What is your opinion of the movie McFarland, USA?

I rented it at a hotel I was staying at the night before the OC Marathon when it came out. I remember the Pacquiao - Mayweather fight was on that night, but yes I chose to watch McFarland USA for some pre-race motivation. I bought the dvd when it came out, but it's still sitting in the shrink wrap till this day. I guess seeing it once was good enough for me.

I thought it was a good movie

It's okay. Every runner will wince at the training and race scenes, but that's kind of normal. It's worth a watch, but it's not a running movie per say. It's a Disney movie that happens to have some running in it.

it's crap. the running bits are bad and Costner is his usual "I'm the embodiment of all that is just and holy in the world!" self.

Doesn't he ever get tired of playing the overly righteous savior?

I enjoyed it. I like the description that it's a Disney movie that happens to have some running in it.

JobMan wrote:

What is your opinion of that movie?

Even though the racing scenes are pretty fictitious looking, it is based on a true story and the high school kids I coach love it.

Some great messages in the movie, definitely worth a watch.

I liked it. As others mentioned, the racing scenes can be a little painful to watch, but they do a pretty good job of capturing the feel of a cross country meet.

Kevin Costner does a good job of knowing all the coaching platitudes that all the coaches yell during a meet.

I think the biggest thing that rubbed me the wrong way was showing opposing coaches and teams as being racist jerks. I coach in an area that is 75% hispanic and that is not the vibe I get at all. Most coaches and runners are very nice people.

Movie critic wrote:

I liked it. As others mentioned, the racing scenes can be a little painful to watch, but they do a pretty good job of capturing the feel of a cross country meet.

Kevin Costner does a good job of knowing all the coaching platitudes that all the coaches yell during a meet.

I think the biggest thing that rubbed me the wrong way was showing opposing coaches and teams as being racist jerks. I coach in an area that is 75% hispanic and that is not the vibe I get at all. Most coaches and runners are very nice people.

Good point, but one must remember when the movie took place and McFarland may have been one of the few California teams to have a complete team of minorities. Remember, that school supposedly didn't even have a team prior to that group.

I was an extra in the film, and made several sequences, including the trailer. I learned of McFarland and their teams in about 97 or so, when my high school coach told me about them (I lived about 3 hours away), and he wanted to adapt some parts of their training. I then read the Sports Illustrated article when it came out, and was equally impressed. I'm thankful to be chosen as an extra and help tell the story.

My takes:

On Set:

As someone who was on set quite a bit, there was a deep respect for Coach White. He came out one day, and most people were friendly and respectful of him and didn't bother him. He seemed like a genuine and loving person.

Of the 100 or so extras, about 20% are real runners, who ran at local LA area high schools and colleges. Several of us knew each other and would hang out on set, getting food, etc, the remaining 80% were actors with athletic builds. Most were pretty douchey, and one was doing small hits of coke before some of the running scenes!

McFarland guys were pretty nice guys overall. I spoke with a few and was in a few running scenes with them, and they worked really hard as runners for a long time before the film to be able to film the scenes. I think 1-2 may have run XC in high school.

Costner is very serious in preparing in his roles and worked very hard. Since it was a period piece, we would park our vehicles 2 miles away, and take buses in to the various filming locations at 4:30am each day. Production worked incredibly hard to ensure that nothing after 1987 was seen in the film. This was everyone: hair + make-up, directors, grips, and even the stars. Costner was on the bus with us, and was polite. Most of the time he was with the director or a producer, but he was not stand-offish at all. I did get a pic with his stunt double which was really funny.

The Movie:

It's a classic disney sports movie, but better than the Mighty Ducks type movies. What's cool is that it's a true story, and it showed real people and their struggles--coaches, athletes, family, towns people, etc. Some of the acting is pretty rough (Costner's wife for example), and it's obvious she didn't study anything about running before the movie, and some were trying to re-do scenes from Stand and Deliver, but overall it's a great story and great motivator for young people. In that sense, the film achieved what it set out to do: Tell as accurate a story as possible, and inspire younger people to try running, work hard, and for older people to move beyond their mistakes and try hard to live a mature life.

accuracy:

It's a movie. It's about 2/3 accurate, but makes for a good quick story. deal with it, and laugh at the parts that dont make sense.

Impact:

It's in California, but not far removed from small-town middle America. The town of McFarland today is still proud of the running, and you can go to the high school, take photos and go for a run with many of the people involved! They have a great running community there and embrace their role within the running community at large.

My boys (young elementary age), love the movie, and we watched again about 2 months ago. My 8 year old has asked me numerous times since watching it to go run, and we do 1-2 milers on the trials near our house. My older son watches the movie 2-3 times a week, and takes it a little too seriously, but enjoys it quite a bit. He's a solid athlete, and tries really hard in running, but he's not as fast as some of his friends. He runs 2-3 days a week and pretends to be different kids from the team.

enjoyed it overall but it didnt stand out to me as some amazing movie that I would want to watch again

maybe on a lazy sunday if its on TV or free id watch again but not something I would plan or pay for

Movie critic wrote:

I liked it. As others mentioned, the racing scenes can be a little painful to watch, but they do a pretty good job of capturing the feel of a cross country meet.

Kevin Costner does a good job of knowing all the coaching platitudes that all the coaches yell during a meet.

I think the biggest thing that rubbed me the wrong way was showing opposing coaches and teams as being racist jerks. I coach in an area that is 75% hispanic and that is not the vibe I get at all. Most coaches and runners are very nice people.

but then who would Kevin Costner be saving the kids from? ? ?

True. The idea that Palo Alto is somehow competing against McFarland makes zero sense when they are no where near each other.

no cool handle wrote:

My older son watches the movie 2-3 times a week, and takes it a little too seriously, but enjoys it quite a bit. He's a solid athlete, and tries really hard in running, but he's not as fast as some of his friends. He runs 2-3 days a week and pretends to be different kids from the team.

Cool story, but that's a bit extreme to watch the movie as many times per week as running.

Here's what I took away:

The first State XC meet in CA was well after I graduated. I actuall ran cross my first year in HS. What a waste of time. There was no end result. Just random races that mean nothing. Invitationals, they called them. What a joke. The name implies there is somebody NOT invited.

I, of course, put this together at the time; it's not just the movie that made this clear. But, the movie is how I found out there was a state-wide program now. At least something to work toward. Unremarkably, I went right back to road racing.

My family and I enjoyed it very much. For all those nitpicking and being negative, think how remarkable it is that a major movie based on a true story about an underdog high school XC team was even made and had the likes of Kevin Costner starring in it.

Robert Ebert wrote:

My family and I enjoyed it very much. For all those nitpicking and being negative, think how remarkable it is that a major movie based on a true story about an underdog high school XC team was even made and had the likes of Kevin Costner starring in it.

none of this has any bearing on its quality.

underdog sports hero/team doesn't believe in itself but then wise but flawed male coach figure wanders onto the scene and leads them destiny.....and along the way he learns something about himself too.

I haven't actually watched more than 5 mins of the movie on an airplane but it seems so predictable that it will inevitably hit at least 3 or 4 of those points. I'm amazed that people are entertained by this formulaic cheeseball fluff.

Too much Disney cheeziness for my taste...

Also I agree, the "racist rich kids" villains seemed a little forced

2/3 accurate?

The movie makes it seems like he comes in and in the first year takes them to the top. It took YEARS for them to get any good.

At best it takes a story and highly fictionalizes it.

Fun movie. I liked it. Nothing earth-shattering but good clean fun.