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Kevin Costner reaches a welcome career high in this new movie, a live-action based-on-a-true-story inspirational tale of school sports, produced by Disney. It sounds a little over-determined when described that way, I know. But one thing I almost forgot going into this picture is that this kind of picture is the kind of thing that Disney can do very well. And it is very well done here, thanks in no small part to the superb direction of Niki Caro . Caro, a New Zealand-born woman, might seem to some an unusual fit for the story of an all-Latino cross-country running team coached by a white man who’s working, against his will for all intents and purposes, at an underfunded high school in the California town that sometimes advertises itself as “the fruit basket of the nation.” But Caro, who established some good cross-cultural uplift bona fides with her first feature, 2002’s “ Whale Rider ,” brings huge reserves of both curiosity and empathy to the story, and her abilities as an entertainer keep the movie generous in both heart-tugging and smile-inducing moments. Costner’s uncanny evocation of Gary Cooper masculinity and Gregory Peck compassion in the role of coach Jim White is the glue that holds it together, but the rest of the cast is equally inspired.

There’s been a lot of talk in cultural criticism of the last several decades about “white messiah” narratives: stories in which the intervention of a Caucasian rescues ethnic minorities at risk. (You may remember “ Dangerous Minds .”) Many representatives of ethnic minorities in academia and media find this irritating, with good reason, and despite its based-on-a-true-story status, “McFarland, USA” could very well be just such a story. But Caro, along with writers Chris Cleveland , Bettina Gilois and Grant Thompson do something unusual. It’s not something as obvious and crass as the “and she saves him back” trope of “ Pretty Woman ,” but more along the lines of a family values cultural exchange. Costner’s Jim White is a high school teacher and coach whose passionate temper gets him fired from a series of gigs in the white-bread towns of which he’s a product and has been a fixture.

On arriving with wife ( Maria Bello ) and two daughters, teen and pre-teen, in a town where the rooster next door wakes everyone up before five and Jim can’t get a burger, the teacher is almost immediately assailed by colleagues and students who think it’s hilarious that his name is “ White .” Despite his chafing at his fish-out-of-water status, White also gives a damn, and he, like Caro, is a keen observer. He knows the school’s football team isn’t, and likely can’t be, worth a damn, but once he sees more than one of his students running, rabbit-like, to get to their after-school jobs helping their parents and other family members with produce-picking, he resolves to create a cross-country running team.  

To make it work he has to gain the trust of both the kids and their parents, and that means he needs to give a little of himself. Getting involved in the lives of these self-described “pickers” gives White a painful understanding of the economic realities of his environment and the privilege that he’s long taken for granted. He misses the birthday celebration for his teen daughter Julie, which is a common enough device in the too-busy-doing-good-white-guy scenario, but here it pays off in a dividend, as White gets educated by his prize runner and the local grocery store owner in the Latin American tradition of the Quinceañera. As White steers his initially ragtag crew to victory after victory, he attracts the attention of tonier towns and schools, presenting a challenge to his own commitment to family and community.

Because, finally, “McFarland, USA” is a paean to family and community. And a story about why, even as so much of what we see about the so-called “ American Dream ” is tinged with disillusion and corruption, the United States remains a land of some kind of opportunity for millions of people who come here to do back-breaking work, day in, day out. It is also, of course, a really entertaining and enjoyable movie. Caro is particularly deft at handling supporting character roles. All the young runners make an impression, particularly Carlos Pratt as the troubled, gentle, and lightning-fast Thomas, and Ramiro Rodriguez as Danny, the chunky anchor of the team who’s all heart. But Valente Rodriguez as the harried principal and Danny Mora as the aforementioned store owner are also outstanding, bringing un-stereotypical life to their archetypal roles. And while for this viewer, who’s also a sometime runner, cross-country running is perhaps the least cinematically-engaging sport ever, Caro and company imbue each of the race scenes with more than sufficient drama to give the proceedings a good share of “ Rocky ”-triumphant moments. Tear-jerking ones, too. The result, as far as I’m concerned, is a feel-good movie that pretty much anyone can feel good about feeling good about. Particularly Costner fans. 

Glenn Kenny

Glenn Kenny was the chief film critic of Premiere magazine for almost half of its existence. He has written for a host of other publications and resides in Brooklyn. Read his answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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McFarland USA (2015)

Rated PG for thematic material, some violence and language

Kevin Costner as Jim White

Maria Bello as Cheryl

Ramiro Rodriguez as Danny Diaz

Carlos Pratts as Thomas

Johnny Ortiz as Jose

Morgan Saylor as Julie

Vincent Martella as Brandon

Elsie Fisher as Jamie

Daniel Moncada as Eddie

Diana Maria Riva as Senora Diaz

Vanessa Martinez as Maria Marisol

Chelsea Rendon as Sonia

Ben Bray as Ernesto Valles

• Chris Cleveland
• Grant Thompson
• Bettina Gilois

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Mcfarland, usa, common sense media reviewers.

Poignant story about Latino runners a winner for families.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Strongly positive messages centering on teamwork,

Coach White isn't perfect, but he's devote

Coach White is dismissed after throwing a cleat to

Julie and Thomas flirt, dance, hold hands, hug, an

Mostly insults like "shut up," "jer

Lots of Coke (also Cherry Coke) in the movie. Also

A couple of adult characters drink bottles of beer

Parents need to know that McFarland, USA is an inspiring sports drama about a Mexican-American cross-country team from rural California. Based on a true story, the movie stars Kevin Costner as the team's coach, who's determined to guide a bunch of farm workers' kids into a team that's good…

Positive Messages

Strongly positive messages centering on teamwork, communcation, and cooperation. Challenges viewers not to judge others by stereotypes and to move past whatever antiquated notions they have about what and who is "American." Shows that you can befriend your neighbors and be part of a community, as long as that community is welcoming. If you expect greatness from someone, they'll try to achieve it; but if you expect nothing, they won't try at all.

Positive Role Models

Coach White isn't perfect, but he's devoted to his runners and helps them run their best, realize what makes them special, and focus on the possibility of education as a way up. He sees that he's been prejudiced about McFarland; by the end of the movie, he knows it's his home. The boys manage to help their families and still run for the team. Mrs. White encourages her husband to acknowledge that McFarland is full of friends and people who've welcomed their family.

