Full disclosure: I am half Hispanic. My mom’s family grew up grindingly poor and did pick crops during an especially dire year. I was also on a cross-country team, but I was never a successful runner like the kids in ‘McFarland, USA,’ a new family movie starring Kevin Costner that opened Feb. 20.
Given all this, you may say I was predisposed to like this PG-rated movie.
My husband and I and another couple went to see “McFarland, USA” for a couples’ night out. We didn’t know it was a Disney movie. We just needed a movie that none of the four of us had seen yet. We all gave it a big thumbs up.
This movie is indeed a feel-good, come-from-behind, scrappy underdog story. But it’s more than that. In a country whose mood seems increasingly polarized and angry, perhaps we can learn to treat one another with respect. One person can make a difference in their community, and McFarland shows it.
Coach Jim White, played by Costner, is indeed very white. When he arrives in McFarland, California, an overwhelmingly poor Hispanic town, his first thought is how he can escape. He wants to get out of this small, under-resourced school and back to a winning football program.
Unfortunately for White, his mouth gets the best of him. He is dismissed from the football coaching staff during his first week. Needing a job in the worst way, he creates a cross-country program. Recruiting at least seven boys is not easy. Most of the kids at the high school pick crops at 5:30 a.m., then head to class. The high school is right next door to the penitentiary, and that’s where most kids assume they will end up anyway. Why bother to join a cross-country team with those odds stacked against you?
The boys on the team call Costner “White” or “Blanco.” He struggles to earn the title of coach, which can only be given with respect. The coach needs to see his players with respectful eyes too.
Costner sees potential in the young men and encourages them to consider college, something that has never occurred to them. Some of their families refuse, needing their children to help in the fields to help feed the family. The choices that characters make affect their futures. McFarland shows that different cultures can come together in good ways. The townspeople rally behind the tiny team all the way to the state championships.
What moms need to know
I would take children 10 and older to see this movie. There are a few isolated scenes that may disturb younger viewers.
For example, a father loses his temper and punches the wall. A student rushes to forestall his dad’s violence, but later, the student is shown with a bruise on his eye. A runner briefly contemplates suicide, and the coach talks him down off the bridge. The implications of the scene will probably go over most kids’ heads. Later in the movie, there is a scene of implied gang violence, but no actual fighting occurs on screen.
“McFarland, USA” was based on a true story. Stay for the credits, when you’ll get to see the real Jim White and his runners. A short caption for each tells what they went on to achieve after high school. It was interesting that not all the students went on to successful lives. However, the vast majority contributed to their communities.
For most older children and young teens, “McFarland, USA” is a solid movie choice. Maybe you’ll even want to see it during your date night. I’m glad we did.
