McFarland, USA

McFarland, USA
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Niki Caro
Produced by	Mark Ciardi Gordon Gray
Screenplay by	Christopher Cleveland Bettina Gilois Grant Thompson
Story by	Christopher Cleveland Bettina Gilois
Starring	Kevin Costner Maria Bello Morgan Saylor
Music by	Antônio Pinto
Cinematography	Adam Arkapaw
Edited by	David Coulson
Production company	Walt Disney Pictures Mayhem Pictures
Distributed by	Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Release dates	February 20, 2015 (2015-02-20) (United States)
Running time	129 minutes[1]
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$17 million[2]
Box office	$45.7 million[3]

McFarland, USA (also known as McFarland) is a 2015 American sports drama film directed by Niki Caro, produced by Mark Ciardi and Gordon Gray, written by Christopher Cleveland, Bettina Gilois and Grant Thompson with music by Antônio Pinto and co-produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Mayhem Pictures. Based on the true story of a 1987 cross country team from a mainly Latino high school in McFarland, California, the film stars Kevin Costner as Jim White, the school's coach, who leads the team to win a state championship.^[2] The film also stars Maria Bello and Morgan Saylor. The film was released on February 20, 2015, received positive reviews from critics, and grossed over $45 million. McFarland, USA was released on DVD and Blu-ray on June 2, 2015 by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment.

Plot

In 1987, in Boise, football coach Jim White is chastising his players for an underwhelming half. Jim gets into a verbal altercation with one of the players, resulting in Jim throwing a football shoe with cleats at him. Following this incident, Jim is forced to move with his wife, Cheryl, and two daughters, Julie and Jamie. They settle down in McFarland, California, a predominantly Hispanic town. On their first night there, the family goes to a small restaurant and leaves to find a large gathering of Latinos in cars surrounding the place. One man makes suggestive motions toward Julie, prompting the family to leave faster.

White starts his new job as the life science/PE teacher and assistant football coach at school. During Jim's PE class, three boys, the Diaz brothers Danny, Damacio, and David, are forced by their mother to leave. During a later PE class, Jim sits on the bleachers and watches the boys run around the track with Jamie joining him. He comments that the boys, particularly Victor and Johnny (who got cut from the football team) move very fast. Jim goes to Principal Camillo to convince him to let him start a cross country team to compete in the upcoming state championships. Jim also enlists Johnny's help to recruit six more runners for the team, starting with Victor. Johnny asks the Diaz brothers, as well as two other students – Jose Cardenas and Thomas Valles. Thomas has gotten in trouble at school for being involved in altercations with other boys that mocked his younger sister for getting pregnant, so Jim negotiates for him to join the team to avoid suspension. Although the boys are initially reluctant, they agree to join the team and run with Jim across the town, with Danny lagging behind as he is the heaviest of the team.

After some training, the team goes to their first meet in Palo Alto as boys from the other schools taunt the McFarland team. The race commences, and the McFarland team finishes in last place. Knowing the boys are disappointed, Jim takes full responsibility for the loss to not let them get discouraged.

Having been late for his daughter's birthday, Jim goes for a drive and sees Thomas sitting on a bridge over the road. He approaches him and notices a bruise on his eye, which Thomas says was his own fault because he tried to stop his father from hurting his hands so that he could keep working in the fields. Jim talks him down and tells him that he has good things ahead of him, encouraging him to continue doing something worthwhile. The Diaz brothers are pulled out of the team by their father, who wants them to keep working the fields. Jim goes to the brothers' home, and the next morning goes out to work on the fields with them to help them keep training for the team.

A fundraiser is hosted to purchase new running shoes for the team, Jim meets Javi and Lupe, two of the car enthusiasts he remembers from their first night, and is relieved to learn that they are not gang members.

The team goes up for another race to qualify for the championships. The team competes, and manages to just break into the top four teams, enough to qualify. Meanwhile, a coach from Palo Alto gives Jim a card, saying he is interested in an open full-time position.

The people in town learn that Julie just turned 15 and decide to help organize a quinceañera for her. They bring Cheryl, Julie, and Jamie to the salon while everyone sets up at home. Thomas gives her a bracelet that his grandmother made. Later, Javi and Lupe offer to take Julie out for her own "parade", with Thomas accompanying them. Not long after, their car is confronted by a group of punks that bother Javi. The authorities contact Jim, forcing him and Cheryl to drive to the scene and find Julie on the ground, with scrapes on her legs and shaking tearfully. Jim is angry over this, despite being assured that Julie was protected.

Jim meets with the Palo Alto district for the coaching position. The boys and his family learn about this, and are upset with him. He tells Cheryl that he could bring them a better life but Cheryl argues that it would be wrong for Jim to abandon the team and the friends they have made. The day arrives for the state championships. The whole community goes out to support the team. Jim sees Jose overexert himself at the start of the race and knows that he won't have anything left at the end of the race. He concludes that this will cost McFarland the race. To his surprise, Danny runs faster and picks up the slack.