Violence & Scariness

Coach White is dismissed after throwing a cleat too close to his QB's head, making the player's cheek bleed. A mother shouts at her husband and asks whether he's going to hit her. He throws a beer bottle at a wall and then punches the wall as well. Thomas gets in a fight with someone who insults his sister. A knife fight lands a couple of kids in the hospital. Possible suicide attempt.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Julie and Thomas flirt, dance, hold hands, hug, and kiss. Mr. and Mrs. White kiss and hug. A character's sister is pregnant and is eventually seen with her baby.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Mostly insults like "shut up," "jerk," and "loser." The word "picker" is used both pejoratively and matter-of-factly to describe the farm workers.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Lots of Coke (also Cherry Coke) in the movie. Also Gatorade, Coleman camping equipment, Mayflower truck, U-Haul.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

A couple of adult characters drink bottles of beer.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that McFarland, USA is an inspiring sports drama about a Mexican-American cross-country team from rural California. Based on a true story, the movie stars Kevin Costner as the team's coach, who's determined to guide a bunch of farm workers' kids into a team that's good enough to compete in the state's first cross-country championship. Although there are a few mature themes regarding class and privilege, as well as a couple of instances of fist fights, a possible suicide attempt, a knife fight that lands a couple of kids in the hospital, and a father who's aggressive toward his family, there are also tons of positive messages about teamwork, cooperation, and community. Coach White isn't perfect but means well and is devoted to his runners, and the portrayal of the students and their families is nuanced and uplifting -- most of the boys have hardworking, loving, intergenerational families. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Community Reviews

• Parents say (16)
• Kids say (24)

Based on 16 parent reviews

What's this? ANOTHER underdog sports story?

Fabulous film, what's the story.

McFARLAND, USA is based on the true story of a town in rural Northern California that had nothing going for it except fields to pick and a prison that reminded its youth that their options were limited. Enter disgraced high-school coach Jim White ( Kevin Costner ), who in 1987 moves his wife ( Maria Bello ) and two daughters to McFarland to teach gym. One day, White follows one of his students, Thomas ( Carlos Pratts ), who can run an almost five-minute mile. The next day, Jim asks the principal whether he can start a cross-country team and puts together a motley crew of runners that range from the reluctant Thomas, who only participates in exchange for not getting suspended, to wise-cracking Johnny ( Hector Duran ), vain Victor (Sergio Avelar), and the three Diaz brothers, one of whom (Danny) is considerably bigger than the average distance runner. As Jim learns to coach runners and the guys learn to compete as a team, they set their sights on California's first statewide cross-country championship.

Is It Any Good?

This is a poignant, uplifting tale, even though there's a certain predictability in movies about sports underdogs. (You're not going to expect them to lose if someone has bothered to make a movie about them.) Some may quibble that this is another "white savior" movie, but it's firmly not. Coach White had never even coached cross country before creating the team at McFarland; he's winging it just as much as the boys, who really only know how to run fast at first -- with no notion of pacing or hill and speed work. The team changes and challenges the coach just as much as he guides and pushes them to look beyond the stereotypes of "pickers" and see what gifts hard work and discipline are -- not only in running, but in life. Costner is in fine form as a grumpy older coach unsure of what to make of his unfamiliar surroundings and his team full of boys who've been working fields since they were 10 or 11.

And the boys -- it's hard not to fall in love with the lot of them, especially Pratts' broody Thomas (who naturally falls for Coach White's daughter) and eternal optimist Danny Diaz, who never gives up, despite being easily 30 pounds heavier than his brothers and teammates. You just know that Danny is going to save the day -- why else would the filmmakers bother to show him huffing and puffing over "hills" (McFarland has no natural hills, so they run over covered mounds of almond husks)? But that doesn't mean you don't tear up when it finally happens. The best part of the movie, though, isn't just the sports: it's that the filmmakers don't portray the community as in need of the White family's generosity. To the contrary, it's the abuelitas and mamas who come to the rescue when Coach White flakes on his daughter's 15th birthday. The community puts on a touching quinceañera for her, making it clear that White -- whom the kids affectionately call Blanco -- is one of them. Yes, this is a familiar story -- most sports movies are -- but see for yourself what it means to be American in the Fruit Bowl of California, where running together and running fast lead a bunch of boys to a sense of accomplishment and a coach to a sense of home.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the power of sports stories like McFarland, USA. Why do you think it's so meaningful to root for the underdog? How do running stories compare to those about other sports?

How did the other teams underestimate the McFarland boys? What are the dangers of stereotyping and discrimination?

What challenges did Coach White and his wife face living in McFarland? Why did Thomas feel reluctant to trust White or the idea that the future could be better?

How do the characters in McFarland, USA demonstrate teamwork and communication ? Why are these important character strengths ?

Movie Details

• In theaters : February 20, 2015
• On DVD or streaming : June 2, 2015
• Cast : Kevin Costner , Maria Bello , Vincent Martella
• Director : Niki Caro
• Inclusion Information : Female directors, Female actors
• Studio : Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
• Genre : Drama
• Topics : Sports and Martial Arts , Great Boy Role Models
• Character Strengths : Communication , Teamwork
• Run time : 128 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG
• MPAA explanation : thematic material, some violence and language
• Award : Common Sense Selection
• Last updated : May 10, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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McFarland, USA Reviews

A standard issue inspiration coach movie.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Feb 2, 2021

Its feel good and inspirational story will raise your spirits and leave you feeling much better when you leave the theater than when you entered it.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.0/4.0 | Sep 16, 2020

There are good intentions behind this, even when it contains a problem or two [or three].

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Jul 16, 2020

It's exceptionally well-meaning and patently inoffensive. It's nice to feel good.

Full Review | Apr 10, 2020

The character development, the raw emotions, the pain (beyond the physical) is portrayed beautifully.

Full Review | Feb 5, 2020

Key to the truth of this storytelling lies beyond the performance, beyond the McFarland legacy and embraces the technical aspects and attention to detail of the film...A culturally immersive film, the visuals are evocative and telling.

Full Review | Dec 8, 2019

Sure, at the end of the day, it may be just another sports drama, replete with generic dramatic shifts and cutesy comic relief, but Caro manages to sail us through a tale that ends with an emotional, even inspirational triumph.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Sep 19, 2019

Likely helped by its factual, period grounding the end result is an old-fashioned offering that's authentically rousing.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | May 4, 2019

A family film that will inspire everyone.

Full Review | Original Score: A | Apr 30, 2019

It's like some sort of patriotic, eye-opening acid trip. These hard-working kids deserve to win, goddammit! You know what they really deserve? A movie of their own.

Full Review | Original Score: 5.5 | Mar 15, 2019

Tells its by-the-bootstraps story so winningly that, predictable though it may be, it's still hard not to find it thoroughly rousing.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Nov 16, 2018

Regardless of the sometimes flat emotional acting, the story still maintains its ability to pull on your heartstrings.

