McFarland, USA (Niki Coro, 2015): USA

Reviewed by Rachel Donovan. Seen at the Santa Barbara Film Festival 2015.

I have never been apart of an audience viewing a film, where all the people around me watching the film were on the edge of their seats while cheering on the characters on the big screen. Being apart of the world premiere of, “McFarland, USA” was such a mind blowing and incredible experience that might just be my favorite moment from the entire film festival.

Kevin Costner plays a football coach who ends up having transfer to a high school in McFarland, California, where he and his family do not fit in at all. His youngest daughter even asks as they drive around the town, “are we in Mexico?”. He ends up being a PE teacher at McFarland High School where he soon gets the idea to create a cross country team. The high school, never having a cross country team, allows him to rally up a few members and attempt to create a team.

Many of the teammates that he rallied up did not think that they were all going to be able to do well competing against other schools. Some even gave up on occasion. I became so invested in the film that halfway through I would constantly count to make sure that there were seven boys there each time. Within a matter of time, Costner’s character was not only the teacher to the seven boys, but they taught him a lot about their culture, love, and family.

What kept getting to me while watching “McFarland, USA” was that this is real life, this really happens. I’ve been so blessed in this life and where I live that it really just hit me that people do get up at 4:30 in the morning to go work on the fields and then immediately head off to school after. But seeing the characters do that and know that the real people the story is about and others do this was inspiring. The fact that the boys lost their first meet but continued on and did better each and every time was so encouraging and defiantly gave off the feel of “never give up”.

As the movie drew to a close, the very last scene showed the real people whom this film was about. It showed them running while their “coach” was still riding alongside them on his bicycle. Captions followed as the screen panned from each person describing what had happened to them after their high school experience and what they are doing now. The feeling of people surrounding me in the theater was complete excitement and awe as it was an unexpected surprise to learn about the men and check in on them now. And the fact that “McFarland, USA was based on a true story, just makes the entire film that much more enjoyable and delightful to watch.

I couldn’t think of another film better than to end the festival as you left the theater with butterflies in your stomach from such a sweet and inspiring movie. Disney has definitely done it again.

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Published:
02.16.15 / 4pm
Category:
Films, Santa Barbara Film Festival 2015