Veteran actor Kevin Costner headlines the cast of true-to-life and feel-good film “McFarland, USA” showing on theaters on February 27.
A true-to-life underdog story, “McFarland, USA” is the tale of seven high school runners who transformed from field workers to champion athletes with the help of their determined coach who never gave up on their running potentials, reports Take Two.
Produced by Disney, the movie is an inspirational sports drama, which means that it is headed towards an emotional victory towards the end.
The story unfolds in August 1987 in Boise, Idaho when Jim White, a high school football coach got fired from his job after throwing a shoe in the direction of a kid who talked back to him. The shoe hit the kid and bloodied him.
White, who has a history of anger issues, packs up the family and moves to McFarland, California for a job at the only school in the place that decided to hire him.
A very captivating storyline
Jim White got a coaching job again at McFarland High School in California’s Central Valley where most of the students are from Mexican-American families of field workers.
At the new school, White is taken in first as assistant coach of the football team, working for an unruly coach who can’t win a game and does not see anything wrong in sending a player with an injury back into the field. Naturally, they argue and White was relieved as assistant coach.
Instead of walking away, White had a different idea. Since most of his students spend their non-school hours in the fields for their parents, football may not be good for them but they sure could run. Because of his surname, the kids actually call him “Blanco.”
That’s when he decided to form the first cross country team of the school. Of course, there were a lot of skeptics to his plan including the school’s principal. The best runner in his team has family issues to deal with, among other challenges. But White was determined and he continued. The rest is history because McFarland, USA eventually came up with a champion cross country team.
Pure goodness
Director Niki Caro hopes to make audiences who watch the movie walking away from it feeling nothing but pure goodness.
He says that “McFarland, USA” follows the tradition of underdog movies because it really feels good when an underdog wins. He added that it always feels great when scrappy underdogs pull off the victory from the heavy favorites.
Caro, whose last feel-good film was “Whale Rider” back in 2002, said that he has been looking for a long time for another movie that he could make in the same way with the potential for the same heart and humanity. So when “McFarland, USA” came his way, he knew he got what he wanted because the movie had all the needed elements.
The most satisfying and teary moment in the film is not actually the victory of the cross country team but what happened to Jim White and his team of runners in later years.