Full Review | Aug 21, 2018

The social reach of McFarland, USA is more than the story of a team of runners and a broken-down coach who show what they are made of. It's about community and becoming people of character, getting an education, and coming back to give back.

Full Review | Aug 10, 2017

Not a 'great' film per se, but definitely a worthwhile telling of a heartwarmingly Disney, sports-themed tale.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Feb 23, 2016

McFarland still warms the cockles, Costner's flawed character proves watchable and everyone, particularly the younger actors gives solid performances.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 2, 2016

It could move a little faster and be a little less proud of its own progressiveness. But McFarland is a sports movie that knows what it's doing for the most part and ends strong.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 18, 2015

What makes McFarland USA so successful, and so bracing, is the way that its protagonist becomes aware of something that is rarely broached in these sorts of narratives - his own privilege.

Full Review | Dec 17, 2015

Like the best sports movies, McFarland, USA makes sure the action on the field is only one part of the cinematic spectrum. And in this case, it's a spectrum worth seeing.

Full Review | Nov 5, 2015

There are no great surprises here but the cultural backdrop - almost everyone in the town is Mexican - adds interest and Costner is at his most relaxed and appealing.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 28, 2015

Niki Caro uses every device at her disposal to make a rousing, feelgood movie but risks turning the film into a glorified fairytale in the process.

Full Review | Sep 25, 2015

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

McFarland, USA

Jim White moves his family after losing his last job as a football coach, and at his new school he turns seven disappointing students into one of the best cross-country teams in the region. Jim White moves his family after losing his last job as a football coach, and at his new school he turns seven disappointing students into one of the best cross-country teams in the region. Jim White moves his family after losing his last job as a football coach, and at his new school he turns seven disappointing students into one of the best cross-country teams in the region.

• Christopher Cleveland
• Bettina Gilois
• Grant Thompson
• Kevin Costner
• Maria Bello
• Ramiro Rodriguez
• 121 User reviews
• 104 Critic reviews
• 60 Metascore
• 4 wins & 3 nominations

• Cheryl White

• Thomas Valles

• Jose Cardenas

• Johnny Sameniego

• Victor Puentes
• Damacio Diaz

• Señora Diaz

• Principal Camillo

• Sammy Rosaldo

• Julie White

• Jamie White

• Señora Valles
• (as Natalia Cordova)

• Ernesto Valles
• (as Ben Bray)
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

More like this

Did you know

• Trivia Jim White had not been fired from numerous prior teaching jobs before starting at McFarland. He started teaching in the McFarland school district after graduating from Pepperdine University in 1964.
• Goofs The film shows White being forced to relocate to McFarland after he is fired from a football coaching job. In fact, the White family moved to McFarland in 1964, 16 years before White started the cross country team.

Maria Marisol : [reading Jose Cardenas's paper] We fly like blackbirds through the orange groves, floating on a warm wind. When we run, we own the earth. The land is ours. We speak the birds' language. Not immigrant no more. No stupid Mexicans. When we run, our spirits fly. We speak to the gods. When we run, we are the gods.

• Connections Featured in Late Night with Seth Meyers: Kevin Costner/Portia de Rossi/David Frei (2015)
• Soundtracks Cheer Written by John F. Burns Performed by Ohio University Marching 110 Courtesy of Crucial Music Corporation

User reviews 121

• Jan 28, 2016
• How long is McFarland, USA? Powered by Alexa
• February 20, 2015 (United States)
• United States
• Official site
• Official site [Spanish]
• McFarland USA
• Kern County, California, USA
• Mayhem Pictures
• Walt Disney Pictures
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $17,000,000 (estimated)
• $44,482,410
• $11,020,798
• Feb 22, 2015
• $45,710,059

Technical specs

• Runtime 2 hours 9 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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Film Review: ‘McFarland, USA’

Kevin Costner stars as a high-school P.E. teacher coaching an all-Latino cross-country team in this predictable sports drama.

By Justin Chang

Justin Chang

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The stirring true story of how a scrappy Latino high-school running team beat the odds is treated as a Kevin Costner vehicle first and foremost in “McFarland, USA,” a cross-cultural cross-country drama that feels descended from a long line of minority-underdog movies like “The Blind Side,” “Stand and Deliver,” “Pride” and the Oscar-winning documentary “Undefeated.” Predictable and predictably rousing, this inspirational sports pic earns points for its big-hearted portrait of life in an impoverished California farming town, the likes of which we too rarely see on American screens. But with its overriding emphasis on how Coach Costner fits into that world, this fifth feature from director Niki Caro (“Whale Rider,” “North Country”) never sheds its outsider perspective, ultimately emerging a well-intentioned mix of compassion and condescension. Even if the family-friendly Disney release commands a more diverse audience than most, it remains to be seen how much long-term box-office endurance it can muster.

More than a decade after hanging up his baseball glove in “For Love of the Game,” Costner has settled nicely into his role as a sort of elder statesman of sports movies, having played an NFL general manager in last year’s “Draft Day” and now a high-school football coach named Jim White. It’s the fall of 1987, and Jim, having been recently fired from his job in Boise, Idaho, after getting a bit too rough with one of his players, has just accepted a lowly post teaching science and P.E. in the central Californian town of McFarland. And so, along with his wife, Cheryl (Maria Bello), and their two daughters, teenage Julie (Morgan Saylor) and preteen Jamie (Elsie Fisher), Jim relocates to this small agricultural community, whose population is poor and predominantly Mexican-American.

Popular on Variety

Credited to feature first-timer Grant Thompson, as well as Christopher Cleveland and Bettina Gilois — the duo who scripted 2006’s similarly fact-based, racially charged sports drama “Glory Road” — the script wastes no time slathering on the culture-clash comedy. (“Are we in Mexico?” one daughter asks as they drive through their dumpy new neighborhood, right before they head over to a nearby restaurant and find themselves thoroughly perplexed by the taco menu.) For their part, Jim’s new neighbors and colleagues react to the clueless gringo in their midst with a mix of amusement, scorn and hospitality, while his young male P.E. students in particular take great pleasure in addressing their coach by his hilarious surname (or “Blanco”).

The fish-out-of-water humor eases up slightly once Jim realizes how naturally fast and athletic his students are — running daily from school to the fields to pick crops in scorching heat will do that to you — and decides to start McFarland High’s first cross-country team. The principal (Valente Rodriguez) is skeptical at first, and so are the boys, who have never thought of themselves as winners or imagined a better life for themselves. In keeping with most dramas of this sort, the most naturally gifted runner on the team, Thomas (Carlos Pratts), is also the most distant and hotheaded, mainly due to troubles at home. The team’s weakest link is Danny (Ramiro Rodriguez), the slowest and chubbiest of the three Diaz brothers on the team; no points for guessing who winds up saving the day at the end.

