Saturday afternoon we went to see the movie 'McFarland, USA' from Walt Disney Pictures.  It is directed by Niki Caro from a screenplay by Christopher Cleveland, Bettina Gilois and Grant Thompson based on the true story of the cross country coach, Jim White.  White is played by Kevin Costner.  Maria Bello plays Jim's wife, Cynthia, and Morgan Saylor plays their 14-year-old daughter, Julie.

Poster for Walt Disney movie 'McFarland, USA'

When the movie opens, White is a high school football coach in Boise, ID.  His team is losing, he loses his temper in the locker room at half-time, accidentally assaults the team's captain, and gets fired.  In the next scene, he's driving his family pulling a U-Haul trailer to the only job he can get -- assistant football coach and life sciences teacher at the high school in McFarland, CA. 

McFarland is a small town in the heart of the Central Valley and the high school is right next to a state prison.  Most of the students at the school are from Hispanic-American families who work in the fields surrounding the town.  The family's first evening in McFarland they go to the only restaurant in town -- a taco joint.

White gets off on the wrong foot with the head football coach and is forced to give up the assistant coaching position.  But, he's noticed that the Hispanic players are sturdy and fast -- it turns out because they work beside their parents in the fields before and after school and because their diets are high in carbohydrates -- they're naturally carbo-loading.  White forces the principal to start a cross country running team by citing obscure state education rules and persuades one of the students from the football team to help recruit a 7-member cross country team.

The bulk of the movie is about how White coaches the team from initial defeat to ultimate victory -- with side visits to the Hispanic families of the runners; to a budding romance; to the Whites gradual acceptance by their Hispanic neighbors in McFarland; and to the struggles within the White family to adapt to both their economic and cultural circumstances.

"McFarland, USA' is a very satisfying movie -- not likely to win any prizes, but with all of the pleasures of 'underdog succeeds' movies.  Both Kevin Costner and Maria Bello offer fine performances that convey the challenges of finding themselves in a difficult, strange environment.  The rest of the mostly Hispanic cast are excellent at portraying their own challenges in confronting the strange world of long-distance running -- I would single out Carlos Pratt as Thomas, Hector Duran as Johnny, and Ramiro Rodriguez as Danny among the runners and Diana-Maria Riva as Senora Diaz the Hispanic earth mother and Martha Higareda as Lupe the loopy beautician (I couldn't resist) -- but the entire cast works well together portraying a Disneyfied version of a small, struggling Hispanic agricultural community.

The movie tip-toes around the edges of ethnic diversity and racial inequality and completely avoids hot button immigration issues.  Instead it relies on the steadfast work ethic, Spanglish vocabulary -- White is variously called 'Blanco' and 'El Jefe' before he is called 'Coach' --  and quaint customs of its Hispanic characters to make positive, often amusing points about the McFarland community's embrace of the White family.

Banner for the movie, 'McFarland, USA'