McFarland USA, currently at 89% on Rotten Tomatoes

electron1661 wrote:

Saw it today. Was pretty good. Cheesy, yes. But overall, good movie. My only question is this: was the state course in CA in the 80's a 3 mile course or a 5k? In the movie they mention 15s and 16s for the kids.

5K, always been 5k.

It's definitely worth seeing for a running fan but not a true classic like Bull Durham or anything close to an Academy Award winner like Chariots of Fire.

My favorite running movie is Field of Dreams. I also like that one with Sheen wearing the weird glasses. Another true classic is A League of their Own. There's no crying in running! Classic.

CAGuy wrote:

Rojo - that link is for an article about the Terre Haute course. Same problem with the link on the main page.

See point #3 - (Editor’s addition on 2/20/2015: Our review of the film shows up as point #3 below).

I just saw it. Enjoyed it overall, but only about 3 of the 7 actors were scrawny enough to look like they'd be part of a state championship team. The others were just too pudgy to be convincing. The actor who played the #1 runner, in particular, was just too portly, and I found it to be distracting during the running scenes. Is it really that hard to find actors that look the part?

Frijoles wrote:

I just saw it. Enjoyed it overall, but only about 3 of the 7 actors were scrawny enough to look like they'd be part of a state championship team. The others were just too pudgy to be convincing. The actor who played the #1 runner, in particular, was just too portly, and I found it to be distracting during the running scenes. Is it really that hard to find actors that look the part?

The ones disney wanted after the first set of auditions turned out to be illegal immigrants.

Just a reminder as to who was really who in 1987: http://usa.milesplit.com/articles/27313#.VOlUBfnF_MQ

Set in the way back era of California cross country running (premier year) via Disney Studios we find Costner at his mediocre, and that is perfectly fine as the star of the movie is not any actor or actors on screen but the real team whom this movie is based upon - McFarland Cougers - McFarland High '87.

Why Disney chose to do this film might lie in the fact that one of the team runners now works at Los Angeles times? Who knows.

The movie starts off with a startling surprise episode of aggression on White's part and a coaching dismissal at his previous job; your'e fired! He has to find a peculiar job out of state and withdraws sheepishly with his wool between his legs, falling on coaching agricultural Mexican-Californian cross country runners who are a rag tag, Bad News Bears meets La Bomba affair

White, in the real story later coaches many teams there in the produce belt or whatever they call it, to tout championships, for years. Does aggressive tendency by coaches win races, win hearts of team members, citizens, movie goers? Maybe so. What also grabs our hearts is racism and this movie dives right in pulling out all the funny Mexican racial knocks one can think of? Rice and Beans. Yeah, rice and beans are mentioned early on in the film. Low riders, knife fights, chickens.. you get the vibe.

Throughout the awkwardly cast film of good to odd looking high school athletes we also see a story of growing up white in a brown hood by coach White's 15 year old daughter. Here we see Disney really touching America, the US at large in a real tangible manner. Maybe Californians can feel this screen magic the most but, cultural integration is part of our great country and it is part of this great running story. If anything, this great story of Chicano high school running champs is more a story about acceptance of individuals and building up confidence of lower income families and tearing down societal barriers within sport and community.

I give it 6/10.

I thought the movie was great. From a cross country stand point, I think they did a great job to keep the meets to a minimum-just the important ones so as not to lose the casual non-psychotic runner. From a Latino stand point, I connected more to the story than I think non-Latinos will be able to. I have family in small Texas towns that look exactly like McFarland and the Mexican-American culture was portrayed very well in my opinion. Obviously not an Oscar nominee, but I don't think anyone could ever expect that from a cross country movie. Inspirational and I hope it gets more kids out for the sport.

Great movie, the whole theatre really enjoyed it. I think runners will have an eye for things that don't look right (was the "mountain course" like a 20 mile race or something?) but in general audience loved it. Theatre was cheering right along with the movie.

I predict I will have about 40% more kids out for the first week of XC next August.

That was really funny, wasn't it? Was it a high school cross country race, or an expedition to the summit of K2?

I still can't get over just how chubby the top runner was, especially after seeing pics of the real 1987 McFarland team.

Just got back from the theater and I can't find anything not to like about this movie. We went with a non running family and they continually turned to me and asked why would anyone want to subject themselves to that kind of pain?

I was on a couple of Nationally ranked HS State Championship teams and we always relied on the "we're tougher than our competition" narrative so that brought back fond memories.

I don't think I'd give it a 9 but easily an 8.5. The only knock was, as others have said, the casting wasn't quite where it should have been but that really is a minor flaw in the big picture.

I think the fat kid cut the State course.

Pulled a Kip before Kip.

No way a 220 lb chubby kid runs under 25 mins!!

It's going to be really liked as a family film.

Was this film made by Holywood Libs to soften stance in illegal immigration?

Great movie, audience in Dallas applauded.

The ethnic/social class angle handled deftly.

Wrong body types on some of the filmic harriers.

The original team was appropriately scrawny. But I used my imagination.

Anyone know where I can watch the movie online for free?

For reference, this is the real team: http://cdnvideo.dolimg.com/cdn_assets/4434f3700f54ab24daee3a2048d0b9c8f95a74a6.jpg

We took the team to see the movie last night and for irony hosted a carne asada party.

Yes, cheesy movie but what do you expect from Disney? The kids enjoyed it and so did I.

I'm Latino so I can relate with all the Mexican stereotypes; I find them funny actually because there is so much truth to them.

Si se puede!

I was interested to know why this thread had 70+ replies but wasn't going to read past the first page. Glad I read a bit further and found this on page2. This is what I come to LR for. Appreciate the insight of what it was like to be there.

Now for some more useful stuff. Does anyone know how Coach White trained these kids to so much success? Methods, philosophy, training loads?

El Jefe wrote:

Now for some more useful stuff. Does anyone know how Coach White trained these kids to so much success? Methods, philosophy, training loads?

Easy, he told them if they ever wanted to leave that place they had to run faster.

Actually, they ran high mileage for back then, 50-60 a week. Plus they ran 800m repeat hills often. But the kids were doing another 4-6 hours of manual labor a day, kind of a cross training.