The Worst Film Ever

Fantastic!

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

McFarland, USA is a city in California that to this day has a sizable Hispanic population, many of whom work as migrant farm workers picking crops. "McFarland" is a film that tells the story of Coach White, a passionate coach who gets fired from his football coaching gig at a wealthy high school when he escalates a fight between him and his players to violence. The wealthy high school football players seemed more concerned about the after party than the game. Athletics for these players is a prestige thing that has nothing to do with sportsmanship. After a series of disrespectful actions, Coach White snaps and subsequently gets fired. But as Coach White reflects later to another coach when he arrives at his new school, "It's not the fight in the dog coach, it's the dog in the fight...depends on the size of the dog...".Coach White moves to Cliff Avenue in a Hispanic neighborhood with his wife and two daughters. When he first arrives in the new neighborhood, one of his daughters questions if the family had ended up in Mexico. The Whites struggle at first to fit into their new neighborhood. Meanwhile, the high school students in the small Hispanic town of McFarland have their own struggle. Most of the students at MacFarland have jobs. Athletics isn't even an option for many of them because they come from the fields to go to school and run back to the fields when class gets outs. Many become adults in those very fields. Unless a prison gets to them first. It is a hard life which stands in stark contrast to the lives of Coach White's previous students. He begins to see the athletic potential in his hardworking students and questions the temporary nature of his transitory job as coach at MacFarland. In the classic Disney fashion, Coach White's new community welcomes him. His neighbor even plants him a tree and tells him, "in five years senor you're going to have some nice shade". The simple transitions in the film show the migrant worker's lives with Hispanic music in the background. The scenes are poetic. But the most beautiful part of the film is the raw determination of the high school students trying to compete in a sport and environment that sets them up for failure. A boy named Thomas Valles becomes a de facto leader of the team after Coach White catches the high school student running at 12 miles an hour. This same boy shows up to practice with bruises because he gets his dad to punch him instead of a wall since as a migrant worker his father needs his hands to work. It isn't until coach White works a whole day as a migrant worker himself, picking crops getting paid by the field instead of by the hour that he begins to understand the plight of his athletes. In the spirit of Stand and Deliver Coach White understands that he needs to go beyond his position as coach for these students. He begins to treat them like his own. During one scene, he rushes to a park without enough money for the entrance fee and tells the officer, "I've got five dollars and seven kids who have never seen the ocean". He brings his students to the beach. Eventually, McFarland becomes more than a temporary home for Coach White and his family. It becomes their community, one which adopts them as warmly as they adopted it. The family moments such as the father's speech at his daughters quinceañera will tug at your heartstrings. Coach White disproves Thomas Valles' initial belief that, "Nobody stays in McFarland unless they have to. Because there is nothing American dream about this place". This film is based off a true story and Coach White ended up at McFarland coaching at the town's high school long after better prospects opened up for him. By the end, Coach White recognizes that these kids at McFarland cherish cross country and athletics, something he admits is a privilege many take for granted.

I like the idea of a film about how sport can transform lives. Kevin Costner does well as Coach White, who starts training a troubled group of Mexican boys in cross country running. The film makes beautiful use of light and makes the flat fields of southern California look stunning. The film is refreshing in portraying Anglos and Mexicans as trying to get along. The Mexicans might be poor, but their community is close and loving. There is lots of gentle humour and a bit of the coach being a fish out of water. But generally, the outcome of this movie is not really in doubt. But it's a well written and heartfelt movie, about teenagers trying to improve their lot in life. The message is, there is no way around working hard towards what you want to achieve, and doing your best. And the support of being in a team is amazing. Sure, it's a bit of a schmaltzy film at times, but it has moments of genuine inspiration.

This is one of the most engaging true stories I have ever seen. Kevin Costner plays a coach who gets fired and moves to a small town in California to coach football, and winds up forming the school's first ever cross country team. Costner was good in the role. It details his relationship with his family and the kids on the team, and inevitably how his dedication to his new job takes a toll on his family life. My favorite scenes were the practice scenes, the actual tournament scenes, the part where they see the ocean, the quicenerra scene, the part where the daughter is involved in a car accident, and the opening scene that makes him change jobs. If you are into true inspirational sports stories-this is the movie for you!*** out of ****

It's not easy to make this real life stories feel ... real. So while this moves along smoothly and makes it seem easy, it's not as easy to pull it off most of the time. Kevin Costner is no stranger to sports dramas of course and he makes a strong lead. But it's not only him who makes the movie work, it's the other actors too.You'd also have to have a heart of stone not to be touched by some of the very genuine moments in this. At the end, we also see the real people and what happened to them. It's predictable most of the time, but that doesn't take away anything from it or the impact it has on the viewer (those who let themselves dive in).