McFarland, USA

Here is a formula movie that works.  McFarland, USA is, by all accounts, a pretty standard inspirational sports drama, but it makes some smart decisions and avoids some obvious pitfalls along the way.  The movie feels honest.  There is no melodrama being played up here.  In fact, it's quite small, focuses on the individual characters and their relationships, and generally feels genuine.  While I'm sure parts of the true story it's based on have been dramatized, it doesn't seem as obvious as in some other films.

Kevin Costner, the go-to guy for feel good sports movies for over 20 years now, takes on the role of Jim White, who in 1987 led a small group of Mexican teenagers to a championship season in Cross Country running.  As the film opens, Jim has just been fired as a football coach at his previous school job after he loses his temper with one of his students.  Work is hard to find, and the only school that will hire him is a struggling high school in the small California town of McFarland.  At first, Jim's new job doesn't seem to be going very well, as he's fired as the assistant football coach after his first week.  He is kept on as the gym teacher, however, and while watching his students run laps, he becomes inspired when he sees how fast they are.  This gives him the idea to start a cross country racing team - an idea that is shot down at first by the principal of the school and the board of education, but he is able to put together a team and make it work. 

The team that Jim puts together is a likable, if not standard, group of Mexican kids who have not been given a lot in life.  They work in the fields when they're not in school, picking produce.  Some have been in and out of trouble at school, some have troubles at home, and one of the kids is overweight.  However, the screenplay is smart enough not to make the kids just one-note characters.  They have personalities, and don't fall into the usual melodrama traps that threatens their positions on the team.  The bond that they build with each other and with the Coach seems real.  While there are moments where the kids must rely on each other to keep going, it's done quietly, instead of in a heavy-handed and cinematic manner.  The cliches are all there, but they're done in a way so they don't call attention to themselves.  It feels familiar, but it also feels a little more honest than we expect.

McFarland, USA also avoids the all-too-easy trap of having its lead white character becoming a savior to his minority students.  If anything, the movie is about how the community (which is made up almost entirely of Mexicans) welcomes Jim and his family, and makes them part of the community.  The film is appropriately titled, as the entire town plays a part in the story, not just the kids on the running team.  We see Jim's wife (Maria Bello) and his two young daughters build relationships with the different people around them.  We get to see Jim make friends with the locals, and slowly come to love the people around him.  The movie does a great job of showing the community as individuals.  They're not just a bunch of extras who cheer on the the local running team on their way to victory.  They have personalities and backgrounds, and get to play their own small roles in the story.

I also appreciated the honesty that the movie deals with its minority cast.  We're never once made to feel sorry for these people, or are made to feel that their lives are different or worse off.  They are a close-knit community, and yes, they have their hardships, but the movie does not dwell on them or use it for cheap melodrama.  When the various families that make up the community come together, we can feel the respect they have for each other.  It doesn't feel like a bunch of extras standing on the outskirts of the story.  The movie is as much about them, as it is about Jim leading his team to victory, and I appreciated that.  It gives the film more heart and depth than your standard movie about a team of underdogs making it to the championships.  This movie goes the extra mile, and gives us side characters we can cheer for, not just the runners.

This is the second movie in about a month that Costner has done about race relations, and compared to Black or White, it is much more subtle and genuine.  McFarland, USA rises above the cliches of the genre by giving us not just likable characters, but ones that don't feel like they've been plugged in by the screenwriters as generic types.  Even if the overall plot of the team making it to the big championship is predictable, there are a lot of smaller moments in between that kind of surprised me.

See related merchandise at Amazon.com!

0 comments