McFarland USA is awe-inspiring

Rating: 9/10 (20 February 2015)

Don't quickly diss and dismiss this as just another sports movie, because it's not just another sports movie and to be frank, if it weren't for Disney, unbelievable true stories like this wouldn't have been told in such medium that can reach a lot of people. McFARLAND is awe-inspiring, it'll get you to stand on your feet and cheer for what it means to live in this great nation of ours.
Kevin Costner is a reliable name, a dependable actor when it comes to movies that have sports as their set or background, but if you think about it, what makes Kevin Costner's many so-called sports movies in the past excellent was that they were always more than just about the sports and McFARLAND USA is another example of that. Under the direction of Niki Caro, who gave us "Whale Rider" and "North Country", Costner gives his best performance yet as coach Jim White who after an incident, finds himself having to move his family to the only job at the only school that would hire him, but they have to make things work in a town where the majority is hispanic Americans. Not being used to the neighborhood, Jim has his doubts and at first isn't inspired to do anything more than his day-to-day usual, but then he notices that the students in that McFarland high school have a unique potential, they may not be good at football or any other sports, but they could run. So Jim White forms a cross country team for them, but Jim's lack of knowledge or lack of understanding of the sport gets them to a very rough start. So Jim and his students have to learn as they go
But Jim has another obstacle, most of the students in his cross country team, have to work early in the morning to help their family, and that serves a big challenge if they plan on winning State Championship.
I think McFARLAND USA is a beautifully crafted film that aims to inspire and does its job well, its cinematic feel, its speeches, its structures, it has everything you'd expect in a sports movie that can motivate you to do great things in life, but it's also unique in that this is the first time, possibly as I could remember it, a sports movie that covers this ethnicity and I mean that in a good way, in our current state of our nation today where there has been racial tension going on, suspicions and violence over turfs and ethnicities, there couldn't be a better time for McFARLAND USA to arrive and educate our young minds about tolerance, about celebrating differences, about respecting everybody no matter what background they come from. This is a movie that's as well-made as it is also good-hearted.
When you think about America, you shouldn't think about Donald Trump or any other privileged folks who receive investments handed down to them. When you think about America, you should think of folks like the kids in this movie, McFARLAND USA, because in America, you can go from having to pick plants to becoming a state champion, in America, if you work hard, have a clear goal and set your mind to it, you can achieve anything.
-- Ramascreen.com --