After a cross-country meet where McFarland comes in dead last while more seasoned, better-funded, all-white teams sneer from the sidelines, Jim begins to bond with his boys, whether he’s leading them on exhausting hill-training runs, rolling up his sleeves and joining them in the fields, or being force-fed enchiladas by the indomitable Senora Diaz (a scene-stealing Diana Maria Riva). As the runners step up their pace, the script deals in fairly blunt insights about the harsh economic conditions of life in McFarland, where opportunities are scarce, fathers are regularly in and out of prison, and kids are expected to support their families through manual labor rather than going to college. Yet we also see how sturdy and close-knit most of these families are, and how lovingly they protect their own and help each other out — something from which Jim, a somewhat neglectful father of late, inevitably winds up learning a valuable lesson.

Not unlike “The Blind Side,” “McFarland, USA” is likely to generate some criticism for being the umpteenth film about a white guy productively intervening in the lives of underprivileged minority youth — a charge that has less to do with the facts of Jim White’s genuinely inspiring legacy than with the particular dramatic emphasis that Caro has given them here. A rare studio entertainment featuring a largely Latino ensemble, yet necessarily fronted by a big-name draw like Costner, “McFarland, USA” feels at once mildly progressive and unavoidably retrograde. It presents brief, obligatory snapshots of how the other half lives without ever seeming deeply invested, or even particularly interested, in what it’s showing us.

What’s really at stake throughout this movie is how Jim White and his family feel about it all: their discomfort at being forced to relocate to a low-income Hispanic neighborhood, followed by their gradual realization that, hey, these folks aren’t so bad after all, with their quinceaneras and low-riding Chevys and free-range chickens. When Jim warily mistakes some of his new neighbors for a gangbangers, only to later learn they’re just decent, salt-of-the-earth types who like to drive around in packs, you more or less know what kind of movie you’re watching — one that doesn’t trust the audience to be significantly more enlightened than its protagonist.

None of which detracts from the appeal of Costner’s slyly enjoyable lead performance; at this point in his career, the 60-year-old actor is like a dry wine that gets better — which is to say, tougher and more leathery — with age. Always at the ready with a wisecrack, a challenge or a kind gesture, Costner works up a nice rapport with his appealing younger co-stars, especially the excellent Pratts, who brings a grave emotional intensity to the role of the team’s most compelling individual. Bello is unsurprisingly solid in a conventional supporting-wife role that gives her far too little to do.

Running a tad long at 128 minutes, “McFarland, USA” scarcely needs its third-act swerve into near-tragedy, a twist that merely throws its tricky racial politics into troubling relief. Where the picture excels is as a straightforward sports drama, and Caro delivers the satisfactions of the genre with unfussy verve. Running, it turns out, is one of the more cinematic physical activities out there; its simple logistics guarantee maximum visual clarity, plus ample opportunity for breathtaking overhead shots (courtesy of d.p. Alan Arkapaw, whose 35mm lensing and use of mostly natural light richly convey the heat and atmosphere of this desert town). When Thomas, Danny and their teammates pant their way toward the finish line, accompanied by the guitar-based strains of Antonio Pinto’s score, it’s hard not to feel your pulse racing alongside theirs.

A sequence featuring the real Jim White and the members of his 1987 running team ends the picture on a classy, moving note.

Reviewed at Disney Studios, Burbank, Calif., Feb. 3, 2015. (In Santa Barbara Film Festival.) MPAA Rating: PG. Running time: 128 MIN.

• Production: A Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures release of a Disney presentation of a Mayhem Pictures production. Produced by Gordon Gray, Mark Ciardi. Executive producers, Mario Iscovich, Mary Martin. Co-producer, Victor H. Constantino.
• Crew: Directed by Niki Caro. Screenplay, Christopher Cleveland, Bettina Gilois, Grant Thompson; story, Cleveland, Gilois. Camera (Fotokem color, 35mm, widescreen), Adam Arkapaw; editor, David Coulson; music, Antonio Pinto; production designer, Richard Hoover; supervising art director, Karen Steward; set decorator, Alice Baker; set designer, Cameron Birnie; costume designer, Sophie de Rakoff; sound (Dolby Digital), Ronald Judkins; supervising sound editor, Gwendolyn Yates Whittle; sound designer, Krysten Mate; re-recording mixers, Terry Porter, Dean A. Zupancic, Anna Behlmer; special effects supervisor, J.D. Schwalm; special effects coordinator, Gintar Repecka; visual effects supervisor, Patrick McClung; visual effects, Shade VFX, Capital T; stunt coordinators, Mark R. Ellis, Steve M. Davison, Robert F. Brown; sports coordinator, Ellis; assistant director, Liz Tan; casting, Sheila Jaffe.
• With: Kevin Costner, Mario Bello, Morgan Saylor, Michael Aguero, Sergio Avelar, Hector Duran, Rafael Martinez, Martha Higareda, Johnny Ortiz, Carlos Pratts, Ramiro Rodriguez, Danny Mora, Valente Rodriguez, Vanessa Martinez, Chris Ellis Jr., Diana Maria Riva, Elsie Fisher. (English, Spanish dialogue)

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‘mcfarland, usa’: film review.

Kevin Costner returns to the sports movie genre in this inspirational story of an underdog cross country team.

By Stephen Farber

Stephen Farber

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McFarland USA Still - H 2015

Disney has created something of its own genre of inspirational sports movies.  The Rookie , Miracle  and Million Dollar Arm were earlier examples, some more successful than others.  Now McFarland , USA can be added to the list, and it turns out to be an engaging variation on a very familiar theme, with promising box office prospects.

The film honors some of the parameters of the genre—underdog team rallies as it moves toward victory—while adding some intriguing contemporary elements.  Screenwriters Christopher Cleveland , Bettina Gilois , and Grant Thompson retell the (mainly) true story of a coach in the Central Valley of California who led a Hispanic high school team to a cross country championship.  While the beats of the story are often stock, the picture benefits from sensitive direction by New Zealander Niki Caro ( Whale Rider , North Country ) and from a most appealing performance by Kevin Costner .

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At first glance some might object to the idea of another white savior, who is actually named Jim White (the source of many running jokes throughout the movie), coming to the rescue of minority misfits.  But the concept works because White is presented as far from a paragon, a man with anger management issues that cost him many earlier jobs.  When he lands in McFarland, California, he seems to be at the end of the line, and he’s not exactly thrilled with the insolent young players on the high school football team.  But when he realizes that these kids have actually picked up speed and stamina from their work in the agricultural fields, he senses they may have a future as cross country runners.

