McFARLAND USA
By Gary Murray
Starring Kevin Costner, Ramiro Rodriquez and Maria Bello
Written by Christopher Cleveland, Bettina Gilois and Grant Thompson
Directed by Niki Caro
Running time 128 min
MPAA Rating PG
Selig Film Rating FULL PRICE
Many years ago, Disney made many non-animated family films. From 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea to Old Yeller, these live action works were wholesome films that would please both kids and grandparents. More and more, films are made for niche audience, super-hero action films for the fan boys to bondage lit-porn for the gaggles of middle-aged women. A film that everyone can enjoy is a rarity. That is the reason that McFarland USA is such a fresh breath of air.
The story is of football Coach White (Kevin Costner) in 1987. After an altercation with a player, the coach loses his position. The only job he can land is in McFarland, California in one of the worst school districts in the nation. The kids are mostly migrant workers who have little hope of getting out of the fields. His goal it to be there jut long enough to get a better job.
Soon, he finds that the people he is around are some of the hardest working individuals he has ever met. It is a culture shock for the man. The kids work in the fields before daybreak, go to school, and then go back to the fields. In one scene, Coach White tries to do their job and finds out how tough the work is and how tough these kids are.
After an altercation with the other football coach, White decides to start a cross-country running team. First he has to recruit seven young men to be on the team. Then after that, he has to get the equipment together. Then he has to study the ins and outs of the sport, learning on the job. The coach convinces the team that they can not only become winners but they can use cross-country to get scholarships to college. The film culminates with a state meet.
But, the film is more about family than it is about running. It is also about the slow process of neighbors becoming friends and different cultures melding together. The more the two groups learn about one another, the closer they become. It is a story about how families are built just as much is it a story about how teams are built. The coach and his family find acceptance with these honest, simple people.
Kevin Costner is still Kevin Costner. While he may not have all the leading man good looks he once possessed, he can still deliver that stoic tough guy with a heart role. He has done these roles time and time again but still can put a fresh coat of paint on what can become a rote role.
The soundtrack of the film just pops and jumps with new mixes of old school favorites. In the end, the sounds slip around the audience like a favorite pair of blue jeans, broken-in in all the right places.
This film is the rarest of rare event, a non-animated family film. It is utterly unapologetic wholesome and uplifting. It is the kind of film that Uncle Walt Disney would have made in the golden era of the studio. There is this refreshing nostalgia with McFarland USA, a feeling that one rarely gets when leaving a theater.