The judges tally their scores together and McFarland comes in first, and the team and town celebrate while Jim turns down the job offer from Palo Alto to remain in McFarland.

Cast

• Kevin Costner as Jim White^[4]
• Maria Bello as Cheryl White^[5]
• Morgan Saylor as Julie White^[6]
• Carlos Pratts as Thomas Valles^[7]
• Elsie Fisher as Jamie White
• Johnny Ortiz as Jose Cardenas^[1]
• Hector Duran as Johnny Sameniego^[1]
• Sergio Avelar as Victor Puentes^[1]
• Michael Aguero as Damacio Diaz^[1]
• Rafael Martinez as David Diaz^[1]
• Ramiro Rodriguez as Danny Diaz^[1]
• Diana-Maria Riva as Señora Diaz
• Vanessa Martínez as Maria Marsol^[1]
• Martha Higareda as Lupe^[1]
• Valente Rodriguez as Principal Camillo^[1]
• Chris Ellis as Coach Jenks^[1]
• Eloy Casados as Dale Padilla

Production

William Broyles Jr. was hired to write the screenplay for the film, which was in development since 2004.^[8] Negotiations for Kevin Costner to star were finalized in July 2013.^[9] Principal photography took place in Camarillo, California, and many of McFarland's residents were extras in the movie.^[10][11]

Historical accuracy

In an interview, Jim White noted that while the movie was based on a true story, it wasn't a documentary. He acknowledged that not everything in the movie was factual, but that "it's still an enjoyable movie... it turned out fine." Some of the more notable differences included:^[11]

• Jim White had not been fired from several prior teaching jobs before starting at McFarland. He started teaching in the McFarland school district after graduating from Pepperdine University in 1964. At the time, McFarland was mostly white demographically. White taught different subjects at various grade levels (fifth grade science, seventh and eighth grade woodshop, and PE) before starting his coaching career in 1980. White retired in 2003 after 23 years of coaching.
• White didn't create the cross-country team at the school, but instead restarted it after it had been dropped for a year. He rebuilt both the boys' and girls' cross-country teams, although only the boys' team was shown in the movie. Similarly, White took both the boys' and girls' teams to the California coast beach at Cayucos during the 1985 (not 1987) season.
• Not all of the runners from the 1987 team were shown in the movie. Director Niki Caro wanted to show more family in the movie, so Luis Partida, who was on the team, was replaced with David Diaz, Damacio and Danny's brother. David, however, had graduated the year before McFarland's first state title win.
• Jim White and his wife Cheryl have three daughters, not two. Tami, their oldest, was not shown in the movie. Julie and Jami were also portrayed a few years younger than their actual ages at the time of McFarland's first state title win in 1987 (all three girls were in college at the time).
• Danny Diaz was not overweight as a kid. He was, however, the seventh person on the team and still instrumental to its 1987 state title win.

Release

The film was previously slated for a November 21, 2014 release, under the title McFarland,^[12] but was pushed back to February 20, 2015 and given a new title.^[13][14] The film was released in Canada under its original title, McFarland.

Home media

McFarland, USA was released on DVD and Blu-ray on June 2, 2015 by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment.

Reception

Box office

McFarland, USA grossed $44.5 million, against a budget of $17 million.^[15]

The film opened in North America on February 20, 2015 and earned $11 million in its opening weekend, finishing 4th at the box office.^[16]

Critical reception

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes has reported a 80% approval rating, based on 119 reviews, with a rating average of 6.7/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Disney's inspirational sports drama formula might be old hat, but McFarland, USA proves it still works — especially with a talented director and eminently likable star in the mix."^[17] On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating, the film has a score of 60 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".^[18] In CinemaScore polls conducted during the opening weekend, cinema audiences gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.^[16]

Stephen Farber of The Hollywood Reporter gave a positive review, writing that "While the beats of the story are often stock, the picture benefits from sensitive direction by New Zealander Niki Caro and from a most appealing performance by Kevin Costner."^[19] James Rocchi of The Wrap wrote "A feel-good movie that earns all those good feelings, McFarland USA might be running on a predetermined track, but the heart it shows along the journey is what makes it a winner."^[20] A.O. Scott of The New York Times described the film favorably as "a slick and safe Disney version of a fascinating and complicated reality", and that "Mr. Costner, with his knack for grumpy understatement, manages both to dominate the film and to deflect attention from himself."^[21]

Soundtrack

See also

• White savior narrative in film

References

External links

• Official website
• McFarland, USA at the Internet Movie Database
• McFarland, USA at History vs. Hollywood