The white-man-as-savior trope is also mitigated by the fact that the kids are feisty and completely unimpressed by their coach.  So mentor and students learn from each other in a rather predictable but still pleasing story arc.  Sharply observed details invigorate the movie.  Caro and her crew get a very lived-in feeling to the scenes in ethnic neighborhoods.  All performances are strong, though it’s too bad that the attractive Maria Bello as the coach’s wife isn’t given a more nuanced character to play.

Some of the young actors who play the team members are newcomers discovered in the area.  Carlos Pratts , who plays the most temperamental but gifted runner, is a professional actor, and he seethes with convincing resentments.  Ramino Rodriguez as the team’s mascot also scores.  Even minor roles, like the school principal and some of the boys’ parents, are expertly cast and vividly played.

Still, it is Costner who holds the picture together.  This is one of the best performances he’s given, unforced but often eloquent, without the least trace of grandstanding.  He earned some good reviews for another recent movie, Black or White , but he’s even more at home in this drama, which stirs pleasing memories of his work in other sports movies back in the 80s.

Although the film may not have been intended as a political statement, it does take on a measure of urgency because of renewed debate about our national immigration problem.  And McFarland can’t help but have an impact on that debate because of the skill with which it discovers the humanity of people who are belittled and demonized in some quarters.  This isn’t to say that it’s a flawless piece of agitprop.  Caro lets the story drag on a little too long, and sometimes she ladles on the syrup too heavily.  A scene where the boys travel to the ocean for the first time, with music swelling, seems to be aping Chariots of Fire .  Despite these overstated moments, it is pretty hard to resist the rousing conclusion.

Production:  Mayhem Pictures.

Cast:  Kevin Costner, Maria Bello, Carlos Pratts, Morgan Saylor, Elsie Fisher, Hector Duran, Sergio Avelar, Ramiro Rodriguez, Michael Aguero, Valente Rodriguez.

Director: Niki Caro.

Screenwriters:  Christopher Cleveland, Bettina Gilois, Grant Thompson.

Story by:  Christopher Cleveland, Bettina Gilois.

Producers:  Gordon Gray, Mark Ciardi.

Executive producers:  Mario Iscovich, Mary Martin.

Director of photography:  Adam Arkapaw.

Production designer:  Richard Hoover.

Costume designer:  Sophie De Rakoff.

Editor:  David Coulson.

Music:  Antonio Pinto.

Casting:  Sheila Jaffe.

Rated PG, 128 minutes.

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McFarland, USA

By Peter Travers

Peter Travers

Can a white coach, played by Kevin Costner , turn a track team of poor, mostly Mexican-American kids into cross-country champions? Silly question. Would Disney make the movie otherwise? Inspiration is for sale in McFarland, USA . And though more than a spoonful of sugar is slathered over the fact-based script, the movie delivers as promised on the thrill of the race and the lump in the throat.

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Costner is solid and persuasive as Jim White, a coach who gets fired in Idaho for being a hothead. So in 1987, he packs up his wife (Maria Bello) and two daughters (Morgan Saylor and Elsie Fisher) and accepts a lesser, lower-paying job teaching science and PE at McFarland High in California farm country. At first, the students don’t cotton to this Mr. White gringo they call “Blanco.” But then he persuades the principal (Valente Rodriguez) to let him start the school’s first cross-country track team. The students aren’t as easily influenced. They have jobs to do before and after school, grueling work that helps support their families. But when Blanco shows them how the stamina they’ve developed by picking crops under a blazing sun can be a useful tool in running, they’re hooked.

So are we, thanks to the fleet direction of Niki Caro ( Whale Rider ) and no-bull performances by the boys, notably Carlos Pratts as the team’s best runner and Ramiro Rodriguez as the worst. Along the way, McFarland, USA gives us a vital sense of hardscrabble lives and dreams of glory deferred. All cheers here are fully earned.

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McFarland, USA

• 3 out of 5 stars
• Recommended

Time Out says

It may be the latest in a long line of condescendingly inspirational sports movies about a catalog Caucasian who learns that people of other races are also capable of being decent, but McFarland, USA is possibly the first of them not to feature a single training montage. Director Niki Caro ( Whale Rider ) allows this story to unfold with more patience and grace than the genre demands, though she’s fighting an uphill battle against a script that thoroughly Disneyfies the legend of Jim White—whose last name makes the based on a true story title card read like an apology. The film takes us back to the fall of 1987, when a disgraced Idaho football coach (Costner, doing his thing) relocated his family to the eponymous California locale because its high school was willing to hire him as a gym teacher. There, in one of the poorest towns in America, White transformed a ragtag group of Latino teens into a leading national cross-country squad. The movie runs a long 128 minutes, but those boys never had the luxury of taking a shortcut.

Whatever the film’s virtues, subtlety was never going to be one of them. When White, his wife (Bello) and their two young daughters first arrive in town, they can’t even figure out how to order a taco. Of course, the socioeconomic circumstances that inform this story aren’t particularly subtle in real life, either (the high school is next door to a prison—“Handy, huh?” observes one of White’s fellow teachers). Caro paints with a broad brush, but her film still palpably conveys how these kids are racing for their lives. By the time McFarland, USA ends with an nod to the Mexican families who inspired it, the emotional wallop of learning their legacy makes it uncomfortably easy to overlook how the movie thinks their triumph belongs to White.

Follow David Ehrlich on Twitter: @davidehrlich

Release Details

• Release date: Friday 25 September 2015
• Duration: 129 mins

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McFarland, USA Should Be a Terrible Movie, But It Will Win You Over

McFarland, USA is one of those inspirational underdog sports movies about never counting out unlikely contenders, and the film itself embodies that spirit. Here’s a movie that should be disposable at best, and racially condescending at worst, and yet it sticks with you. It comes by its emotions honestly and wins you over.

Kevin Costner plays Jim White, who loses a cushy gig as an Idaho high school football coach after throwing a cleat at a mouthy player, and winds up in a seemingly dead-end job teaching life sciences and P.E. in working-class, largely Hispanic McFarland, California — one of the poorest towns in the country. He hates it there, and nobody seems to want him. “Diez, is that a popular name where you come from?” he snidely asks during attendance his first day, after noticing that three of the kids share the same last name. “White, is that a popular name where you come from?” is the perfect reply. “Maybe Dad will lose it again and we’ll get to move somewhere else,” his teenaged daughter hopes fervently.

But Jim starts to notice something about these kids: They’re fast. They’re fast because they don’t have cars or bikes and they need to get around. They’re fast because they wake up at the crack of dawn to rush to work in the fields, then run back to school, then sprint back to the fields. So, he forms a cross-country squad and enlists some of the fastest kids at school to join up. They don’t know the first thing about running cross country; that’s okay, because he doesn’t know the first thing about coaching it. Running is seen as a prep-school sport, and they get clobbered in their first meet, losing out to a team of young Val Kilmers. But in case you hadn’t realized it yet, McFarland, USA is based on a true story, and our heroes are about to make California high school sports history.

This movie should be terrible — a predictable White Savior flick about a pasty, middle-aged guy teaching life lessons to a group of Mexican-American kids who don’t know better. And yet, it isn’t. Though the film is told largely from the perspective of Jim, it’s filled with a genuine sense of community. Director Niki Caro (a Kiwi filmmaker who, some years ago, made the excellent Whale Rider ) depicts the White family’s initial fear of McFarland by isolating them within the frame; early on, we see Jim and his wife Cheryl (Maria Bello) discussing whether they can continue to live in this place, while we hear the menacing thrum of low-riders and trucks outside their home. But as the Whites learn more about these folks, and start to become part of the town, the compositions open up, the framing becomes more generous, and a certain warmth takes over.

Throughout, the script makes sure to keep the kids on an even footing with their coach. Unlike many other efforts in this genre, this isn’t a movie about teaching a bunch of potential hoodlums how to be better people — even though there is a jail around the corner, and a lot of these kids’ brothers and fathers have wound up there. The film takes the time to explore these kids’ troubles, but doesn’t come away with easy value judgments. Nobody needs to be redeemed in this movie. One boy winds up with a black eye, not because of domestic abuse, but because he was trying to keep his father from punching a wall in frustration. “If he hurts his hands, he can’t work,” the kid tells Jim. A trio of brothers are held back from the team by their foreman-father, who needs them to help out in the fields to put food on the table. Again, the decision is seen as an honorable one — not the choice of a man who doesn’t get the importance of running, but that of someone who knows the ruthlessness of hunger and desperation. And all throughout, Caro seems genuinely interested in these characters — in their lives, in their faces, and in what they have to say. Is McFarland, USA predictable, sanitized, and occasionally simplistic? Sure. But it’s also proof that even the most debased of genres can be salvaged with a little thought, depth, and sensitivity.

• movie review
• mcfarland usa
• kevin costner
• maria bello

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McFarland, USA review – Kevin Costner brings old-school movie-star authority

Costner and Maria Bello star in this Disney-sponsored true-life sports movie from Whale Rider director

T his year’s Disney-sponsored true-life sports movie marks an improvement on 2014’s Million Dollar Arm. Kevin Costner brings old-school movie-star authority to his role as a much-fired football coach making state-beating cross-country runners out of the titular outpost’s Latino kids; director Niki Caro displays the same sharp yet sensitive eye for Mexicana as she showed for Maori customs in Whale Rider (2002), fostering something subtly atmospheric amid the Californian heat and dust. That this genre remains chiefly a male domain is evident from the way the coach’s missus (Maria Bello) gets packed off to the salon, and everybody has to circumnavigate some on-the-nose scripting. (There are literal uphill struggles.). Yet Caro and Costner work hard and well with the youngsters: long before Coach’s big, white privilege-checking rallying speech, the film has generated the cloud of warm liberal fuzziness required to carry us up over the pick-and-mix platitudes and predictable narrative diversions. You run with it, just.

• Drama films
• Kevin Costner

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• DVD & Streaming

McFarland USA

• Drama , Sports

Content Caution

In Theaters

• February 20, 2015
• Kevin Costner as Jim White; Maria Bello as Cheryl; Morgan Saylor as Julie; Elsie Fisher as Jamie; Carlos Pratts as Thomas; Hector Duran as Johnny Sameniego

Home Release Date

• June 2, 2015

Distributor

• Walt Disney

Movie Review

High school coach Jim White has had his share of troubles. And most of them have sprung from his own actions. You could say he’s got a bit of a temper problem.

I mean, he’s never beaten anybody up or anything. But he’s certainly never backed down from a shouting match if some other teacher or school board member gets all up in his grill. And he’s not averse to verbally, um, pushing his players if he thinks it’ll help get their heads on straight.

Of course, the shoe incident was a kick too far.

One of the seniors on his football team in Boise, Id., was mouthing off and negatively impacting the team. When Coach White told the kid to get out of the locker room, he tossed a shoe in his direction to make the point. Well, the shoe bounced off a locker and nicked the mouthy kid’s cheek with one of its cleats. And that was that.

So here Coach White is in the fall of 1987, driving his family to a new town and a new last-chance job—a lowly post teaching science and P.E. in the California town of McFarland. It’s an impoverished agricultural community that’s predominantly made up of Mexican-American farmers and produce pickers. In other words, it’s dominated by a culture that White and his family aren’t used to.

In fact, as he, his wife and their two girls are driving into town for the first time, youngest daughter Jamie can’t keep herself from gasping out, “Are we in Mexico?” And that’s a question the coach was almost wondering himself. But this is their new home, and he needs to make the most of it if he hopes to keep teaching at all. He’s resolved to work hard and find his new niche.

It’s only after the coach notices how fast several of his new high school students are that he wonders if that new niche might involve starting a cross-country team. He has absolutely no experience with the sport. But there are state grants he can submit for and instructional books he can find. It’s worth a try. Hey, if this job is going to be nothing but an uphill slog, maybe he can convince some students to join him in the run.

Positive Elements

When first moving into town, it’s obvious that the Whites are all pretty shaken by their new environment. And it’s also pretty clear that the Latino community around them isn’t enthused about their arrival either. But with time, a sense of empathy begins to blossom on both side of the cultural divide. Friendships are formed. A mutual respect begins to grow. The kids go from sneering at this new “White” guy to respectfully addressing him as “Coach.” The community opens its doors and its arms to the Whites and to the strange idea of supporting a “local sports team.” Eventually the coach’s wife, Cheryl, realizes that, “Nowhere I’ve ever lived has felt this much like home.”

For his part, Coach White strives to better understand the hard-working Latino culture, and he adjusts his coaching demands to the lifestyles of the McFarland families. He helps his team members on and off the practice field. And he encourages the boys to reach for physical and educational goals they never thought they could attain.

And the high schoolers? We see them work their legs off to improve their performance times … and the rest of their lives, too. We’re told during the credits that all seven of the team’s runners went on to college—eventually becoming teachers, coaches, writers and landowners.

Spiritual Elements

The cross-country team kneels and prays thankfully after placing fourth in a race. A member writes a poem for class about feeling like a “god” when running.

Sexual Content

Some of the women in the community wear dresses that reveal a bit of cleavage. When White and his family first show up in town, a few of the local young men ogle eldest daughter Julie. We hear that a runner’s younger sister got pregnant out of wedlock. (The baby is later welcomed and loved by her whole family.)

Violent Content

After a special celebration, some gangbangers stir up an offscreen fight. We then see one guy bandaged and wearing a bloodied T-shirt. Julie’s on the ground with scraped knees after, we’re told, she fell down as several local boys stood up to protect her. On the football field, we see a teen take some massive hits.

Crude or Profane Language

One use each of “d–n” and “a–” join two or three exclamations of “oh god.”

Drug and Alcohol Content

Several of McFarland’s adult residents drink beer. A guy carries a bottle of Tequila.

Other Negative Elements

We see one of the runners vomit before a big race. “Upscale” kids make racist comments about the Hispanic McFarland team; one quips, “I hear they can’t run without a cop behind them or a Taco Bell in front of them.”

Disney does know a thing or two about creating underdog sports flicks. With the likes of The Rookie, Miracle, Secretariat and Million Dollar Arm under its belt, the House of Mouse has demonstrated it can find that winning family blend—something that appeals to moms and dads while keeping it clean and inspirational for the kids. And with the stirring true tale at the heart of McFarland USA, Disney hits the bull’s-eye, er, wins the big race once again.

Yes, there’s a certain predictable, formulaic feel to this cross-cultural cross-country drama about a beleaguered teacher inspiring young kids beyond their own expectations. But it’s a formula that moviegoers will find as easy to slip into as an old pair of running shoes. (See? Now I’ve got the right metaphor nailed down.) With Kevin Costner setting the pace, the film hits its stride early on, and you can’t help but cheer for him, his family, their new Hispanic hometown, and the young, inexperienced runners for whom it serves as their starting line.

But this is a movie that’s not just about running like crazy for the sake of a winning medal. It’s about racing toward and then enjoying the rewards of hard work and friendship, community and intercultural acceptance and understanding.

After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.

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McFarland, USA Review

By Joshua Starnes

Kevin Costner as Jim White Ramiro Rodriguez as Danny Diaz Carlos Pratts as Thomas Valles Johnny Ortiz as Jose Cardenas Rafael Martinez as David Diaz Hector Duran as Johnny Sameniego Sergio Avelar as Victor Puentes Michael Aguero as Damacio Diaz Maria Bello as Cheryl White Morgan Saylor as Julie White Elsie Fisher as Jamie White Diana Maria Riva as Senora Diaz Omar Leyva as Senor Diaz Valente Rodriguez as Principal Camillo Danny Mora as Sammy Rosaldo Rigo Sanchez as Javi

Directed by Niki Caro

Following a fallen high school football coach building a new life and a cross-country team from scratch in the poor farming community of McFarland, USA , this ‘based on a true story’ is a refreshingly optimistic look at how Latino-American and classic WASP culture can come to a rapprochement as opposed to a clash. Unfortunately, it is also hamstrung by the great curse of the inspirational sports film – prioritizing its message above its story.

The screenplay by Bettina Gilois ( Glory Road ), Christopher Cleveland and Grant Thompson batters anything out of its way that might interfere with said message, which includes a lot of the elements of what we would call the real world and actual human beings. It becomes about the message rather than the movie and forgets Marshall McLuhan’s adage that they are the same thing. Reminding us that we all share the common bonds of humanity, regardless of our background, is a good thing but does not in and of itself constitute a narrative.

The result is a story held fast in the traditional sports film structure as White realizes he can make a place for himself in this new world, and for his students in the old, by turning a group of individualist outsiders into a team through the glory of sport, and a cast stuck with it like flies in amber. With one or two exceptions, the young actors making up the team are one-dimensional sketches given a patina of depth but no chance for real exploration or growth because that might complicate the message.

Team captain Thomas (Pratts) makes lot of early noise about the anguish of his teen sister becoming pregnant, but by mid-film he has stopped talking about her (who we never meet) altogether. And he is the most well-developed of a team who barely change from their initial introductions: Victor is always the vain one who doesn’t try enough, the Diaz’s are always the brothers who pick in the fields, and Danny is always the fat one.

New Zealand director Niki Caro made a splash in the US a decade ago with Whale Rider and North Country proving she knows how to get strong, natural performances from young actors, but here the world is shown only through the eyes of Coach White. It’s not enough to see the Diaz brothers woken up each morning at 4 AM to go pick in the fields before school, White must go out and experience it for himself before it is assumed real for the audience. Costner knows exactly how to deliver the goods in this kind of film and he works hard at it – reluctantly embracing his role as a father figure though he has no idea how to go about it – but it’s impossible to shake the idea we’re focusing on the wrong person.

It’s a feeling amplified by Caro’s constant wallowing in many of the clichés on tap – setting them up so that they might be knocked over later – but for all the temporary joy that creates, it also underlines all of the chances McFarland, USA  refuses to take. When the Whites first arrive in town, they are soon given front seats to a chorus of low-riders bouncing down main street, urging them to escape from the ‘Mexican gang culture.” Soon enough we learn that Javi (Rigo Sanchez) and his group are more interested in showing off their cars than crime and have an appreciated place in the local neighborhood focused on the hard-working, family-loving picking community – a community that will accept the Whites as they are – but it’s impossible to ignore just how ugly his introduction was.

Only Diaz matron Diana Maria Riva manages to rise above it, stealing every scene as a hard-working head of household who suffers no fools and knows exactly where the priorities of life should lay. Priorities White challenges when he takes the team on the road to the state finals despite their relative inexperience, a road which could potentially open up doors his students had never considered before. His good intentions and lack of awareness quickly run into the twin walls of his students’ real lives – filled with manual labor offering little time for anything else – and the family at home he is ignoring in favor of his ambitions.

Because this is a very traditional sports film, anyone who is even vaguely aware of the genre will know how these conflicts resolve themselves, which robs the film of suspense. And because it is of the family-friendly variation – one with all of the rough edges sanded off and whitewashed in order to present the easiest possible version of a difficult story – it is frequently robbed of drama as well.

Characters make note of the fact that the local prison is built next door to the high school – underlining how many graduates make the transition directly from one to the other – but then erase all evidence of such darker elements. At least until one opportune moment which is less about creating a real world reminder of the obstacles White and his students must overcome and more about playing up the notion of McFarland as eutopos. It’s too little, too late in a film too busy trying to be inspirational to manage anything else.

There’s nothing wrong with a film that sets out first and foremost to be inspirational. Neither is there anything negative about a willingness to look at the hardships of Latino life and remind us what these people who are so easily denigrated as invaders are actually doing.

But there’s nothing which says that can’t be done through the context of an engaging narrative populated by interesting characters (see Chris Weitz’s superior A Better Life  for such an example). It’s not difficult to evoke an emotional response from an audience if that’s all you’re trying to do, but such directness doesn’t always intersect well with complex themes.

The strength of the cast and the underlying message (overwhelming as it may be) are actually positive enough to deliver real emotion to McFarland,USA , but they also highlight all of the missed opportunity.

McFarland, USA

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McFarland, USA Parent Guide

Though disney did successfully capture the spirit of the underdog, the script may have actually underplayed the amazing achievements of jim white's runners from "mcfarland, usa"..

McFarland High School, in California, boasts only a group of disadvantaged students until a coach (Kevin Costner) sees the potential to transform some of the kids into cross-country runners.

Release date February 20, 2015

Run Time: 129 minutes

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The guide to our grades, parent movie review by kerry bennett.

Google “best high school football movies” and you can easily come up with a couple dozen films like Remember the Titans , The Blind Side and Friday Night Lights . Google “best high school cross country running movies” and you get…well…you get a 2008 documentary called The Long Green Line . Even high school wrestlers get more screen time than high school runners.

Director Niko Caro ( Whale Rider , North Country ) changes that and turns the camera on the sport of distance running in McFarland, USA . In the movie, Jim White (Kevin Costner) is a high school teacher and coach who lets his temper flare up way too often. After losing his job in Boise, his only option is to move his family to McFarland, California where he gets a position in a high school beleaguered with poverty, teen pregnancy and gangs. Unable to afford to commute from a nicer neighborhood, Jim, his wife Cheryl (Maria Bello) and their daughters Julie and Jamie (Morgan Saylor, Elsie Fisher) move into the middle of the predominantly Hispanic community where many of the locals work as crop harvesters. The other main employer in town is a prison.

Like any studio, Disney has had some hits and misses over the years. But sports movies seem to be one genre where the studio consistently captures the spirit of the underdog, the incredible work ethnic needed to succeed and the strength of a team. Yet in this case the script may have actually underplayed the inspirational story the film is based on. Jim White is, in truth, a man who made an amazing impact on the community of McFarland.

Although all of the “facts” may not be accurate, this movie depicts the taxing individual effort it takes to compete in an endurance sport where running fast is less important than running fast for a long time. The script also explores the disparity between the McFarland runners and their competitors from much wealthier school districts. Like any sport, the playing field isn’t always level. While it takes away from the harsh reality of life in this small town, those imbalances, that include crime, impoverishment and domestic abuse, are glossed over in the story making the film more accessible to a much wider and younger audience. Rather the script focuses on Coach White, who learns to love these boys. He also understands that athletic achievements can lead to academic accomplishments. With that in mind, he does more than just push the boys on the race course. And the results? Well, they are remarkable .

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Kerry Bennett

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McFarland, USA Rating & Content Info

Why is McFarland, USA rated PG? McFarland, USA is rated PG by the MPAA for thematic material, some violence and language.

Violence: A man throws a shoe at a boy and causes a bloody cut on his face. A man loses his job because of his temper. Characters discuss people who have done prison time. A mother cuffs her children to get them out of bed. A boy is beaten up defending his mother from her abusive husband. The boy contemplates suicide. A character is shot in an off-screen gang fight. A girl is also injured in it. A man is shown washing blood off of a parking lot.

Sexual Content: Catcalls aimed at a girl are heard. Characters discuss a teen’s pregnancy. Some embracing and kissing are shown.

Language: Infrequent mild profanities and some scatological slang are used.

Alcohol / Drug Use :Characters drink beer in a social setting.

Page last updated May 13, 2020

McFarland, USA Parents' Guide

Note: McFarland, USA is known as McFarland in Canada.

Talk about the movie with your family…

How does Coach White’s attitude toward the boys change during the course of the movie? How does his view of the boys change after he spends the day working in the fields with them?

How is the Hispanic culture portrayed in this film? What are the positive things? What are the negative things? How does Cheryl’s attitude change toward her neighbors after her car breaks down? In what ways do the members of the community reach out to the coach and his family?

How can athletic success lead to academic opportunities? What actions does the coach take to help the boys better themselves?

If you would like to take up cross-country running, here are a few steps to get you started. You can also check with your school or look for local running groups to join.

From the Studio: Inspired by the 1987 true story, “McFarland” follows high school coach Jim White (Kevin Costner), whose job-hopping leads him to predominantly Latino McFarland High School, located in an agricultural community in California’s farm-rich Central Valley. Jim knows he has to make this school his last stop—he’s out of options, with both his career and his family and finds himself in a diverse, economically-challenged community that feels worlds apart from his previous hometowns.  Admittedly, the White family and the students have a lot to learn about each other but when Coach White notices the boys’ exceptional running ability, things begin to change. Soon something beyond their physical gifts impresses White—the power of family relationships, their unwavering commitment to one another and their incredible work ethic. With grit and determination, Coach White’s unlikely band of runners eventually overcomes the odds to forge not only a championship cross-country team but an enduring legacy as well. Along the way, Jim and his family realize that they finally found a place to call home and both he and his team achieve their own kind of American dream. Disney’s “McFarland” stars Kevin Costner, Maria Bello, Carlos Pratts, Morgan Saylor, Martha Higareda, Valente Rodriguez, Vanessa Martinez, Chris Ellis, Johnny Ortiz, Hector Duran, Sergio Avelar, Michael Aguero, Rafael Martinez and Ramiro Rodriguez and is directed by Niki Caro with screenplay by Grant Thompson. Gordon Gray and Mark Ciardi are producing, with Mario Iscovich and Mary Martin serving as executive producers. “McFarland” releases February 20, 2015. - Walt Disney Pictures

Loved this movie? Try these books…

There are a ton of great children's books about sports, teamwork, and running, including "Running is Totally for Me" by Cassie Celestain, "Salt in His Shoes" by Deloris Jordan and Roslyn M. Jordan, and "The Crossover" by Kwmae Alexander.

The most recent home video release of McFarland, USA movie is June 2, 2015. Here are some details…

Related home video titles:.

Other teachers/coaches help their students rise to their potential in Remember the Titans , To Sir With Love , and Stand and Deliver .

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